Lean Principles for the Management of Construction Submittals and RFIs

Office-related processes in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry represent a parallel system that works to support activities performed by those in the field, however, researchers often overlook its management. A method to collect and analyze data about submittals was developed using a case study approach, and two cases are presented illustrating an overview of these processes and the use of lean construction concepts to categorize activities and times associated with their different steps. One of the cases sheds light on the reality of how submittals and requests for information (RFIs) are managed in construction projects and indicates that only about a fifth of the submittals in a project are approved as submitted, whereas less than half of them need additional work to be finalized, and over a third need to be revised entirely before they can be accepted and distributed. Opportunities for improvement abound in the management of construction documents and they involve changes/more transparency in the processes used to manage the documents and the need to define indicators to evaluate their performance.