VSM FOR IMPROVING THE CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY PROCESS IN REAL ESTATE PROJECTS–A CHILEAN CASE STUDY

Abstract

Obtaining a Certificate of Occupancy (CO) for real estate projects in Chile is a bureaucraticand confusing process, which often causes delays in the final reception of projects,postponing the occupation by future owners, and impacting the financial flow of developers.This research aims to reduce the duration of the city´s CO process for housing projects inChile. The research questions are: (1) what are the most relevant inefficiencies in the COprocess? (2) What improvement strategies can be used to reduce its duration? (3) Can leanmethods be used to reduce this duration? The research method is based on 3 stages: (1)conduct surveys to practitioners involved on the CO process of Chilean housing projects tocollect the current inefficiencies and potential improvement strategies, (2) develop a currentand future state Value Stream Mapping (VSM) considering the survey information, and (3)implement the future state in a case study through action research. This research´s firstcontribution to knowledge is a list of inefficiencies and improvement strategies related to theCO in Chilean housing projects. The second contribution is to provide evidence that VSMcan be successfully used to reduce the duration of this process in housing projects. The studyis limited to housing industry under the Chilean regulatory framework. However, the authorsbelieve that similar results can be obtained in other types of projects dealing withadministrative processes such as permitting, and other city and regulatory agency approvals.