Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Barriers to lean implementation in the construction industry in China

Barriers to lean implementation in the construction industry in China Purpose – This study aims to build on previous research into lean practices and the associated barriers reported in various contexts to empirically address the question of what possible barriers exist to hinder the implementation of lean practices in the construction industry in China. Despite the potential that lean practices have to improve quality and productivity while reducing costs, successful stories of lean deployment are not frequently heard of. Design/methodology/approach – A large-scale survey of Chinese building professionals is used to identify these barriers. Findings – The results suggest that the most crucial barriers to implementation of lean practices, as perceived by Chinese building professionals, include “their lack of a long-term philosophy”, “the absence of a lean culture in their organizations”, “the use of multi-layer subcontracting” and others. This study also reports the findings using a factor analysis that shows the six underlying factors hindering the implementation of lean practices in the Chinese construction industry, namely, people and partner issues, managerial and organizational issues, lack of support issues, culture and philosophy issues, government issues and procurement issues. Originality/value – This study offers a thorough overview of the barriers to implementing lean practices in various contexts, with a focus on construction. This study also contributes to the knowledge by recommending the measures that can be taken to appropriately overcome the barriers identified. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Technology Management in China Emerald Publishing

Barriers to lean implementation in the construction industry in China

Download PDF
19 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/barriers-to-lean-implementation-in-the-construction-industry-in-china-RGvza1c3Mi
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
1746-8779
DOI
10.1108/JTMC-12-2013-0043
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to build on previous research into lean practices and the associated barriers reported in various contexts to empirically address the question of what possible barriers exist to hinder the implementation of lean practices in the construction industry in China. Despite the potential that lean practices have to improve quality and productivity while reducing costs, successful stories of lean deployment are not frequently heard of. Design/methodology/approach – A large-scale survey of Chinese building professionals is used to identify these barriers. Findings – The results suggest that the most crucial barriers to implementation of lean practices, as perceived by Chinese building professionals, include “their lack of a long-term philosophy”, “the absence of a lean culture in their organizations”, “the use of multi-layer subcontracting” and others. This study also reports the findings using a factor analysis that shows the six underlying factors hindering the implementation of lean practices in the Chinese construction industry, namely, people and partner issues, managerial and organizational issues, lack of support issues, culture and philosophy issues, government issues and procurement issues. Originality/value – This study offers a thorough overview of the barriers to implementing lean practices in various contexts, with a focus on construction. This study also contributes to the knowledge by recommending the measures that can be taken to appropriately overcome the barriers identified.

Journal

Journal of Technology Management in China – Emerald Publishing

Published: Jul 1, 2014

There are no references for this article.