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8th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction - Brighton, UK - 2000

Failure Analysis Applied to Design Optimisation

Paulo Andery¹, Claudia Vanni² & Gisele Borges³

¹Associate Professor, Construction and Materials Department, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte MG, Brazil, Phone + 55 31 2381856, FAX + 55 31 238 1857, [email protected]
²Researcher, Construction and Materials Department, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte MG, Brazil, Phone + 55 31 238 1850, FAX + 55 31 2381857, [email protected]
³Architect, MBS Architects, Belo Horizonte MG, Brazil, Phone/FAX + 55 31 2414344, [email protected]

Abstract

The present work points out a procedure, conceptually based on lean thinking principles, that focuses on co-ordinating different design disciplines (architectural, structural, etc.), thus avoiding errors due to lack of design compatibility caused by inadequate management of information flow. A design protocol is developed, helping the designers to outline constructability guidelines, applied to the specific conditions of a project. The procedure is based on the application of failure analysis methods, particularly the FMEA (Failure Modes and Effects Analysis), adapted to be used in building construction design. The procedure allows the detection of potential failure modes related to the coordination of different building design specifications. Thus, it looks for “what could be wrong”, leading to the improvement of the design reliability. The application of FMEA as a phase of the procedure leads to failures detection, its prioritisation and the establishment of countermeasures against those failures. A set of guidelines has been generated and can be incorporated into later design phases. Some results of the implementation of the procedure are briefly discussed.

Keywords

Lean design, design coordination, failure analysis

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