Comparison of Lean Construction in India and United States of America

• Main Author: Mahashabde, Vedangi
• Format: Others
• Published: TopSCHOLAR® 2016
• Subjects: Questionnaire; descriptive statistics; Indian Construction Industry; Construction Engineering and Management; Environmental Engineering; Structural Engineering
• Online Access: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/theses/1728; http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2735&context=theses

The concept of Lean Construction has been introduced successfully into the Construction Industry to increase efficiency and profit by elimination of non-value adding activities or ‘Waste’. Lean Construction is an adaptation of Lean manufacturing principles and is the future of the Construction Industry in developing as well as developed countries. There has been much study and documentation conducted on ‘Lean Construction’ in USA. Even though people have started practicing Lean in India, there is lack of documented information available about it. Professionals within the Industry could already be minimizing ‘Waste’ and/or following Lean principles without the knowledge of the term ‘Lean Construction’. This thesis has reviewed and compared Lean Construction practices and awareness in India and USA. A questionnaire based study was used to examine practices and collect data about Construction for analysis. Descriptive statistics was primarily used to make inferences from the data. The Lean Construction characteristics of the construction professionals from both the countries were discussed and analyzed. It was inferred that the Construction Industry in both the countries could benefit further from the Lean practices and increase profitability by up to 25%. In general, personnel in the Construction Industry from both the countries need to receive regular knowledge and updates about Lean principles in order to optimize resources effectively.