Lean management methods for complex projects

Abstract

This paper reviews the principles, history, applications and current research issues associated with lean construction, in order to provide a foundation for future research in this area. Lean is a management approach that emerged in the automobile industry and spread initially to other forms of repetitive manufacturing and ultimately to service industries. Despite its success in practice, the lean philosophy and methods have not been fully evaluated and incorporated into the academic literature. The question remains to what extent lean management methods are unique and beneficial and how they are related to principles and models in management science, production management and related fields. One of the relevant issues is the adequacy of lean methods to the management of complex projects. As project complexity increases, emergent phenomena increase. Consequently, leadership must become more adaptive and less prescriptive in order to be successful. This paper describes some of the key lean management methods that deliver better outcomes on complex projects and also the interdependence of these methods with the structuring of commercial terms and organizational integration. It also describes the relationship between lean project management methods and conventional methods, and the limitations of both, and suggests directions for future research.