Your Lean Journey - Lean Construction Institute

For Owners

Getting Started – the Owner’s Perspective

The Solution
Lean Design and Construction represents a proven solution to a broken design and construction industry characterized by substantial waste, projects delivered behind schedule, over budget or both, and at a tremendous human toll.

A Better Way
Lean Design and Construction is a better way to design and build – a comprehensive system of processes and culture built on a commitment to collaboration and knowledge-sharing. Lean delivers better employee retention and quality of life, safer worksites, reduced project waste and greater project value.

LCI’s Role
Lean Construction Institute is transforming the industry by promoting and facilitating Lean Design and Construction adoption. LCI provides education, resources and best practices to owners, architect and engineering firms, general contractors and trade contractors who are working collaboratively to continuously improve the way the built environment gets built.

To learn more about activities of our Owners Committee, contact Shannyn Heyer

Project Validation Guide

UHS Implementation Guide to Lean Construction

Research –
“Business case” results

P&G “Target Cost” paper

Heard of IPD (Integrated Project Delivery) but not sure how it works or how to get started? This Pankow Foundation Guide is a great resource to help you better understand the benefits and the mechanics of implementing IPD on projects. Download the pdf.

McKinsey weighs-in on collaborative contracting.

Looking for a 15 to 20 percent improvement in cost and schedule performance? Consider collaborative contracting like Lean IPD. Read the article

For Designers

What do we care about as designers? Certainly design excellence, with the opportunity for true innovation, high sustainability, and progressive, award-winning designs. We are always looking for better client outcomes, the kind that can forge strategic partnerships in the future. And from the standpoint of improving the way the practice operates, wouldn’t it be great to have better work/life balance and increased employee engagement and productivity, all while improving the profitability of our work? Lean in Design is serving as a catalyst to achieving all these outcomes for architect practitioners across the profession. Lean thinking can help create a clearer path of service to humanity for the design community, its clients, and ultimately those served by the structures we design and build. Learn more as you explore the resources below.

Bus Case for Lean in Design

Project Planning Guide for Owners and Teams

For GC’s

For many years, participants in the construction industry have been frustrated with the lack of success of our projects. Costs continue to outpace inflation. The time required to complete continues to grow. More technology complicates
both the product and the process. The construction profession has lost much respect, as evidenced by the decline in both college enrollment and trade and craft training.

We collectively believe that Lean thinking is the mindset necessary to improve our industry. The Fundamentals of Lean are as follows:

Value vs. waste: strive to understand value from the customer's perspective and take only actions that deliver value. This helps eliminate waste. Waste is disrespectful: it squanders resources, adds work to individuals, and adds cost/time/aggravation to clients.
Become a learning organization through relentless reflection and continuous improvement as a team.
Respect for people through inspiration and empowerment that drives engagement and improved results.
Develop principles that are right for the organization and diligently practiced to achieve high performance.

In this section you will find introductory materials that may be helpful to contractor organizations in better understanding the fundamentals as they embark on their Lean journey.

Getting started with Lean resource materials:
Bus Case for Lean

For Trade Contractors

As a trade contractor, you probably have begun to hear more and more about Lean Construction implementation and that’s brought you to the LCI website. You may have questions, such as:

How do I build a Lean Culture from the ground up for my team?
What does a Lean field program for supervision and crew members really look like?
How do I train, support and sustain a Lean culture once I kick it off, with (or without) the support of the general contractors I work for?
I was encouraged by a GC to try Lean on a project, but it never seemed to achieve what was promised. What am I missing?

There are a number of ways that involvement with LCI can help, from linking you up with one of our local Communities of Practice around the country to providing the information you need to understand what a properly-deployed Lean program entails. Check out these resources on this site: