Lean mindset integration for the improvement of Airport design process

This paper presents the functional prototype of the methodology developed within the doctoral research Airport Lean Integration (ALI). ALI deals with the methodological aspects of project design process to detect, also on the base of field experience, useful elements to define a new approach and its supporting tools, which is based on the integration of Lean Mindset into project design development practices. In general the current practice of Airport Design do not associate whole set of stakeholders requirements to a systematic modelling and management of project design information; the consequence is that it do not properly cope with the airport operation phase. Lean mindset is a principle-based approach whose core concept is the aim to maximize the value generated by the project while limiting resources consumption and exploiting the active management of flexibility and project structuring. Airport project design is considered a temporary production system in this research framework, whose focus is on the transformation of project information. The proposed Lean Design process methodology is aimed on the one hand to the definition, generation and increment of “value” of the airport project, on the other to the limitation of “wastes” in project design development activities. The project design process methodology has been defined starting with an investigation of the scientific state of the art and by current practice matrices of airport design.