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APPRIASAL OF LEAN CONSTRUCTION PRACTICES ON BUILDING

PROJECTS IN LAGOS STATE, NIGERIA

BY

IJIEH, ORIABURE TREASURE

HND (QS), PGD (QS)

(QSV/14/0817)

A DISSERTATION IN THE DEPARTMENT OF QUANTITY SURVEYING,

SCHOOL OF ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY SUBMITTED TO THE

SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE DEGREE OF MASTERS OF

TECHNOLOGY IN QUANTITY SURVEYING IN THE FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

OF TECHNOLOGY AKURE, ONDO STATE, NIGERIA

APRIL, 2020

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ABSTRACT

Lean construction as the introduction of a new form of waste management, it deals with

waste reduction, which is one of the basic concepts of lean thinking. In general, project

managers tend to conceptualize ‘waste’ as physical construction waste, but lean thinking

believes that there are noticeable wastes hidden in construction processes (such as non-

value-adding activities and waiting time). The aim of this research is to appraise lean

construction practices with a view to revealing the predominant lean practices for avoiding

construction waste and putting the necessary collective efforts to minimizing waste in the

study area. The study population comprised construction professionals who have

participated / used lean construction method(s) on building projects executed from 2013-

2019. A structured questionnaire on a five point Likert’s scale was adopted for data

collection. The methods for data analysis included the Mean Item Score (MIS) for ranking

the lean construction practices used in building projects, evaluating the critical success

factor, challenges and the benefits of engaging lean construction practices on building

projects; Factor analysis was applied to reduce the large number of items to a sizable

number of factors; One way ANOVA was adopted to examine the views of construction

professionals on the factorized components. The study revealed that the most lean

construction practices used in building projects are plan of conditions and work

environment, Identify and collect appropriate data which are relevant to the defects and the

process that needs improvement, conduct each day with a meeting. Also, the success factor

for the implementation of lean construction practices was revealed to be top management’s

commitment and leadership, organizational change with, and application of appropriate

lean tools/techniques while the challenges to the implementation of lean according to this

study are materials unavailability, lack of management commitment and lack or inadequate

resources. The benefits of engaging lean practices on building projects was revealed to be

that it enables materials to be delivered just in time, it improve the corporate image of the

organisation and it gives a better opportunity for projects to be completed within budget.

From the study, it was concluded that construction professionals uses just a few lean

construction practices more than other lean practices, also the unavailability of materials

was the major challenges to the implementation of lean practices while the benefits for

engaging in lean construction practices was also revealed by the construction professionals

who have been involved in the use of the construction practices. Therefore the study

recommends the need for a high level of awareness on the usage of other lean methods,

develop a process to guide and assist organizations in assessing the likely factors that will

lead to waste.

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

The building sector is very crucial in any nation’s social and economic development

(Olanrewaju & Abdul-Aziz, 2014). Construction activities have an enormous effect on the

natural environment, human health, and the overall economy (Allen & Lano, 2011). There

is therefore the need to increase the relevance of the building sector through a shift in

eliminating and/or reducing waste especially in terms of cost and time in buildings project

delivery (Berardi, 2013). The construction industry in the recent time is faced with various

problems as a result of the uncertainties of the global economic, climate, labour

redundancies, delayed projects and zero margin contract bids (Ogunbiyi, Oladapo &

Goulding, 2014). The construction industry generates a huge amount of waste in the

different phases of the construction process, from the extraction of the raw materials, the

manufacture of materials, the construction process itself, its demolition and finally the

disposal of the waste materials in landfills (Merino, Gracia & Azevedo, 2010).

Lean Construction (LC) is a philosophy, a radical new way of thinking, talking

about and re-forming the processes and organization of construction, it requires that the

familiar and everyday be looked at afresh and alternatives be imagined and turned into

practice (David, John & Darryll, 2015). It is beyond eliminating waste of time, labour and

materials, but also focuses on delivering value to the customer from inception to

completion and from design to final handing over of the project (Fewings, 2013).

Full text of this document can be accessed by visiting the

Post Graduate Research Unit of Albert Ilemobade Library, FUTA or contact

the Reference Librarian via ref_librarian@futa.edu.ng