Development of a lean culture index and its implementation in Lebanon -

Abstract

Lean construction (LC) is a new management concept introduced in several construction companies due to the improvements it shows after implementation. The major benefits of LC are reduction in construction time, reduction in overall project cost, and increase in productivity. Despite the benefits listed above, several companies have failed in their attempts to implement LC on their projects. The main reason behind failure is that people jump into applying tools without actually thinking what is the required culture and what are the cultural aspects needed in order to apply these tools. The goal of this proposed research is to understand the culture, as it is the first necessary step to improving the LC implementation. That is why a Lean Culture Index (LCI) was developed in order to measure lean culture and the readiness of an organization to apply Lean. This index was applied to Lebanese construction firms to help assess their culture and to compare it to the Lean culture. With the aim of developing the LCI, a thorough literature review was conducted in order to come up with the features of Lean culture. Then, a survey was prepared based on the aforementioned features. This survey was given to several construction companies in Lebanon from different sizes in order to compare them. After conducting the questionnaire, the results were statistically analyzed. Analysis revealed that, although Lebanese construction companies show some relation to lean culture such as flexibility and consistency, there is still room for improvement in areas such as training and human focus. Furthermore, the Lebanese culture does not tolerate failures and leans towards a blaming culture. Finally, some culture-related improvements were suggested for better implementation of LC in Lebanon.