Overcoming the Challenges facing Lean Construction Practice in the UK Contracting Organizations

Abstract

Despite the benefits realized from Lean construction practice over the past two decades, the uptake of the Lean concept in the UK seems to be sparse. The UK contracting organizations engaged in Lean construction practice are faced with challenges that need to be addressed to facilitate wider application of Lean concepts so as to gain its benefits. The purpose of the study is to investigate the challenges facing the application of Lean principles in the UK construction industry with a view to proposing solutions that could be used to address the challenges. A qualitative research approach was adopted and semi-structured interviews were conducted with Lean construction practitioners working with 10 contracting organizations in the UK. The study identified 10 different challenges across the organizations that participated in the research and discovered 13 strategies that could be used to overcome the challenges. Findings from this study will lead to a better understanding of the challenges facing Lean construction practice in the UK so that further research could be done on how each challenge could be addressed. The findings could also help practitioners in addressing the different challenges they face in their Lean construction endless journey and facilitate Lean construction practice in the UK