Benefits of Visual Management in the Transportation Sector

This paper explores the benefits of Visual Management (VM), a fundamental sensory
information management strategy in the lean production system, in the transportation
sector in England. Lean construction and VM have recently gained momentum in
England’s transportation construction supply chain with high efficiency targets.
VM in construction is a scarcely researched topic, particularly outside the building
construction context with its quantitative and qualitative benefits. The recorded benefits of
four different visual tools/systems (visual workplace structuring or the 5S, visual
performance system, visual specification/indicator and visual control) from one highways
construction and one metro station upgrade project in England were presented through an
action and case study research effort.
The findings show that VM systems can contribute to (i) increased self-management,
(ii) increased coordination, (iii) increased PPC through better promises, (iv) easier control
and (v) improved site conditions in transportation projects. Although both qualitative and
quantitative data were collected to triangulate the findings, the main limitation of the
research is in abstracting the benefits or contributions of a particular VM tool from an
overall improvement in the projects’ performance. Some future research opportunities for
VM in the transportation sector were also discussed in the paper.