ASOCSA 2011 24 Barriers to Sustainable Implementation of Lean Construction in the Ghanaian Building Industry
Purpose: Adoption of lean construction in the construction industry will improve quality and efficiency, eliminate waste and increase value for the client. It is a production based management strategy that enables construction companies to maximize profits by maximizing efficiency and eliminating waste of resources. Lean production efforts in some countries have not been successful due to the many barriers to its successful implementation. This study was undertaken to identify possible barriers to successful and sustainable implementation of lean construction in the Ghanaian building industry and possible measures to overcome such barriers. Design/Methodology/Approach: A structured questionnaire survey of 400 technical managers of construction organizations was carried out to identify possible barriers to implementation of lean construction and possible measures to overcome them in Ghana. Factor analysis using SPSS version 16 package was adopted to group the barriers identified. Measures identified were evaluated based on mean scores and ranked according to their strengths. Findings: Difficulty in understanding lean concepts, inconsistency in government policies, poor project definition, incomplete designs, lack of standardization and lack of long term relationship with suppliers were some of the barriers identified and grouped into Managerial, Technical and Teamwork issues. Barriers to Sustainable Implementation of Lean Construction JHB, South Africa in the Ghanaian Building Industry ISBN: 978 0 86970 713 5