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10th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction - Gramado, Brazil - 2002

Understanding Lean Construction and How It Penetrates the Industry - A Comparison of the Dissemination of Lean

Eric Johansen¹, Henk Glimmerveen² & Ruben Vrijhoef³

¹School of the Built Environment, Northumbria University, Ellison Place Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2, 3NN, UK. 0191-227-4720, [email protected]
²School of the Built Environment, Northumbria University, Ellison Place Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2, 3NN, UK
³Department of Project Management and Real Estate, Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology, PO Box 5043, NL-2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands, Tel +31 15 2783049, Fax +31 15 2783171, E-mail [email protected]

Abstract

Common et al (2000) investigated the take up of lean concepts in UK construction and found it low with a lot of confusion and limited knowledge of lean construction techniques and a great variation in perceptions. After establishing the background of the industry in the Netherlands a limited study with the same questionnaire from the UK was used to survey a similar sample of Dutch contractors and to make comparisons. The objectives were to see whether the indicators of lean culture or principles as seen through the existence of factors based on a conceptual framework were present in the contracting industry of the Netherlands, to compare the results of the survey with the original results and to see if there were reasons for any differences that might occur. The results indicate that the dissemination of lean concepts in the Netherlands is even lower than the UK although there is more consistency in perceptions. Within two countries with fairly common construction industry problems there is a difference in approach to lean construction. The lack of a focussed driver for change such as the UK’s Rethinking Construction report (Egan 1998) is given as one reason for the difference.

Keywords

Lean construction, lean concepts, lean penetration.

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