ABSTRACT
Several chapters have described lean construction approaches for improving construction performance. These approaches work best when a number of prerequisites have been met for applying lean construction. As described in Chapter 6, the prerequisites include:
1. A willingness to change 2. A commitment to training and learning 3. A quality-oriented culture 4. A “Shared Vision” 5. A commitment to reducing or eliminating waste 6. A commitment to cost and performance measures 7. A willingness to implement lean during the design stages 8. Collaborative relationships 9. The effective use of information technology
Lean construction cannot be effectively applied to entire projects without the existence of these factors. The essence of lean construction is a willingness of the participants to collaborate for the optimization of the entire project, instead of obtaining local optimization. In the absence of project-wide commitment, improvement efforts tend to facilitate local optimization instead of benefiting the entire project.
