TY  - CONF
TI  - Geotechnical Insights for a Proactive Production System for Earthwork
C1  - Osaka and Kyoto, Japan
C3  - Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 33)
SP  - 318
EP  - 329
PY  - 2025
DO  - 10.24928/2025/0138
AU  - Simmons, Kim
AU  - LaMay, Thomas
AU  - Arroyo, Paz
AD  - Program Manager, Kleinfelder, San Jose, CA, USA, kisimmons@kleinfelder.com, orcid.org/0009-0007-1773-5758
AD  - Quality Leader - Southeast, DPR Construction, Atlanta, GA, USA, thomasla@dpr.com, orcid.org/0009-0005-5163-2088
AD  - Quality Leader, DPR Construction, San Francisco, CA, USA, paza@dpr.com, orcid.org/0000-0002-8098-8172
ED  - Seppänen, Olli 
ED  - Koskela, Lauri 
ED  - Murata , Koichi 
AB  - Risk mitigation through production system design and clear communication is critical to the success of complex projects and their sustainability. This paper presents a case study describing how a team building a multi-million-dollar, mission-critical data center project decreased risks associated with geotechnical soil conditions by creating a production system design using Lean methodologies such as location-based management, takt planning, and a behavior-based quality system tailored to the demands of earthwork and civil construction.
The implementation of stacking these Lean methods improved communications, accelerated information flow, and reduced feedback loop durations, which increased the predictability of earthwork operations. Also, the paper discusses how the production system design fostered a culture of collaboration, trust, and continuous improvement. The authors advocate for new industry standards in job-sequencing, work structuring, and quality management within earthwork construction, emphasizing how stakeholders’ collaborative involvement is crucial to project success. This partnership highlights the foundational importance of soil construction and establishes frameworks for trust, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
KW  - Production system design
KW  - location-based management (LBM)
KW  - takt planning (TP)
KW  - work structuring
KW  - behavior-based quality system (BBQS)
PB  - 
T2  - Proceedings of the 33rd Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 33)
DA  - 2025/06/02
CY  - Osaka and Kyoto, Japan
L1  - http://iglc.net/Papers/Details/2333/pdf
L2  - http://iglc.net/Papers/Details/2333
N1  - Export Date: 07 June 2025
DB  - IGLC.net
DP  - IGLC
LA  - English
ER  -