TY - CONF TI - Integration of the lean thinking principles into the owners’ project management C1 - Singapore, Singapore C3 - Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34) SP - 1346 EP - 1357 PY - 2026 DO - 10.24928/2026/0316 AU - John, Paul Christian AU - Haghsheno, Shervin AD - AD - ED - Hamzeh, Farook ED - Poshdar, Mani ED - Garcia-Lopez,, Nelly P. AB - Construction projects face expanding requirements, while project performance remains a persistent concern. This paper examines how Lean Thinking can be integrated into project owners’ project management. Using the five Lean Thinking principles proposed by Womack and Jones as an analytical lens, the study draws on an iterative series of five focus-group workshops involving eight experts and the two authors. The workshop results were synthesised through structured memos, written feedback loops, and a final group review of the consolidated results. The findings suggest that many owner organisations and owner representatives already apply routines consistent with Lean Thinking, although often implicitly and in fragmented form. At the same time, the workshops identified principle-based action options for a more systematic integration. These suggest that Lean Project Management at the owner level differs from conventional approaches not by adding (isolated) methods, but by placing stronger emphasis on proactively shaping the conditions for reliable, value-oriented, and continuously improving project delivery. The paper thus provides an initial principle-based orientation for project owners and seeks to stimulate further discussion on Lean project management. KW - Lean project management KW - lean project delivery KW - project owner KW - client KW - lean principles. PB - T2 - Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34) DA - 2026/06/22 CY - Singapore, Singapore L1 - http://iglc.net/Papers/Details/2591/pdf L2 - http://iglc.net/Papers/Details/2591 N1 - Export Date: 19 June 2026 DB - IGLC.net DP - IGLC LA - English ER -