Implementing lean: UK culture and systems change

For the IGLC 12 Conference the authors reported the results of implementing LastPlannerTM methods with a large UK contracting company. The projects studieddemonstrated some success but also some cultural, organizational and systemic barriers toits effective implementation. Alarcon and Conte’s White Paper for the IGLC11conference discussed these issues and invited researchers to consider them. In response,the authors have reflected upon and critically re-analysed the research as a means to refocustheir future work in implementing Lean Construction methods in UK construction.Based on a review of the literature on construction culture we have identified theoreticalfactors that, together with Alarcon and Conte's list of critical organizational elements,provide a framework against which the results of the research have been considered. Weconclude that the implementation of Last Planner was hindered by not fully consideringcultural, organizational and systemic problems and by failing to recognize how deepseatedthese problems could be. We intend, in future projects, to take a more considered,and wider approach to Lean Construction (possibly using the LCI’s Lean Project DeliverySystem) and to focus our attention upon construction ventures where efforts at culturechange have already started - in particular, where strategic partnering arrangements are inplace.