The study of a kitchen assembly process in industrial housing

The kitchen is the heart of the house where people spend much of their time. It is, therefore, an important room that requires high quality. Because construction is argued to be unproductive and wasteful with low quality, studying a kitchen assemblage in detail is of particular interest due to its complexity with many details. In lean, the visualization and transparency of processes is the core for waste reduction and improvement. Low productivity levels are often argued to depend on a lack of information about the root causes of process problems. Thus, more information about the installation process of kitchens by studying the process is needed to target the sources of problems in terms of waste. The purpose of this paper is to gain a further understanding of how value stream mapping can be used to identify different types of waste that occur when acquiring and installing kitchens. Value stream mapping is carried out through observations and interviews at an industrialized timber house manufacturer. Data analysis resulted in information about inconsistencies in the kitchen installation process, i.e. the root causes of costs and delays for the entire housing project.