OPTIMIZED CYCLE-TIME FLOW BATCHING: ENHANCED PERFORMANCE IN PROJECT PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

As organizations in the AEC industry increasingly work within multi-project environments, there is an urgent need for lean Project Portfolio Management (PPM) strategies to ensure effective project prioritization, resource management, and alignment with organizational goals. While lean construction approaches have been proven effective at the single-project level, they do not address portfolio issues, such as flow of trades between projects and strategic prioritization across multiple projects. This study introduces and discusses the project grouping considerations of Optimized Cycle-Time Flow (OCF), a pull-based methodology designed to enhance portfolio performance by grouping projects into manageable batches based on trades’ demonstrated capabilities and customers priorities. By optimizing the mixture, sequence and timing of batches, this approach leads to improved alignment with organizational priorities. Using a comparative analysis between two semiconductor plant project portfolios, each comprising hundreds of projects, the study demonstrates the effects of OCF Batching: stabilization of WIP levels, reduction of individual projects’ cycle times, and enhanced overall portfolio performance. The findings validate OCF as a powerful lean approach for PPM and suggest that it can enhance efficiency for project-based organizations.