Lean construction is a new way to manage work over the life of a project. It is not a productivity improvement program.

Lean Construction is a production management-based approach to project delivery; a new way to design and build capital facilities. The application of lean production management to manufacturing caused a revolution. Applied in project settings, particularly in construction, Lean is having a similar impact. 

Lean Construction is particularly useful on complex, uncertain, and quick projects. It challenges the belief that there must always be a tradeoff between time, cost, and quality.

When projects are managed with Lean Construction (http://www.leanconstruction.org/):

• The facility and its delivery process are designed together to better reveal and support customer purposes. Positive iteration within the process is supported and negative iteration reduced.

• Work is structured throughout the process to maximize value and to reduce waste at the project delivery level.

• Efforts to manage and improve performance are aimed at improving total project performance because improvement there is more important than reducing the cost or increasing the speed of any activity.

• "Control" is redefined from "monitoring results" to "making things happen." Performance of planning and control systems is measured and improved.

• Coordination is improved because the release of work from one specialist in design,  supply, and assembly to the next is more reliable.

Click here for a brief introduction about Lean Construction