Evaluating the Efficacy of Lean Construction Practices in Construction Industry of Pakistan

Abstract

The world’s resources are gradually depleting due to human activity specially construction. Relatively stagnant productivity and waste have made construction projects vulnerable to cost and time overrun, and sustainability issues, which can be potentially addressed by using Lean Construction (LC) to remove inefficiencies and wasteful practices. Generally lean construction is considered as a complex phenomenon with difficulties in implementing it in existing system. Therefore, an effort has been made in this study to check the efficacy of implementing LC in construction projects. The projects that are completed within the cost and time are selected and compared with the projects that were completed late or with cost overrun. LC practices are then compared with both type of construction projects to streamline the practices of LC that have been followed respectively. Case study is developed for each of these projects. The important conclusions drawn by the comparison of these projects are further validated using a construction industry survey. The data collected from the survey is analyzed using different statistical tools for which software like SPSS and MS Excel are used. The result would indicate the potentials and benefits of LC if implemented in true spirits. Finally suitable recommendations for implementing LC in Pakistan based on the actual project scenarios would be formulated. The outcome of this research would help construction industry in reducing waste, improving productivity and duly meeting the goals of sustainability.