Towards implementing lean construction in the Moroccan construction industry: Survey study

Abstract

Traditional construction management techniques are criticized by its inability to deliver construction projects on time, with the quality requested by the customer, and without cost overrun. It has become crucial for Moroccan construction practitioners to seek creative approach and to look for new ways of thinking in order to resist to the increasing competition and to survive with market constraints, especially when compared to the significant improvements achieved in the Moroccan manufacturing industry. Lean Construction (LC) is a very effective approach to design production systems for the purpose of reducing waste of time, of materials, and effort as well as generating the maximum possible amount of value. Lean construction has been introduced into the Moroccan construction industry; however, it is still in its infancy. Based on a structured questionnaire survey, this article aims to evaluate the perceptions of the Moroccan construction professionals on the Lean Construction implementation in the Moroccan construction industry. To achieve this objective, a total of 330 responses were collected and then analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS V20.0 for Windows). The following conclusions were made, more than half of the respondents (172 professional; 52.1%) think that Lean Construction approach is adapted to any size of Moroccan companies; the respondents agreed that Lean Construction implementation would add positive impacts to the Moroccan construction projects (with an overall mean value of 3.84); LC is a high priority for the Moroccan construction projects (with an overall mean value of 3.84).