Lean principles for prefabrication in green design-build (GDB) projects

Savings in construction costs through improved production and productivity can be critical on green building projects, as they can be used to offset the costs of high performance building components. Prefabrication of building components is often used by contractors to reduce costs. If employed effectively, prefabrication can enable process standardization, shorten lead times, improve quality control, and reduce material waste. Several tools have been developed to help select prefabrication strategies and most of them focus on design-bid-build project environments. This paper explores how benefits achieved in lean approaches to prefabrication can impact green project goals. More specifically, the paper examines the effects of how an expanded use of on-site/offsite prefabricated systems can contribute or detract from green building goals through evaluating the interplay between multiple economic, environmental, and social variables. Building on previous research that has developed tools for guiding the adoption of prefabrication practices, the design of new metrics for lean and green construction will be developed and presented to provide selection guidance for the use of prefabrication on green building projects in design-build environments.