Integrating lean thinking into crane operator training with a digital coach to enhance safety and productivity in virtual environments

Abstract

Crane accidents often stem from operator failure in maintaining safety under productivity pressures. Virtual reality (VR) enables realistic simulation of construction scenarios that reflect both safety and productivity concerns, offering significant potential to improve operation training performance. However, establishing VR-based training that integrates the instruction on these dual dimensions, remains underexplored. This paper investigates how a digital coach can be developed and implemented to deliver integrated training for novice crane operators in navigating safety hazards under productivity pressures. A virtual training scenario was built guided by the lean concept of autonomation. A training protocol based on value stream mapping (VSM) informed the digital coaching process, using lean indicators like waste time to identify the integrated training performance. The proposed coaching approach was evaluated in a before-after training experiment. Results demonstrate that integrating lean thinking boosts training efficiency and effectiveness, improving both safety and productivity performance among participants in virtual environments.