How the Construction Industry Struggles

The engineering construction industry struggles with making informed decisions based on the most accurate information available and with managing people and materials in a dynamic construction environment.

In many cases, executing a given construction task as it was planned is a challenge. It is often unclear what must be done, when it must be done, by whom, and which materials are available. The traditional answer to such challenges is for contractors to include a significant amount of contingencies in their cost estimates to ensure that a contract will pay as much as possible. Typically, less attention is being spent on reducing inefficiencies, risk and waste at the construction site.

It is often mentioned that the solution to these challenges is to become “lean.” The term “lean” is usually associated with lean manufacturing, lean thinking, lean production, and lean construction. There are many arguments on what each of these have in common and what their differentiators
are. So, what does “lean” really mean?