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Picture Iris 2005

P2SL - Project Production Systems Laboratory
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Iris D. Tommelein

Professor
Interests: lean construction, supply-chain management, e-commerce, engineering and management of project-based production systems, materials management, construction processes, logistics and layout, information technology.

 

Mailing Address:

Engineering and Project Management Program
Civil and Environmental Engineering Department
212 McLaughlin Hall
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1712

Office Hours: Best to email tommelein@berkeley.edu for an appointment.
Email: tommelein@ce.berkeley.edu
Phone: (510) 643-8678

Biography

Iris D. Tommelein is Professor of Engineering and Project Management, in the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of California, Berkeley, USA. She teaches and conducts research to develop and advance the theory and principles of project-based production management, applied to--but not limited to--the Architecture-Engineering-Construction (AEC) industry, what is termed 'Lean Construction.'

Professor Tommelein is an expert on construction site layout and logistics, as well as materials- and supply-chain management. Her work experience is in commercial building- and industrial construction. Her research focuses on enabling integrated owner-designer-builder teams to continuously improve their process- and product development performance. Current research topics include adaptive project leadership, design- and change management, and 'green' life-cycle engineering. Much of her work builds on using IT to support product and process design, planning, scheduling, simulation, and visualization (such as the development and use of Building Information Models (BIM)).

Professor Tommelein directs the Project Production Systems Laboratory (P2SL - p2sl.berkeley.edu) at UC Berkeley. P2SL is a research laboratory dedicated to developing and deploying knowledge and tools for project management, as well as a learning lab for the Northern California construction industry. She is an active participant in the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC - www.iglc.net) and a Research Affiliate of the Lean Construction Institute (LCI - www.leanconstruction.org). She served on the Executive Committee of ASCE's Technical Council on Computing and Information Technology (TCCIT) and is a member of the Construction Research Council of the Construction Institute of ASCE. She is the 2002 recipient of the Walter L. Huber Civil Engineering Prize awarded by ASCE "for her research on civil engineering computing for managing project-based production systems in the engineering-architecture-construction industry".

Professor Tommelein's education includes a 5-year Civil Engineer-Architect degree from the VUB (Belgium), an MS (Construction Engineering & Management), an MS (Computer Science), as well as a PhD (Civil Engineering) all from Stanford University (USA).

Research

· Adaptive Project Leadership

·Lean Construction

·  Supply Chain Management & e-Commerce

  • The Value Chain - Adding Value tot the Supply Chain: Value Chain Mapping, Performance Assessment, and Improvement
  • Improving Construction Supply Chain Performance
  • Role of the Distributor in the Age of e-Commerce

·  Materials Management

·  Site Layout Design

·  Integrated Design, Planning, Scheduling, Simulation, and Visualization (nD CAD) of Construction Processes

Publications

Click here to go to the publications page.

Teaching

·         Fall 2015

    • CE 268A Lean Construction Concepts and Methods
    • CE 298 Construction Engineering and Management Seminar

·         Spring 2016

    • CE 268B Lean Construction and Supply Chain Management

·         Other courses taught at The University of California, Berkeley, CA (semester last taught)

    • E 10 Engineering Design and Analysis (Fall 2011)
    • CE 92 Introduction to Civil and Environmental Engineering
    • CE 167 Engineering Project Management
    • CE 169A Module 1: Web-Based Systems for Engineering and Management
    • CE 169B Module 2: Database Systems for Engineering and Management
    • CE 169C Module 3: Visualization and Simulation (Spring 2012)
    • CE 298 Simulation of Lean Construction -- Research Seminar taught jointly with Glenn Ballard
    • Lean Construction -- 2-day seminar offered through U.C. Extension's Berkeley Summer Engineering Institute, taught jointly with Glenn Ballard (June 2006)

·         Courses taught at The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 1989 to 1995

    • CEE 432 Construction Engineering (Equipment and Methods)
    • CEE 502 Artificial Intelligence Applications in Civil Engineering
    • CEE 536 Critical Path Methods
    • CEE 538 Concrete Construction
    • CEE 830 Construction Engineering and Management Seminar

Research Students

Current Research Students (advisor or co-advisor with Prof. Glenn Ballard)

  • Paz Arroyo (PhD Student, E&PM)

  • Audrey Bascoul (PhD Student, E&PM)

  • Nigel Blampied (PhD Student, E&PM)

  • Adam Frandson (PhD Student, E&PM)

  • Eder Martinez (PhD Student, E&PM)

Graduates

·         Thais da Costa Lago Alves (PhD Fall 2005, EPM)

Research: "Buffering Practices in HVAC Ductwork Supply Chains."

·         Roberto J. Arbulu (M.Eng. Spring 2002, CE&M)

Current Position: Strategic Project Solutions
Research: "Improving Construction Supply Chain Performance: Pipe Supports and System Interfaces."

·         Chang-Sun (Kevin) Chin (M.Eng. Spring 2005, EPM)

Research: "Reducing Lead Times for Rebar Delivery"

·         Hyun Jeong (James) Choo (PhD Spring 2003, CE&M)

Current Position: CTO at Strategic Project Solutions
View research poster on: Constraint-based Work Package Scheduling

·         Jan A. Elfving (PhD Fall 2003, E&PM)

Current Position: Employee at Skanska and Lecturer at Helsinki University of Technology. 
Dissertation Title: Exploration of Opportunities to Reduce Lead Times for Engineered-To-Ordered Products.

·         Peter Feng (PhD Spring 2009, E&PM)

·         Nuno Gil (PhD Fall 2001, CE&M)

Current position: Lecturer at the University of Manchester - Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST)
Research: "Coordinating Specialists."
View research poster on: HVAC Expediter: Process-Product Simulation to Support Design-Build Organizations

·         Farook Hamzeh (PhD Summer 2010, E&PM)

·         Hyun Woo Lee (PhD Spring 2012, E&PM)

·         Colin Milberg (PhD Fall 2006, E&PM)

Research: "Tolerance Allocation in the AEC Supply Chain."

·         Kristen Parrish (PhD Spring 2009, CEE Systems)

Research: "Management of Rebar Design & Detailing. "

·         Zofia Rybkowski (PhD Summer 2010, E&PM)

Research: " Target Costing in Design"

·         Carol Soares (Graduate Student, E&PM)

·         Stan Tuholski (PhD Spring 2009, CEE Systems)

·         Cynthia C.Y. Tsao (PhD Fall 2005, E&PM)

Current position: Lean Coordinator, Consigli, Boston, MA
Research: "Use of Work Structuring to Increase Performance of Project-based Production Systems."

Professional Memberships and Affiliations

University of California at Berkeley

·         Project Production Systems Laboratory (P2SL), College of Engineering, Director

·         Center for the Built Environment (CBE), College of Environmental Design, Research Staff

·         U.C. Berkeley Supply Chain Management Initiative (SCMI), Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, Affiliated Faculty

American Society of Civil Engineers

·         Technical Council of Computer Practices

    • Executive Committee 1995-99, Chair 1997-98
    • Expert Systems and Artificial Intelligence Committee, Member and EXCOM Representative, Past-chair
    • Database and Information Management Committee, Member and EXCOM Representative

·         Construction Institute

    • Construction Research Council, Member
    • Constructability Committe, Member

Lean Construction Institute

  • Research Affiliate, 2010-current
  • Member of Board of Directors, 1997-2010

The Lean Construction Institute organizes educational seminars and offers consulting services that promote the implementation of lean construction practices. The aim of the Institute is to identify and advance best practices and develop the theory for lean production as it applies to the architecture/engineering/construction (AEC) industry.

International Group for Lean Construction

  • Member since 1997

The Seventh Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction was held from 26 to 28 July 1999 in Berkeley, California. Have a look at the Proceedings IGLC-7. The proceedings of this 1999 conference and those of other years are accessible through the main IGLC website.

Member of Board of Consultants

Editorial Advisory Board Member

LCJ is an international refereed journal devoted to Lean Construction practice and research. The primary objective is to stimulate a systematic rethinking of the construction process both on and off-site by providing a forum for disseminating knowledge and exchanging ideas between industry and academia. LCJ publishes high-quality practical papers that report developments, provoke new thinking and chronicle the history of Lean Construction in a manner that is readily accessible to reflective practitioners and clients of the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) Industry and AEC students and faculty. LCJ publishes both basic and applied research papers and reports on projects from practitioners, consultants and academics.

  • ITCON—Information Technologies in Construction, member of Editorial Board 

This electronic journal is distributed freely to anyone wishing to subscribe. The primary means of distribution is the World Wide Web. This journal has been endorsed by and is the host journal of CIB-78, a working group of the CIB (International Council for Research and Innovation in Building and Construction). It is sponsored by the Swedish Council for Building Research.

Conference Organization

Education

Links

| Prof. Iris D. Tommelein | Project Production Systems Laboratory (P2SL) | Engineering and Project Management (E&PM) Program | Civil & Environmental Engineering Department | U.C. Berkeley |

E&PM Program / IDT / 3 DEC 2015