Necessity of Adopting Lean techniques in Construction Projects

Abstract

The world has witnessed large growth of projects development during last two decades, where Dubai in the UAE has witnessed big increase in construction projects. Some of these projects are completed and delivered on time while others have not delivered on time, due to some challenges and uncertainties that caused delay which impacted work progress of some major activities. Lean construction and lean techniques have been introduced in the UAE construction projects, but it is not adopted as mechanism to complete and deliver projects on time. Lean techniques in construction projects can be introduced as a philosophy that reduce project duration through the elimination of waste in process during design and construction. The study aims to introduce principles of lean management in construction projects and the benefits of applications of lean techniques in projects through investigating the level of implementing lean techniques in some construction projects. Principles of underpinning lean methodology is also investigated, and part of the study was to find out benefits of lean techniques implications. Principles of the study results revealed the necessity of adopting lean process and techniques in construction projects that can be implemented. Responsibilities of project team to use available tools to support implementation of lean to minimize the waste of project processes is identified in the results. Barriers and factors of preventing project team to adopt lean techniques are identified as a main result in this study. Major conclusion of the study identified the necessity of understanding the concept of lean techniques in construction to control the uncertainty and eliminate the waste that may occur during any process. It is also recommended that construction firms must adopt the lean techniques to improve the productivity by eliminating the wastes, including but not limited to benefits of implementing lean.