Lean product development and agile project management in the construction industry

Abstract

Purpose In recent years, innovative methodologies of product development such as lean product development (LPD) and agile project management (APM) have emerged. Even though previous research studies focused on these subjects, only few of them were focused on traditional industries, as civil construction. The purpose of this paper is to cover a part of this gap by estimating the potential of the application of these two new approaches (LPD and APM) in the construction industry, more specifically on the design stage. Design/methodology/approach For this, a case study has been conducted in order to understand if some of LPD and APM tools and practices had already been used, and also to evaluate the potential application of these new methodologies. Three Brazilian companies have been evaluated, all of them were exclusive executors of the design stage and presented distinct characteristics (size, structure, business model, etc.). Findings The results show that there is currently little adherence to LPD and APM practices within the companies studied. In terms of potential application of these new methodologies, the study has identified evidence regarding technical similarities between the reported cases and others mentioned in literature. However, the interviewees’ reception of these concepts was mostly pessimistic, showing considerable resistance to changes in the current process. Originality/value According to the analysis, the study identified that the main challenge/hampering to the implementation of these tools in the cases studied herein are the functional organizational structures, the customer–supplier relationships and the internal cultural resistance to change.

Potential benefits of agile project management in improving construction project performances: A case study of Iraq

“…In addition to diverse sectors, APM has also been integrated into the construction industry, and it has been utilized to improve the performance of construction projects. Several studies evaluated the effectiveness and feasibility of the APM for the construction industry [6,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. In a previous study [19], the authors examined the APM and Lean Construction (LC) 's effectiveness for the construction industry whether these methods could be solutions for project management issues emerging due to complexity.…”

“…This study shows that agile methods are effective in managing the complexity of construction projects. Felipe et al [20] attempted to understand the potential applicability of the APM in the construction industry. Multiple case studies were implemented in three different construction companies, and semistructured interviews were done with construction experts.…”

Agile project management under the perspective of dynamic capabilities

“…In this regard, previous research indicates that it is possible to have success with this model in agricultural or food industries (Rigby et al, 2016), in the civil industry (Albuquerque et al, 2020;Arefazar et al, 2022), in the pharmaceutical industry (Azanha et al, 2017), in the telecommunications industry (Kurniawan et al, 2020) and manufacturing industries (Zuzek et al, 2020).…”

“…There is growing interest in the literature on adopting agile project management 1 in several industrial areas related to environments characterized by rapid changes (Teece, 2018(Teece, , 2019. Starting and consolidating itself successfully in the software industry (Conforto et al, 2016;Rigby et al, 2016;Sutherland & Sutherland, 2014), the use of agile project management has become a subject of study and application in other sectors, extending to other areas such as agricultural and food (Rigby et al, 2016), civil engineering (Albuquerque et al, 2020;Arefazar et al, 2022), pharmaceutical (Azanha et al, 2017) and telecommunications (Kurniawan et al, 2020).…”

“…However, some studies have pointed out difficulties in adopting agile project management in other industrial classes due to differences between the development of software and physical products (Rigby et al, 2016;Dikert et al, 2016;Albuquerque et al, 2020;Stare, 2014;Conforto et al, 2014). Some challenges are associated with the organizational transition process from a traditional methodology to agile management, in addition to factors directly related to the product characteristics (Dikert et al, 2016;Highsmith, 2001).…”