https://doi.org/10.24928/2026/0300
Production implications of large-scale wildfire reconstruction
Kenneth D. Walsh1
1Professor, Sid & Reva Dewberry Dept of Civil, Environmental, and Infrastructure Engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA, [email protected], orcid.org/0000-0001-9547-6738Abstract
When natural disasters destroy infrastructure, reconstruction efforts create significant demand spikes for the region. Such events have been increasing in both frequency and severity, at scales that often match or exceed the regional capacity. This paper seeks to characterize the resulting demand patterns and their impact on production rates on nearby areas outside the zone of fire destruction. Single-family residential building permit data were used to examine the reconstruction process for several recent, large-scale wildfire disasters affecting the western United States. Dates for permit application, issue, and final provided a means to assess production rates using a modified Little’s Law analysis and provided work in progress and cycle time estimates. Production charts for reconstruction processes are nonlinear with time. Cycle times for the permitting and building processes increase with time in this data set. Some data was also obtained from affected jurisdictions for construction outside of the fire reconstruction efforts. Comparing these data to the fire reconstruction case suggests that cycle times for reconstruction are initially less than those in normal conditions but rise over time. The comparison suggests that the fire reconstruction effort draws capacity and impacts production outside of the disaster area.
Keywords
Production, Work in Progress (WIP), process, disaster reconstruction, residential.
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Reference in APA 7th edition format:
Walsh, K. D.. (2026). Production implications of large-scale wildfire reconstruction. In Hamzeh, F., Poshdar, M., & Garcia-Lopez,, N. P. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34) (pp. 1822–1833). https://doi.org/10.24928/2026/0300
Shortened reference for use in IGLC papers:
Walsh, K. D.. (2026). Production implications of large-scale wildfire reconstruction. IGLC34. https://doi.org/10.24928/2026/0300
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