Implementation and application of lean construction and Building Information Modeling within an electrical contracting enterprise

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Improving the predictability of project delivery processes and their outcomes is paramount for specialty trades operating in the construction industry. These downstream stakeholders take on much of the risk of delivering building projects even if they are far removed from the decision made during the design and planning stages. Moreover, construction projects are notoriously wasteful and inefficient. New approached to project delivery, such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Lean construction have emerged over the past decades to address these issues and their consequences. While these approaches are becoming increasingly popular in the US, their adoption and implementation is lagging in the Canadian construction industry. While there is increasing empirical evidence of the significant benefits offered by these approaches, there is a clear need to better understand the benefits and challenges from the Canadian perspective as well as from the specialty contractor perspective. The aim of this research is to explore applications of BIM and lean construction principles within a large electrical contractor in British Columbia to improve the performance of its project teams and enhance their outcomes. More specifically, it aims to investigate how a specialty contractor can improve its performance while mitigating its risk through the application of these principles in light of the industry's current limitations. The research project also aims to uncover the benefits and the barriers to the implementation of these approaches and looks to inform the development of specific capabilities to support their implementation. The expected contributions of this research project are the documentation and diffusion of a case study of BIM and Lean construction implementation at the project and organizational level from an electrical contractor's perspective in the Canadian context. This will help other organizations and project teams seeking to implement BIM and lean and contribute to a growing body of knowledge and expertise on these approaches for the Canadian construction industry.