Investigating the integration of design and construction from a “lean” perspective

Purpose – Better integration of project processes has often been identified as the key issue regarding construction performance improvement. In some countries lean construction has become well‐established, although there appears to be considerable diversity in the interpretation of the concept. Lean construction initially focused on production aspects, but gradually design issues have started to receive more attention and integrating construction design and production processes from a lean perspective are beginning to be addressed. The purpose of this paper is to identify some of the practical challenges underlying the implementation of approaches promoted as “lean” and compare this with published research/theory.Design/methodology/approach – Following an extensive review of the literature, a multiple case‐strategy approach was used to explore the practical application of lean approaches to design and construction integration in an organisational setting. Summaries of the case studies, one from the USA an...

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