15th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction - East Lansing, Michigan, USA - 2007

Interface Management - A Facilitator of Lean Construction and Agile Project Management

Qian Chen1, Georg Reichard2 & Yvan Beliveau3

1Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Building Construction, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, Phone +1 540/239-1479, FAX 540/231-7339, [email protected]
2Assistant Professor, Dept. of Building Construction, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, Phone +1 540/818-4603, [email protected]
3G.A. Snyder Falkinham Professor and Head, Dept. of Building Construction, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, Phone +1 540/818-4602, [email protected]

Abstract

This paper aims to establish and clarify the close relationships between Interface Management (IM) and the two emerging construction management philosophies: lean construction and agile project management (APM). The applications of these two approaches face great challenges from a project’s complexity. IM, managing and controlling interrelationships or interactions among elements of complex project systems, can help augment these two strategic approaches and facilitate the implementation of related techniques and methods in the dynamic built environment. This paper first briefly introduces the new concept of IM and its benefits to construction management. Then, it reviews lean construction and APM respectively. During the review, this paper simultaneously investigates the benefits that IM can offer to these two approaches in regard to philosophy and technique. In conclusion, it is assessed that IM can greatly improve the implementation of lean production and APM in construction and help optimize overall performance of construction project systems.

Keywords

Interface management, lean production, lean construction, agile, agile project management, multi-disciplinary team, complexity.

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Reference

Chen, Q. , Reichard, G. & Beliveau, Y. 2007. Interface Management - A Facilitator of Lean Construction and Agile Project Management, 15th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , 57-66. doi.org/

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Founded in 1993, the IGLC is an international network of researchers from practice and academia in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) who feel that the practice, education, and research of the AEC industry have to be radically renewed in order to respond to the global challenges ahead.

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