A STUDY ON THE ADOPTION OF LEAN MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES BY RENOVATION CONTRACTORS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Lean is a management philosophy that originated from the Toyota Production System. Its primary benefits are its ability to provide value enhancement and waste reduction. It is a principles-based continuous quality improvement system that systematically removes waste to achieve maximum value for the consumers. Furthermore, its commitment to challenging and developing people forms the culture of a learning organisation. Lean has been developing over the past 70 years from a system within the manufacturing and production sector to a widely adopted management philosophy in various sectors such as Construction, Service and Healthcare. However, Lean for renovation is relatively unknown. This study seeks to find out the applicability of the 14 Lean Management Principles to the renovation process. A research framework involving a mixed-method approach has been developed to achieve this, focusing on linking the 14 principles to the operation and management of renovation processes. Questionnaire findings show that LMP 12 (“Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation”), LMP 14 (“Become a learning organisation through relentless reflection and continuous improvement”) and LMP 9 (“Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others”) are the more important principles as compared to others. In contrast, practitioners perceive LMP 3 (“Use pull system to avoid overproduction”) as the least important. Validation interviews were carried out to acquire more insights and challenges of Lean for the renovation industry. After analysing the qualitative and quantitative results, appropriate inferences were made and proposed tweaks to the existing principles were recommended in Chapter 9.