aracterization of waste in

projects *

ALFRED0 SERPELL
Department of Construction Engineering and Management, Catholic University of Chile,
Santiago, Chile
ADRIANO VENTURI & JEANETTE CONTRERAS
School of Civil Construction, Catholic University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

ABSTRACT: Information obtained from productivity consulting services provided

to a substantial number of building construction projects from 1990 to 1994, has
been processed and organized with the purpose of studying the types of construction
waste in this kind of construction projects. From the results obtained in this study,
this chapter presents:
1. A classification of construction waste and their main causes, and
2. Statistics of the frequency and relative importance of these types of waste.

1 INTRODUCTION

Since the beginning of a construction job, projectkte management has to deal with
many factors - most of them caused by their own actions or inaction - that nega-
tively affect the construction process, producing different types of waste that can
convert a good ’to be’ project into a bad ‘it was’ project. In most cases, construction
managers do not know or recognize the factors that produce waste nor have they
measurements of their importance. It can be said that most of the factors are not eas-
ily visible. Thus, the identification of these factors and their causes, and the rneas-
urement of their importance is a useful information that would allow management to
act in advance to reduce their negative effects.
During the last 5 years, consulting services have been provided by a consulting
group at the Department of Construction Engineering and Management of the
Catholic University of Chile, to more than 40 construction sites that have started
programs to improve their site performance, most of them successfully. Seventeen of
these construction sites were high rise building construction projects and were se-
lected for studying purposes.
This consulting experience has generated a great amount of information on wasted
resources and time in building construction projects. The information obtained has
been processed to study the types of waste that have occurred during construction
work, and their relative importance.

*Presented on the 3rd workshop on lean construction, Albuquerque, 1995

67
68 A. Serpell et al.

2 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE SAMPLE AND INFORMATION

The sample implicated 17 buildings constructed by seven construction companies in

the Metropolitan Region of Chile, around the capital city of Santiago, from 1990 to
1994. Table 1 shows a summary of the building’s sample.
During the consulting/observation time, information was generated mainly in the
form of reports that were delivered to site managers once a week. The structure of
these reports consisted of two sections:
1. Quantitative section, based on work sampling results.
2. Qualitative section, where an analysis of the quantitative data and general ob-
servations regarding work conditions were presented, and corrective actions pro-
posed.
The quantitative section is the most important part of the report because it works
as detection tool of waste sources. Work sampling results in this section have been
divided as follows:
- General activity levels, using the categories of productive work, contributory
work and non-contributory work for the complete job site;
- Activity levels of company personnel and subcontractors’ personnel separately;
- Activity levels of each of the most critical trades.
The categories of contributory work and non-contributory work have been further
subdivided into the following subcategories included in the reports:
- Contributory work: Transporting, cleaning, receiving instructions, measuring,
and other specific activities;
- Non-contributory work: Waiting, idle time, travelling, resting, and reworking.
This relative detailed information facilitates the identification and attention to the
most significant waste sources, and becomes the basis for analysis of improvement

Table 1. Characteristics of the sample.

Number Type of Number of Total gross area Time of observation
building stories (m2> (months)
1 Office 33 90,000 19
2 Office 25 60,000 6
3 Office 23 30,000 5
4 Housing 20 30,000 (app.) 7
5 Housing 19 7,000 14
6 Hotel 18 15,000 13
7 Housing 17 14,000 10
8 Housing 17 13,000 13
9 Office 16 33,000 7
10 Hotel 16 10,000 13
11 Housing 16 10,000 9
12 Housing 15+15 16,800 5
13 Housing 15 9,000 8
14 Housing 14 10,000 11
15 Housing 14 8,000 13
16 Housing 14 7,000 8
17 Housing 12 6,000 8
 Characterization of waste in building construction projects 69

actions to reduce any identified waste. Supporting information from visual observa-
tions and, sometimes, from other parallel studies, is also incorporated in the qualita-
tive analysis.
The information provided by work sampling presents some limitations that should
be considered. The most important are as follows:
- It does not show clearly and precisely the origin of waste;
- It only measures work time utilization, but it doesn’t directly provide production
rates, which should be measured in other ways;
- It doesn’t provide measurements of waste of materials or equipment.
Despite these limitations, the information obtained using the described approach
has been extremely useful to achieve the stated objectives. The application of judge-
ment and experience allows consultants to identify and detect situations that are pro-
ducing waste and to point out the main causes that are producing them.

3 BACKGROUND ON THE CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTION PROCESS

Figure 1 presents the construction production process on which this work has been
based. The proposed model is an open and dynamic system inside an environment
that conditions its status and behaviour. Part of this environment is controllable by
the system but other factors are outside of its control.
The main and most critical components of the construction process as portrayed in
the figure, are:

Figure 1. Construction production process model.

70 A. Serpell et al.

a) Flows and conversion management: Responsible of making the decisions that

define the performance of the system;
b) Flows: Are the inputs to the system and can be separated in two types, re-
sources (labor, materials and construction equipment), and information. These flows
contemplate all activities since the need is defined and the elements arrive to the
conversion location. There are controllable and uncontrollable flows. Examples of
the first type are the flows of materials or instructions from a warehouse or manage-
ment respectively, to the workplace. Uncontrollable flows are: Suppliers’ provision
of resources and design information;
c) Conversion activities: The processes that transform the flows into finished and
semi-finished products. The methods used in this activities are decided by the flows
and conversion management;
d) Products: The results of conversion activities.
The flow and process management, is the function that puts the system into action
through three major actions:
1. Resources and information flow regulation, including: Allocation of resources,
defining quantity and specifications; planning and coordination; distribution.
2. Design of work methods, looking for optimization of activities’ execution.
3. Monitoring and controlling of system activities.
Construction waste is then produced during the construction process due to sev-
eral causes as shown in the following section.

4 CLASSIFICATION OF CONSTRUCTION WASTE

This study deals with the identification of the most relevant factors that produce
waste of productive time in building construction works. This waste comes from
flow activities, conversion activities and management activities. Their occurrence is
generally manifested by two common construction situations: work inactivity and in-
effective work. Figure 2 shows the classification adopted in this study after review-
ing the information collected from the building construction projects.
The classification shown in the figure presents some limitations that should be
considered:
-Slow work: This waste of time is related to the efficiency of processes, con-
struction equipment, and personnel. Then it is difficult to measure it because it is first
necessary to know the optimal efficiency that could be reached, which is not always
possible;
- Rework: Not always is the result of labor ineffectiveness; uncontrolled problems
like weather conditions, earthquakes, etc. also result in rework, although they can be
prevented.

5 CLASSIFICATION OF WASTE CAUSES

The most important causes of wasted time identified by the study were classified as
shown in Figure 3.
 Characterization of waste in building construction projects 7 I

Waiting time
Idle time
Traveling
Resting
Physiological needs

Reworking
Working slowly
Inventing work
Figure 2. Categories of wastes of productive time.

Lack of resources
Flows
Lack of information

Inapropriate method

Isad allocation
Decision making
CAUSES Poor distribution

Ineffective control

Failures in external flows

Non controllable
Environmental causes

Figure 3. Classification structure of causes of wasted time.

72 A. Serpell et al.

5.1 Controllable causes associated to flows

The principle flow causes were as follows:
a) Resources
- Materials: Lack of materials at the work place; materials are not well distrib-
uted; inadequate transportation means;
- Equipment: Non availability; inefficient utilization; inadequate equipment for
work needs;
- Labor: Personal attitudes of workers; stoppage of work.
b) Information
- Lack of information;
- Poor information quality;
- Timing of delivery is inadequate.

5.2 Controllable causes associated to conversions

The following causes were identified:
a) Method
- Deficient design of work crews;
- Inadequate procedures;
- Inadequate support to work activities.
b) Planning
- Lack of work space;
- Too much people working in reduced space;
- Poor work conditions.
c) Quality
- Poor execution of work;
- Damages to work already finished.

5.3 Controllable management related causes

The following causes were identified:
a) Decision making
- Poor allocation of work to labor;
- Poor distribution of personnel.
b) Supervision
- Poor or lack of supervision.
Regarding the non-controllable causes, the majority of them were associated to
suppliers’ and designers’ performance. Also, there were some causes related to the
environment, like weather conditions and festivities.

6 ANALYSIS AND RESULTS OF THE STUDY

This section presents a summary of the most relevant results obtained from the
analysis of information.
 Characterization of waste in building construction projects 73

6.1 General distribution of work sampling

The average distribution of working time of the 17 observed building is shown in
Figure 4. The minimum value of productive work was 35% and the maximum was
55%. Regarding the non-contributory work category, the minimum value was 18%
for the same building that has the top productive value, and the maximum was 31%,
corresponding to the building with the lowest productive value. Finally, the extremes
for the contributory work were a minimum of 24% and a maximum of 34%.
The differences between the best and the worst building are very important.
Analysis are being done to find out what were the factors that might explain these
differences.

6.2 Types of wasted time measured by non-contributory work

As shown in Figure 5 , the main subcategories of non-contributory time which ex-
plain 87% of the total value of this category are: waiting time, idle time and travel-
ling, in that order. A second order subcategory is the time spent in resting. An unex-
74 A. Serpell et al.

pected result is the low value of rework, a factor that has been observed more critical
that is shown here. One possible explanation of this outcome is the fact that work
sampling is not the most appropriated tool to detect and measure this type of waste.
The causes that were found accountable of the waiting time, are presented in Fig-
ure 6. The graphic displays the total frequency of occasions where each factor was
identified as responsible of waiting conditions. Overmanning clearly was the most
critical factor, which is consistent with other observations. There is a general agree-
ment that Chilean building construction projects normally have more people than
needed, especially unqualified people. Foremen like to have a surplus of people to
face potential risks in their work.
Figure 7 shows the factors that are responsible for idle time. The most important
factors by far are: lack of supervision and overmanning. The lack of supervision has
two components:
-Workers stop when they are not controlled; a cultural and educational related
problem;
- Workers cannot work because they are waiting for instructions that supervisors
should give them.
Overmanning also produces idle time when there are more workers than work to
do, a common problem as mentioned before.
Finally, the main causes of travelling time are presented in Figure 8. Again, over-
manning appeared as the most frequent factor, followed by lack of supervision,
workers’ attitude, materials supply and site working conditions.
 Characterization of waste in building construction projects 75

6.3 Wasted time related to contributory work

Figure 9 describes the main categories of contributory work found in the study. Al-
though it is not possible to completely eliminate contributory work time, its reduc-
tion allows an increasing of productive time and thus it is highly convenient. Trans-
porting is responsible for almost 50% of the total category, a very interesting
outcome, that confirms previous observations performed at many building construc-
tion sites.
The factors that account for most of the transportation time are presented in Figure
10. Inadequate transportation methods is the most significant factor, being responsi-
ble of almost 40% of the transportation cases. In many cases, qualified personnel
(carpenters, plumbers, electricians) dedicate a considerable amount of time transport-
ing their materials and tools instead of having laborers or less qualified personnel
doing this job. Poor distribution and the lack of transportation equipment also are
important sources of transportation time.
Inadequate distribution of materials is a situation that has been observed in almost
every construction project. Long transportation distances due to deficient layout of
temporary facilities, extra movements of materials and equipment because of lack of
planning of their initial unloading positions are just two of many other similar cases
of transportation waste.
76 A. Serpell et al.

Figure 10. Causes of trans-

portation time.

Waiting time Idle time

.Poor allocation

equipment -

aste

Nn mntive

Traveling time Transporting time

Figure 11. Cause-effect diagram for the main causes of construction waste.

6.4 Summary offindings

Work time distribution in the building construction projects considered in this study,
demonstrates that around 53% of the total working time is dedicated to non produc-
tive activities. Many different factors are the sources of these activities. A summary
of the most relevant ones identified in this study is shown in Figure 11. Many others
were found to be significant but less important and have not been reported here.

7 CONCLUSIONS

The information provided in this chapter can be very valuable for site managers in
many ways. First, they will be able to inform themselves about the main waste fac-
tors in construction work. Thus they may become better informed managers, who
know what are the problems they face, a requisite to solve any problem. Second, they
 Characterization of waste in building construction projects 77

can then focus their attention on these potential risks of unproductive time and act ef-
fectively to reduce both the risks and their impacts.
Planning is the key managerial function that should be used to be effective in re-
ducing or eliminating these waste factors. Most of the factors shown in Figure 11 are
clear demonstrations of a lack of adequate planning. Resources not available, super-
vision not available or inadequate, poor layout distribution, overmanning, lack of
progress, poor allocation of work, are all planning deficiencies.
As reported by Serpell et al. (1995) project planning faces several problems in
construction. The most frequently are related to a poor definition of job objectives,
insufficient use of computer planning systems and the reduced availability of plan-
ning and control data. What might be the main problem is the lack of time that site
managers have to plan. Generally, they are assigned to the project team a short time
before the project starts. Later, after the project is under execution, traditional priori-
ties and habits restrict their available time for planning. These problems has also
been addressed by Howell & Ballard (1994).
Then, to be effective in addressing these problems, planning should be an activity
of every site manager, from project managers to foremen. Although professionals
normally have received planning instruction, general foremen and foremen have not.
Then we need to educate and train our first line managers, to make them able to carry
out effective planning.
The major planning focus at this level should be on short-term planning. Most of
the wastes that take place at construction sites on day to day operations are the result
of lack of effective short-term planning. A simple, but effective tool to carry out
Short-term planning has been used successfully in construction works as shown by
Serpell(l993).
Finally, this work, still underway, contributes in that it is a systematic attempt to
observe and measure wastes in construction processes. Outcomes of the study will
help in the understanding of the nature of the construction production process. This
understanding is necessary to create a much needed theoretical framework of con-
struction.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors gratefully acknowledge the Corporacih de Investigacidn de la Con-

strucci6n (Construction Research Corporation), for providing funding to support this
research effort.

REFERENCES

Howell, G. & Ballard, G. 1994. Implementing Lean Construction: Stabilizing Work Flow. 2nd.
Annual Conference of the International Group of Lean Construction, Santiago, Chile.
Serpell, A., Crovetto, J. & Seymour, D. 1995. A Current Vision of Construction Management
Practices in Chile. Unpublished paper submitted to the CIB Working Commission 65 Organi-
zation & Management of Construction Symposium to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, 1996.
Serpell, A. 1993. Construction Operations Management (in Spanish), Ediciones Universidad
Catdica de Chile, Santiago, Chile.