Implementation of Lean Management in the Construction Industry

Running head: IMPLEMENTATION OF LEAN MANAGEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION
INDUSTRY
Implementation of Lean Management in the Construction Industry
University Name
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Authors’ Note

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IMPLEMENTATION OF LEAN MANAGEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
Chapter 1
Introduction:
Construction industry is the largest and key sector of economy of United Kingdom
comprising of over 280000 and contributing almost ₤ 90 billion to economy. The demand for
construction is likely to impact by the factors such as demographic changes, globalization,
and demand for sustainable and green construction both in UK and abroad. Country is in a
position of taking advantage of opportunities in construction that stems from advanced
technological and architectural development. However, the picture on the construction
exports is mixed across its sub sectors despite the technological capability of UK. One of the
drivers of long term growth construction industry is increasing export activities and accessing
foreign markets. The competitiveness of growth of construction industry is affected by
adequate and effective deployment of relevant factors (Ojo et al. 2017). Construction sector
of UK continues to be a vital sector of economy of UK in spite of unprecedented challenges
that has originated from economic and financial crisis of 2008. It is evident from some facts
that challenges is well responded by the sector along with possessing the potential of taking
advantage of opportunities of global market opportunities in future. Nevertheless, the
construction industry is well placed to take the advantages of the opportunities available;
there is a need to ensure investment in technology and innovation along with increasing the
collaboration between research institution and business that would enable country in realising
its potential.
In this context, discussion regarding the implementation of lean management in
construction sector of United Kingdom has been demonstrated in detailed manner. Analysis
of problem statements has been done in the chapters below by illustrating appropriate

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example from industry. In addition to this, research objectives have formed the basis of
formulation of research questions.
Background Research:
The construction approach of lean regarding the project delivery of construction
intends to deal with waste elimination by removing all the non value adding activities. It is
mainly concerned with the management of environment along with economic and social
aspect of sustainability. Additional significant problems have been identified by some authors
in managing the working relationship between suppliers and construction firms in the absence
of an effective system. Any variation in demand and supply would have an adverse impact
on management of project in terms of its decreasing safety and quality and increasing time
delivery and costs (Fullerton et al. 2014).
The previous research on innovation has resulted in creating confusion as there has
been failure in terms of establishment of standard definitions of associated practice and terms.
Early research has assisted in addressing the ability of organization to adapt and respond to
internal and external changes. The prevalent theory of production is supported being
counterproductive by presentation of many arguments in lean construction. It leads to
reduction in overall performance and added cost through the principles of deficient control
production (Behera et al. 2014).
Aim:
 To review literature and gain insight into the lean construction that is practiced in UK.
 To explore the nature, implications and dimension of lean management in
construction industry in the United Kingdom.

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IMPLEMENTATION OF LEAN MANAGEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
 To identify the barriers in successfully implementing the lean construction and
evaluation of identified barriers.
 To examine the perception of the construction industry with the lean practices and
principles of the construction industry.
 To analyze the impacts of lean construction tools and techniques on construction
industry in the United Kingdom.
Objective:
The objective of research is to review literature relating to lean construction as it is
practiced in United Kingdom. It also intends to explain how the application of lean
management would help in addressing issues associated with construction industry under
different aspects. This particular research paper has the objective of providing a holistic view
of lean management. In addition to this, the research paper also intends to identify any
barriers in successful lean management implementation in the construction industry. It also
addresses the effect of identified barriers on the implementation of lean construction along
with proposing strategy that would help in overcoming the barriers (Tezel et al. 2017).
Research questions:
The research questions are as follows:
What types of lean techniques and tools are suitable for the construction projects?
Does the implementation of lean management in construction projects helps in addressing the
issues faced in construction industry?
What are the barriers in the lean management implementation in construction projects?
What are the impacts of implementation of lean management in construction industry?

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IMPLEMENTATION OF LEAN MANAGEMENT IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
Resources:
The resources that have been used in this research paper involve the information
generated from reviewing literature related to lean management and construction industry.
Literature has been searched by using the efficient way that is electronic database that
assisted in searching for the appropriate database serving the topic and objective of research
paper (Sharma et al. 2016). In addition to this, relevant publications and articles regarding
lean management have been selected by scrutinizing the keywords and abstracts. The articles
and relevant publications were chosen with different types of initiatives which were
accounted for highlighting the critical factors regarding implementation of lean in
construction.
Data Collection:
The process of collecting data has been implemented in the section of methodology
that has assisted in increasing the knowledge relating to lean construction. For the analysis of
accumulated data, different techniques and tools have been implemented. In order to gain an
in depth acquaintance with the research topic, both primary and secondary data has been
collected. Primary data has been collected from higher management and respondents
operating in construction industry. Accumulation of raw data is done by interacting online
and conducting face to face interactions. Secondary data on other hand has been accumulated
by reviewing the literature associated with the topic concerned. The research topic has been
adequately executed by conducting both qualitative and quantitative analysis. Execution of
qualitative data has been done by conducting interview that involves face to face interaction
with the participants (Behera et al. 2015). Survey on other hand has been conducted by
utilizing the social networking sites such as Skype and face book. Conducting interview has

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generated open ended and subjective answers while survey has generated close ended and
objective answers.
Project Risk:
There can be uncertainty related to estimates about the resources and time that the
activity associated with research work would be requiring. It is possible that the researcher
would not be acquainted with the resources required to carry out activity. They are required
to deal with decision uncertainty. Some of the reason associated with decision uncertainty
involves imperfect examination of practices, unknown factors at project beginning and
existence of difficulty related to interdependences and influencing factors. The overall
approach and subject is broad and due to restriction of time, the content is limited.
Scope and limitation of study:
One of the shortcomings of study is the lack of availability of sufficient information
regarding the implications of lean construction. Moreover, there is limited number of research
publications that links lean management to construction. Researcher has been able to access
articles that discusses about detriments and benefits of factors to success in general along
with discussion of success factors concerning implementation of lean. The tools and concepts
of lean that are investigated and evaluated are limited to the tools and concepts that are used
in the literature frequently. The extent of this particular research paper is limited to
encompass only information from previous case studies and limited practical data because of
limitation of time (Elmualim and Gilder 2014). Furthermore, the purpose and research and
research questions according to background is related to increased productivity and activities
by saving time and waste minimization, material and costs along with implementation
barriers. However, in reality, some other others such as work environment where there is
brief mentioning of factors should be given larger space.

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Confidentiality:
The matters related to confidentiality are required to be addressed from the research
inception to result publications. In order to guarantee the confidentiality of information,
researcher has employed safety nets. Unless absolutely necessary, there should not be
maintenance and collection of personally identified information. Appropriate measures have
been taken for addressing confidentiality during research planning. At the time of collecting
the data, confidentiality issues are addressed and the concerned agreements relating to
confidentiality is presented at the beginning of the process of collecting data.
Data Protection:
While presentation of detailed qualitative data, researcher has employed measures of
handling destructive disclosure risks associated with it. Research work has been conducted by
maintaining highest level of integrity such as appropriate framework and research designs
that would ensure that it generates defensible and robust findings (Dinesh et al. 2017). There
is no inadequate presentation or mismanagement of primary materials and data.
Conclusion:
In this research paper, identification of lean concepts and principles in relation to
construction industry has been demonstrated that helps in explaining the fact that an
innovative sustainable development is generated by lean construction. It has been ascertained
that implementation of practices and tools of lean construction generates benefits. However,
when it comes to implementation of such tools from operational stand point, construction
firms are not able to derive maximum benefits or sustain lean management usage because
there is no solid basis for such ground.
Chapter 2

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Literature Review
Introduction
The current section presents review of scholarly texts that necessarily includes current
knowledge counting substantive findings along with theoretical as well as methodological
contributions to a specific topic. Essentially, this section on review of literature is necessarily
secondary sources and do not present new, experimental or any kind of original report. The
current research throws light on works carried out by prior scholars and elucidates
illustratively lean management in construction industry.
What is Lean?
As rightly indicated by Dave et al. (2016), lean management is a specific approach or way to
run a business concern that upholds the notion of continuous enhancement. As such, this is a
long term approach to operate that systematically intends to attain small but incremental
alterations in procedures in a bid to enhance efficacy as well as overall quality. Ashworth and
Perera (2018) suggests that lean management intends to do away with any kind of wastage of
time, money or else effort by recognizing each and every step in a business procedure and
thereafter revising or eliminating stages that do not generate value. In other words, it can be
hereby said that lean management is a specific kind of business theory and notion that strives
to generate higher value for clientele by utilizing the few assets/resources. Essentially, a
business concern that employs lean management is aware of the overall value of the clients
and intends to enhance the important procedures in which their client remains satisfied and
enthusiastically maintain association with the business concern (Alarcón 2014). Particularly,
this kind of management is a manner of thinking and not a reduction program for costs as
well as expends.