Zhili Gao, Ph.D., Mughees Aslam, and Gary Smith, Ph.D.
North Dakota State University
Fargo, North Dakota
Despite its enormous potentials for increasing efficiencies of the construction process, lean Construction (LC) has not been adopted into the majority of the construction industry yet. Furthermore, barriers and strategies for implementing LC have not been adequately studied by past and current research that can lead to the rapid uptake of LC within the construction industry. This study is to identify barriers that are hindering the construction industry to adopt LC and to further recommend suitable measures to overcome these barriers. In this study, a systematic literature review was carried out by reviewing theoretical/analytic papers, case studies and conceptual papers on the subject. After careful examination, eighty-seven (87) papers are kept for further analysis. Analysis indicated that approximately 80% of existing research studies are focused on identifying the implementation barriers only, whereas only 20%, presented barriers that hinder the adoption of LC. As a result, fifty-eight (58) barriers towards adopting LC and sixty-nine (69) strategies to overcome them were identified and classified under three population groups within the construction industry, based on their familiarity and implementation level of LC. The outcome of this study will potentially assist the construction industry in taking measures for increasing awareness and boosting the adoption rate of LC, along with the successful implementation of this innovative change management philosophy that ultimately will lead to optimized construction solutions.
Key Words: Lean Construction, Barriers, Strategies, Implementation, Adoption rate