Lean construction management efforts could prove to be highly rewarding for the UK construction industry. This was emphasised by the Egan Committee who stated that the concepts of lean thinking would lead the UK construction industry’s quest to improve quality and efficiency. Although various countries worldwide gained large benefits by adopting Lean Construction (LC) concepts, there still seems to be a scarce implementation of lean in the UK construction industry over the last two decades even after the publication of the Egan report. There seems to be a number of structural and cultural barriers that are militating against its successful implementation. By not realising the factors that affect the successful implementation of LC, organizations will not be able to know what improvement efforts need to be made, where these efforts should be focused, or which efforts could obtain best results (Leong & Tilley, 2008). For this reason, this study sought to identify and assess the possible barriers to the successful implementation of LC in the UK. Based on an extensive literature review, followed by a statistical analysis of data gained from a questionnaire survey, which targeted practitioners in the UK construction industry, a number of barriers were identified as key barriers. Further analysis, revealed that only three of these barriers were determined as significant. The results of this study could be used to help researchers, practitioners and companies in the UK construction industry to focus their attention and resources on the significant issues, crucial to support the successful implementation of LC.
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