Challenges Facing Implementation of Lean Construction in Saudi Arabia

The Saudi Arabian construction industry has been noted to face a boom in the last twenty years. Several contractors have been noted to rely on the significance of employing lean construction. However, the implementation of lean construction in Saudi Arabia has not been growing. The failure of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to adopt the Lean construction system has been caused by a lack of various factors like poor equipment, semi-skilled and unskilled workforce and also the ineffective planning. To increase the awareness and comprehension of the concept of lean in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and its construction company, there is a need to have an overview of the current status in the lean construction system.

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The Saudi Arabian construction industry has been noted to face a boom in the last twenty
years. Several contractors have been noted to rely on the significance of employing lean
construction. The construction concept is based on the Toyota production systems which have
been harnessed to a new method of construction which is highly systemized. The system aims at
completing a project that meets the requirements of the clients through the reduction of waste.
The system emphasizes that every process is important within the construction process and it is
critical for the improvement of the project. Lean construction also leads to the minimization of
the direct cost which is effective to the project.

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However, the implementation of lean construction in Saudi Arabia has not been growing.
The implementation of the lean system is a very complex project. The failure of the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia to adopt the Lean construction system has been caused by a lack of various factors
like poor equipment, semi-skilled and unskilled workforce and also the ineffective planning. To
increase the awareness and comprehension of the concept of lean in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia
and its construction company, there is a need to have an overview of the current status in the lean
construction system. There is, however, no such studies due to the lack of real data (Sarhan, et
al., 2015, p. 432).
Lean construction involves the techniques of designing production systems with an aim
of minimizing wastage of materials, labor and hence maximizing cost-effective value.it focusses
on pursuing concurrent and improvements in the design, activation, and recycling in building
projects (Sha'ar, et al., 2017, p. 245).
The concept of waste in construction is still evolving. The effort of construction
management community for the comprehension of waste is relatively small as compared to other
topics. Waste is understood under two dimensions; intrinsically and instrumentally. The
interpretations are different in the construction that needs empirical justification, comparability
that is statistical and motivation for action. The best solution that can lead to the reduction of
waste in the design construction is the creation of value (Sarhan, et al., 2017, p. 22).
Educational issues
In the last decade, much effort was put to try and educate people and create awareness of
the importance of lean construction, the guidance provision and sharing the knowledge related to
lean construction by schools, by the researchers and other organizations such as the lean

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construction institutes and construction excellence. However, the firms mentioned above are
amongst other which operate mostly in Europe and hence it is not easy to share the knowledge
they have globally (Banawi & Bilec, 2014, p. 34). Many publications on lean construction have
been done but the greatest challenge is the educational issues which appear to be cutting across
most parts of Saudi Arabia. The common educational issues addressed include lack of awareness
from workers, inadequate training and information asymmetry.
Management issues
The top management in firms plays a vital role in ensuring that the implementation of the
innovative strategies is followed to the latter. To realize the achievements of lean construction
requires the commitment of top management in planning and the adequate provision of the
resources required in the management of the changes which arise from the implementation.
Research shows that poor strategy implementation, management issues, and poor definition are
the primary issues that face the implementation of lean construction (Omran & Abdulrahim,
2015, p. 98).In addition to this, lack of adequate time for innovation and the prolonged period of
implementation are also factors hindering the adoption of the lean construction. There is poor
communication, lack of adequacy in the determination of goals, inaccuracy in preplanning,
delays in making decisions, organizations structure that are not suitable for lean construction
system the existence of a weak procurement and poor administration. The above-mentioned
challenges appear to be very usual but they are very important for accomplishment if any given
organization want to meet a smooth running of a construction process.

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Financial issues
Implementation of lean construction requires adequate cash aimed at providing the
relevant materials and equipment, the employment of lean staff who guide the workers in the
implementation of lean is expensive and hence a firm will require adequate cash. Many
organizations face the finance-related challenges and hence it becomes difficult to employ lean
construction system (Xu, et al., 2017, p. 34).
Issues to do with human attitude
Human attitude affects the implementation of lean construction. Lack of cooperation by
workers, not understanding the brief of the client, lean practice misconception, poor leadership
commitment, lack of commitment, fear of unfamiliar practices are among the challenges facing
the lean construction under human attitude (Erol,, et al., 2017, p. 242).
Changing the working culture of employees
There is also the resistance of the employees in the organization to change the culture of
their working. Workers in most cases find it hard to apply new working styles and change the
way they used to work and the way things are supposed to be done. Despite learning to do things
differently from the methods they have been using before, most workers will prefer to do things
just the way they have been doing. This is a big challenge to the lean construction practice in
most parts of Saudi Arabia (Banawi & Bilec, 2014, p. 254).

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Lack of long-term forecast investment
The lack of long-term forecast of the gains of lean construction of the organization
mostly by the topmost managers to the lean construction practice. The organizations might
engage lean practice but the existence of poor and long-term forecast of its ability to contribute
to the immature support and commitment that comes from management to a totally full
investment in the lean construction (Banawi & Bilec, 2014, p. 254).
Prolonged time for implementation
Another challenge that faces lean construction system is the continuous and never-ending
journey of improvement that may take a very long time for the implementation to be made.
There is time needed to train workers, the application of principles the selection of the
appropriate tools that would be utilized in the implementation of them in the site, the
management of change to working culture and then carrying out an evaluation for the purposes
of identifying areas which require improvement. Therefore, lean construction sees this as a long-
term investment (Sarhan, et al., 2017, p. 247).

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Ease of implementation and costs involved
One of the biggest challenges of lean construction is the costs that are attached to it. The
latter will involve the cost associated with its implementation the costs associated with training
the workers, the fees made for consultancy (Sarhan, et al., 2015, p. 156). Conducting workshops
and the purchase of visual management alert is also an expense. The above-mentioned sectors
make lean to be perceived by the expertise as costly.
The misconception about lean
Lean construction practice is faced by the challenge of misconception among workers
and this was borrowed from philosophy. Most of the workers see it as a technique of saving
production cost through the reduction of the number of working staff, offering low payments or
even forcing workers to complete a task over a little period of time so that at long run they would
be paid little cash. Other staff might also misinterpret it as doing the job faster (Sarhan, et al.,
2017, p. 187). The above can make workers dislike their job and due to this, they start giving
little concentration to what they are doing and this makes it hard to the achieve the goals and
objectives of the lean construction demands that explain that a worker should work smartly and
efficiently so as to attain the objectives of the firm.
Raised management expectations
The lean management expects high returns as soon as the lean construction is
implemented. The top management expects to see sudden, significant and dramatic
improvements as far as productivity of lean construction is implemented. The management also
needs to see cost recovery within the shortest period of time and also see that time has been
saved so that they do not incur additional costs (Banawi & Bilec, 2014, p. 189). These are just a

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few factors that would drive the management to apply the lean construction. This will result in
workers being put to pressure in their working areas and it can easily lead to disappointments in
the case whereby the production has not reached the level the management expected.
Inadequate knowledge of lean
The fact that lean construction was adopted from lean manufacturing makes many
workers and managers not conversant with the concepts of lean. There can be no lean
construction in any firm without the prior knowledge of lean concepts (Sarhan, et al., 2015, p.
267). Due to the above problem, most organizations do not advocate for employing lean
construction since they view the idea as an internalization of a totally new concept in the
management and workers which has to be learned from scratch.in addition to this, the workers
might also be reluctant to the new concepts of lean construction and tools introduced by the firm.
Complexity
Lean construction involves both the application of lean construction and the development
of that culture among the working staff so that the organizations experience continuous and
endless pursuit of improving all organizational units (Xu, et al., 2017, p. 63). Lean is not only
practiced in the site environment but is also applied in the administrative activities too which are
within the office environment. The latter is viewed by managers as being too intricate and
complex thing to adopt amongst the workers and also the managers.
Inadequate cooperation from employees
For any organization to achieve its goals and objectives, the employees should strive to
work together in harmony and as a team and follow the instructions which are issued to them by
the top management. Most workers do not follow the instructions given to them by the lean

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consultants mostly when the incentives for doing such are not given. This problem does not
affect many firms (Sarhan, et al., 2015, p. 153). The management can the working culture of
workers and have new working styles and change the way they used to work and the way things
are supposed to be done (Erol,, et al., 2017, p. 135).
Inadequate or even no incentives
Workers are paid so that they do their jobs. However, appreciation of their efforts apart
from just giving them their salary motivates them to even do better. Giving out incentives can
make workers more aggressive since they have a sense of belonging and they also feel that they
are part of the common set goal. Through the offering of incentives, lean construction can be
easily internalized and hence improvement of productivity can be witnessed (Banawi & Bilec,
2014, p. 162).
Conclusion
There have been several factors affecting the implementation of lean construction across
the globe. The factors that act as barriers are many ranging from managerial, financial, education
to human attitude towards the implementation of lean construction. For the firms in Saudi Arabia
to achieve the best in the application of lean construction, there is need for firms to enlighten
workers on the benefits of lean construction practice, simplification of language of lean
construction, education of workers, employ clients to assist the workers on the application of
lean and also be persistence in rewarding or providing incentives for the workers.

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References
Banawi , A. A. & Bilec, M., 2014. Applying Lean, Green, and Six-Sigma Framework to Improve
Exterior Construction Process in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Construction Engineering and Project
Management, 4(1), pp. 22-44.
Banawi , A. A. & Bilec, M., 2014. Applying Lean, Green, and Six-Sigma Framework to Improve
Exterior Construction Process in Saudi Arabia. ournal of Construction Engineering and Project
Management, 16(3), pp. 243-276.
Erol ,, H., Dikmen , I. & Birgonul, M. T., 2017. Measuring the impact of lean construction
practices on project duration and variability: A simulation-based study on residential buildings.
Journal of Civil Engineering and Management, 14(5), pp. 240-250.
Omran , A. & Abdulrahim, A., 2015. Barriers to prioritizing Lean construction in the Libyan
construction industry. Acta Technica Corviniensis-Bulletin of Engineering, 8(1), pp. 87-103.
Sarhan , J. G., Xia , B. & Fawzia, S., 2017. Lean construction implementation in the Saudi
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Sarhan , J., Xia , B., Fawzia , S. & Karim, A., 2015. Barriers to implementing lean construction
practices in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) construction industry.. Construction
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Sha'ar , K. Z., Assaf , S. A. & Bambang , T., 2017. Design–construction interface problems in
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