TY  - CONF
TI  - Variation management in prefabricated MEP installations: challenges and opportunities
C1  - Singapore, Singapore
C3  - Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34)
SP  - 727
EP  - 738
PY  - 2026
DO  - 10.24928/2026/0129
AU  - Valkonen, Tuomas
AU  - Seppänen, Olli
AD  - Doctoral Researcher, Department of Civil Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland,  tuomas.valkonen@aalto.fi, orcid.org/0000-0002-2710-5190
AD  - Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland, olli.seppanen@aalto.fi, orcid.org/0000-0002-2008-5924
ED  - Hamzeh, Farook
ED  - Poshdar, Mani
ED  - Garcia-Lopez,, Nelly P.
AB  - Managing variation is an essential lean principle. Tolerance management remains marginal in construction and focuses on architectural and structural trades. Especially mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems have largely been neglected in tolerance management research, despite their critical role in project delivery.
This research studies variation management, its challenges and opportunities for improvement in a plumbing renovation project through semi structured interviews and thematic analysis. The interview questions addressed prefabrication practices, planning processes, production and control activities, tolerance management, accuracy, and sources of variation. Three aggregate themes emerged as key results: (1) detection and management of deviations, (2) design information and tolerance management, and (3) management of change and personnel. Together these themes highlight the multifaceted nature and difficulty of variation management.
The results emphasize that both technical and human factors must be addressed simultaneously while maintaining constancy of purpose. Improving installation guidelines and accelerating issue resolution were identified as key development areas. Stabilizing the production system provides an opportunity to further enhance productivity and shorten cycle times.
KW  - Tolerance management
KW  - variability
KW  - variation
KW  - prefabrication
KW  - MEP.
PB  - 
T2  - Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34)
DA  - 2026/06/22
CY  - Singapore, Singapore
L1  - http://iglc.net/Papers/Details/2455/pdf
L2  - http://iglc.net/Papers/Details/2455
N1  - Export Date: 19 June 2026
DB  - IGLC.net
DP  - IGLC
LA  - English
ER  -