Reducing carbon emissions in precast concrete production through the lean production philosophy

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wu Peng
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Lean Production ◽  
Precast Concrete ◽  
Concrete Production

scholarly journals DEVELOPING A LEAN BENCHMARKING PROCESS TO MONITOR THE CARBON EFFICIENCY IN PRECAST CONCRETE FACTORIES—A CASE STUDY IN SINGAPORE

2013 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peng Wu ◽  
Josua Pienaar ◽  
Darryl O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Automobile Industry ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Lean Production ◽  
Precast Concrete ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Concrete Column ◽  
Carbon Efficiency

The lean production philosophy was developed in the automobile industry and put into practice in the manufacturing industry to reduce waste, inventory and improve productivity. The lean concept has recently been introduced to the manufacturing industry to meet the challenge of sustainable development. However, it seems that the concept of sustainable development was defined too broadly for the manufacturers to guide their preferred decisions and behaviours. This research aims to narrow down the concept of sustainable development and focus on the carbon emissions that can be reduced by applying the lean concept in the precast concrete factories. The results demonstrate that the lean production philosophy can help precasters to reduce the level of carbon emissions, in terms of reducing waste and eliminating unnecessary energy consumption in multi-handling, multi-delivery, maintaining inventory and other non-value adding activities, in line with its concentration on eliminating non-value adding processes. An amount of 5.80% carbon emissions can be reduced in the production process for a specific type of precast concrete column. The lean benchmarking process provided in this study is helpful for the precasters to monitor the carbon efficiency in the precast concrete factories. In addition, the analysis provides good practice guidance when precasters are trying to reduce carbon emissions to meet guidelines from regulatory authorities.

Optimizing profit and logistics for precast concrete production

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 393-406 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jieh-Haur Chen ◽  
Shangyao Yan ◽  
Hsing-Wei Tai ◽  
Chao-Yu Chang
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Precast Concrete ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Concrete Production ◽  
Human Decision ◽  
National Production ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Corporate Profits ◽  
The Mathematical Model ◽  
Depth Interviews

This study serves as a practical model for optimizing production planning, allocation of precast component storage, and transportation sites as well as for making timely adjustments for contracted projects. To ensure that the structure of the research model is reasonable and matches actual applications, the study uses a field survey to directly observe the largest precast concrete plants in Taiwan for a period of 6 months, followed by in-depth interviews with experts involved with the planning, design, installation, and manufacturing for precast projects. The mathematical model is then established and evaluated using the data containing over 90% of national production in Taiwan. The results show that the tested corporate profits increase by an impressive 38.4% and performance is significantly increased by 97.75%. The proposed model can not only make up for oversights in human decision-making but improve the decision-making process boosting corporate competitiveness.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document