Organization, Technology and Management in Construction 2019; 11: 2034–2043

Research Paper Open Access

Ali Boateng*

Supply chain management and lean concept

in construction: a case of Ghanaian building
construction industry
DOI 10.2478/otmcj-2019-0010 The ever-changing manufacturing environment such as
Received July 11, 2019; accepted November 28, 2019 development of Information Technology (Internet), glo-
balization and sophisticated customers who demand
Abstract: Supply chain management (SCM), for the past
increasing product variety, lower cost, better quality and
two decades, has been identified by manufacturing indus-
faster response has accounted for the implementation of
tries as a new way of doing business. Construction, similar
this new approach. As explained by Christopher (2016),
to manufacturing and other services industries, is experi-
SCM is concerned with the management of upstream and
encing emerging trends that are aimed at giving ultimate
downstream relationships with suppliers and customers
satisfaction to the end user. Lean construction is a way to
in order to deliver superior customer value at less cost to
design production systems in order to minimize waste of
the supply chain as a whole. Christopher (2016) continued
materials, time and efforts which generate maximum pos-
that the primary focus of SCM includes seeking to achieve
sible amount of value. This research looked into how SCM
linkage and coordination between the processes of other
can benefit the Ghanaian building construction industry
entities, reducing buffer of inventory that exists between
through the application of lean concept. The purpose
organizations in a chain through information sharing, as
of this study is to assess the level of collaboration and
well as ensuring cooperation and trust among all those
coordination in planning of activities among construc-
involved in the supply chain.
tion industry players and investigate into the sources of
Construction SCM is an emerging area of practice
waste in construction. The study, employing survey and
which is inspired by but differs substantially from man-
case study approaches, collected data through structured
ufacturing SCM which places emphasis on modelling
questionnaires, in-depth interviews and direct observa-
volume production. Construction SCM, on the other hand,
tion of ongoing projects on KNUST campus. One sample
is concerned with the coordination of discrete quantities
t-test was used to analyse the data. The findings pointed
of materials delivered to specific construction projects
out that the level of coordination and collaboration in
(O’Brien et al. 2008). The construction industry is gener-
planning among industry players were very appreciable
ally known to be a very vibrant and primary contributor
though there still exist room for improvement.
to the economy of every nation in terms of employment
Keywords: construction, lean, supply chain management, generation and gross domestic product. It is evident in
value, waste the employment opportunities that it offers skilled and
unskilled labours, from engineers and consultants to arti-
sans and labourers (Ofori 2012).
1 Introduction Construction, similar to manufacturing and other ser-
vices industries, is experiencing emerging trends that are
Supply chain management (SCM), for the past two aimed at giving ultimate satisfaction to the end user. As in
decades, has been identified by manufacturing indus- the manufacturing context, construction companies are
tries as a new way of doing business (O’Brien et al. 2008). facing increasing competition and customers are requir-
ing lower cost, higher quality, shorter execution dura-
tion and more reliable schedule (O’Brien et al. 2008). The
*Corresponding author: Ali Boateng, Directorate of Works and
industry is characterized by the adoption of traditional
Physical Development, Kumasi Technical University, Post Office methods of procurement and planning project executions
Box 854, Kumasi, Ghana, E-mail: [email protected] with very little room for logistics and SCM. It has led to

Open Access. © 2019 Boateng, published by Sciendo.   This work is

licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.
 Boateng, Supply chain management and lean concept in construction   2035

a situation where most projects are completed well over Research on improving the quality, performance and
the contract duration while incurring avoidable costs, delivery in the construction industry in Ghana through the
hence a reduction in turnover (O’Brien et al. 2008). adoption of lean concept largely centres on assessing per-
One strategy for coordinating within and between ceptions of lean construction philosophy, identifying level
firms with a focus on achieving efficiency, eliminating of knowledge, barriers to the adoption of lean construc-
waste or overburden and creating value in products is the tion and possible means to overcome these barriers as well
concept of lean management (Stock and Boyers 2009). as the level of contribution of waste minimizing measures
Lean concept, which was coined in a book called The and the level of practice of such measures (Ayarkwah et al.
Machine That Changed The World, co-authored by Jim 2012a, 2012b; Ayarkwah et al. 2011), without identifying
Womack, Daniel Jones and Daniel Roos, evolved from the the sources of waste. The main motivation of this research
Toyota Production System (TPS) in Japan and is a philos- is to provide an approach to improve the performance of
ophy that considers the expenditure of resources for any the construction industry in Ghana through the concept
goal other than the creation of value to be wasteful for the of lean thinking. The objective of the study is to assess
end customer, and thus a target for elimination (Holweg the level of collaboration and coordination in planning
2007; Nikakhtar et al. 2015). Holweg (2007) further among construction industry players and also investigate
defines ‘value’ as any action or process for which a cus- into the sources and causes of waste in the construction
tomer would be willing to pay. This concept, which was industry. A theoretical framework for SCM and lean con-
originally designed to suit the manufacturing industry, struction is explained in Section 2 of the study, whereas
has not allowed the construction industry to benefit fully Section 3 deals with research methodology. Research
because of the one of a kind type of production as against results are analysed and discussed in Section 4. Section 5
the mass production in manufacturing. Lean therefore concludes the study and Section 6 states the research lim-
employs continuous improvement efforts that focus on itations and future direction.
eliminating waste or non-value-adding steps along the
supply chain.
Vidhate and Salunkhe (2018) define lean construc-
tion as a way to design production systems to minimize
2 Theoretical framework
waste of materials, time and effort in order to generate the
maximum possible amount of value. They further argued 2.1 Supply chain management
that lean construction concerns itself with the holistic
pursuit of concurrent and continuous improvements in Stock and Boyers (2009), while stating that there exists
all dimensions of the built and natural environment. This much confusion among researchers on the definition of
approach tries to manage and improve construction pro- SCM, do acknowledge commonalities like coordination,
cesses with minimum cost and maximum value by consid- integration and cooperation among chain members. SCM,
ering customer needs. according to Christopher (2016) is a network of connected
While the application of SCM techniques has been and interdependent organizations mutually and cooper-
known to save millions of dollars by improving on cus- atively working together to control, manage and improve
tomer service in the manufacturing environment, as stated the flow of materials and information from suppliers
by Arntzen et al. in Badri et al. (2013), its importance in the to users. Christopher (2016) continued that the primary
construction environment cannot be underestimated. SCM concerns of SCM include (i) achieving linkages and coor-
promises to be an engineering basis to design, plan and dination between processes, (ii) removing or eliminating
manage construction projects in a collaborative manner buffers of inventory which exist between organizations in
as against the current construction methods that assume a chain through information sharing, (iii) ensuring coop-
hierarchical, decomposition approaches that seek, at eration and trust, (iv) managing relationships in order
best, to optimize individual activities (O’Brien et al. to achieve a more profitable outcome for all parties and
2008). This ultimately tends to support the fragmenta- (v) achieving competitive advantage.
tion that plagues the construction industry. On the other
hand, according to Liu and Chua (2016), referencing
Bertelsen, a poorly designed supply chain regularly 2.2 Lean thinking
increases project costs by 10% and hence the need to
employ best practices if the full benefits of SCM in con- Lean thinking was pioneered by the TPS with focus on
struction are to be achieved. waste elimination and minimization, manifested in several
2036   Boateng, Supply chain management and lean concept in construction

shapes and forms, operational efficiency, continuous flow construction under lean differs from typical contempo-
and customer demand pull, which is otherwise referred in rary practice because it (i) has clear sets of objectives for
manufacturing as just-in-time production (Fitzsimmons the delivery process, (ii) is aimed at maximizing perfor-
and Fitzsimmons 2011; Aamer 2018). Lean thinking has mance for the customer at the project level, (iii) designs
three guiding principles according to Fitzsimmons and concurrently product and process and (iv) applies produc-
Fitzsimmons (2011) and they are as follows: tion control throughout the life of the project.
• Satisfy the needs of the customer by performing Koskela (2004) explained that Womack and Jones in
only those activities that add value in the eyes of the their book The Machine that Changed the World did not
customer. concisely summarized the principles of lean production.
• Define the ‘value stream’ by flowcharting the process Hence in their newer book (1996), Womack and Jones
to identify both value-added and non-value-added endeavoured to improve the theoretical side of the discus-
activities. sion of lean production. Consequently, they summarized
• Eliminate waste. Waste in the value stream is any the principles underpinning lean thinking as:
activity that the customer is not willing to pay for. • Precisely specify value by specific product

Tezel et al. (2013) also identified the principles The central message of this principle is to rethink
underlying lean thinking as (i) elimination of the process value from the perspective of the customer. The only thing
waste, (ii) effective management of the value stream and that adds value in any type of process is the physical or
establishing long-term alliances within the supply chain, information transformation of the product, service or
(iii) maintenance of reliable and continuous flow of the activity into something the customer wants.
production and process elements, (iv) pull-based pro- • Identify the value stream for each product
duction planning and control, (v) just-in-time delivery of
materials and components and (vi) instilling a continuous Value stream is about modelling and designing of the
improvement culture. production system, including product development, order
According to Holmemo et al. (2018), lean thinking has fulfilment and the production proper, especially with the
undergone evolution over the years. They explain that goal of weeding out avoidable wasteful activities.
lean thinking, at the early stages, was considered a tech- • Make value flow without interruption
nical approach based on apply-specific Toyota techniques
such as Kanban and just-in-time logistics. It then evolved This principle, while addressing generally the reduc-
to a management system for the whole organization and tion of lead times, refers basically to the method of one-
supply chain, with emphasis on contingencies and organ- piece flow, instead of a flow consisting of batches.
izational learning. Lately, lean thinking has become a • Let the customer pull value from the producer
‘philosophy’, something beyond ‘what Toyota would do’,
and has been translated and adopted to a different corpo- This principle means that the customer is pulling the
rate context. product from the production system as needed rather than
the production system pushing products, often unwanted,
onto the customer.
2.3 L ean construction: definition and • Pursue perfection
principles
This is all about continuous minimization of waste and
Lean construction refers to the application and adap- maximization of value, that is, continuous improvement.
tation of principles and concepts underlying the TPS to
construction. As in TPS, lean construction focuses on
waste reduction, increase in value for the customer and 2.4 Lean ‘wastes’
continuous improvement (Dave et al. 2016; Moaveni et al.
2019). Koskela, as pointed out by Moaveni et al. (2019), Waste should be understood as any inefficiency that
introduced a new theory of production in construction results in the use of equipment, materials, labour or
context which resulted in the integration of three theories capital in larger quantities than those considered as nec-
of transformation, flow and value creation. This tripartite essary in the production of the activity. Waste therefore
view of production led to the birth of lean construction as includes both the incidence of material losses and the exe-
a discipline. Aziz and Hafez (2013) pointed that managing cution of unnecessary work, which generates additional
 Boateng, Supply chain management and lean concept in construction   2037

cost but does not add value to the product (Ayarkwah service. Characteristically, excessive bending and reach-
et al. 2011). Sutrisno et al. (2018) also simply defined waste ing, looking for tools, machines or materials too far apart,
as anything that does not provide value to the customer. confusing motion with work and lack of workplace organ-
Ho and Kuo (2015), in referencing Ohno, classified waste ization result in waste of motion.
into seven categories that are apparent in every manufac- • Waste of inventory
turing facility in the world. An eighth category was added
by Liker (2004) and it includes waste of overproduc- Storing parts, pieces, documentation ahead of
tion, waste of waiting, waste of transport, waste of over- requirements, that is, any supply in excess of customer
processing, waste of inventory, waste of motion, waste of requirements necessary to produce just in time is waste of
defects and waste of unutilized people. inventory. Queuing, callers on hold, large storage areas,
• Waste of overproduction piles of request, use of large inventories and slow response
to change result in this kind of waste.
This type of waste occurs when production is over • Waste of defect
what is immediately needed for use, that is, non-value-
adding use of available capacity leading to producing Anything that does not meet customer needs leading
more and faster than the customer requires. Inventory to rework, scrap and inspection and repair of materials in
stockpile, unbalanced material flow, extra resources and inventory. This type of waste results in excessive human
complex inventory management are some of the charac- resource to rework, scrap, repair or inspect, missed ship-
teristics of overproduction. ment and deliveries and lower profit margins due to
• Waste of waiting rework and scraps.
• Waste of unutilized people
This result from any idle time created while waiting,
such as idle time between operations or events. The When employees are not leveraged to their own poten-
waiting could be done by employees or customers, either tial, that is, using people to the best of their unique abil-
of which is still considered waste. Employees waiting for ities, there is waste of intellect. This usually results from
machines, machines waiting for employees, machines lack of employee involvement, poor morale, status quo
waiting for machines and unplanned equipment break- not challenged and lack of team activities and account-
down result in waiting and related waste. ability.
• Waste of transport

Any movement of materials or people around any 2.5 Lean tools

plant that does not add value to the product or service
is considered waste of transport, that is, movement of Numerous tools have been developed along with lean
materials, finished goods, parts or information more philosophy including Kaizen, Kanban and 5s, with
than required resulting in wasted efforts and energy and all these sharing similar trait of ensuring continuous
adding to cost. Paperwork loop-back, large lot processing, improvement. 5s is a set of techniques providing a
multiple storage location and lack of workplace organiza- standard approach to housekeeping within Lean. It is
tion give rise to transport waste. designed to improve efficiency, strengthen performance
• Waste of over-processing and provide continuous improvement. This is achieved
systematically by cleaning and standardizing the whole
This waste is about adding more value than the cus- organizational workplace. The processes through which
tomer would pay for or any effort that adds no value to the 5s goes through are sort, set in order, shine, standard-
product or service. In other words, processing more than ize and sustain (Randhawa and Ahuja 2017). Kaizen
required wherein a simple approach would have sufficed. also deals with continuous improvement process where
This generally results from lack of clarity in customer everyone is encouraged to come up with small improve-
specification, endless refinement and ineffective policies ment suggestions on a regular basis, process oriented,
and procedures. not straight forward and difficult to sustain in the
• Waste of motion long run (Ma et al. 2017). Ma et al. further explained
that Kaizen aims to produce results from incremental
This waste is due to any movement of people or change process, by instilling in everyone within the
machines which does not add value to the product or organization sense of responsibility. Kanban means
2038   Boateng, Supply chain management and lean concept in construction

‘signboard’ or ‘billboard’ and it works on the basis that with their respective professional bodies as professional
each process on a production line pulls just the number members. Based on the Ministry of Works and Housing
and type of components the process requires, at just the financial classification of contractors indicating the
right time. It is a means to achieve just in time (Koskela threshold of total volume of works, apex contractors in
2004). Ahmad et al. (2016) asserted that Kanban is the category of D1K1 mandated to execute works in excess
highly adaptive, focuses on quick response to customer of US$500,000 were included in the study. These contrac-
requests, while being based highly on collaborative and tors had undertaken works with the University within the
self-managing teams. last 3 years. Table 1 indicates the background of respond-
ents. The background information on the respondents
indicate that their responses can be confidently relied
upon as they are enlightened and informed enough to
3 Methodology understand the questions both on the surface level and
at the technical level.
The research adopted case study and survey approaches, The cases studied involved four ongoing building
with tools for data collection being face-to-face unstruc- projects on the campus of KNUST. Ten construction
tured interviews, structured questionnaires and direct professionals were interviewed, with 80 questionnaires
observation. As referenced by Creswell (2013) in Stake, administered. A total of 63 valid questionnaires were
case study is an in-depth exploration of a programme, returned, representing a response rate of 78%. Respond-
an event, an activity, a process or one or more individ- ents were purposively and conveniently sampled from
uals. Time and activity bind these cases, with detailed all construction professionals employed on the build-
information collected by the researcher using varying ing projects that were studied. Questionnaire was pri-
data collection tools and techniques over a sustained marily divided into two parts. The first part was based
period of time. Robson (2002) explained that what is on collaboration and coordination in planning activities
being studied must be a contemporary phenomenon and among industry players. In the second part respondents
within its real-life context. According to Yin (2017), case were asked to rank, in order of importance on a 5-point
study relies on multiple sources of evidence, with data Likert scale, 24 identified sources of waste on construc-
requiring to converge in a triangulation fashion. Creswell tion sites. Also, respondents were made to share their
(2013) explained that survey has the primary purpose of knowledge and understanding of waste, the possible
generating from a sample to a population, thus permit- consequences of waste, tools for waste identification and
ting the collection and analysis of quantitative data. The benefits to an organization on waste identification and
study was in-depth to empirically look into a contempo-
rary phenomenon as waste in the construction industry
Tab. 1: Respondents information
while employing multiple sources of data collection. The
researcher did not want to divorce phenomenon from
context, by attending to only a few variables as in the Frequency Percent
case of experiment, and also did not want to focus on Profession of respondents
history that deals with the entangled situation between Quantity surveyor 24 38
phenomenon and context but with non-contemporary Architect 24 38
events (Yin 2017). The researcher further selected multi- Engineer 3 5
Project manager 12 19
ple cases of ongoing projects so as to provide strong and
Total 63 100
reliable evidence, create more convincing theory as the Academic qualification
suggestions are grounded intensely in general empiri- MSc/MPhil/MTech 25 40
cal evidence and allow wider exploring of the research BSc/BEng/BTech 36 57
questions (Gustafsson 2017). The researcher also needed HND 2 3
Total 63 100
to collect as much data within a short period of time and
Years of experience
with the intention of making a generalization from the Below 5 years 2 3
sample. The study therefore adopted survey and case 5–10 years 18 29
study research methods. Respondents were construc- 10–15 years 19 30
tion professionals at the office of Works and Physical 15–20 years 12 19
Development Directorate of Kwame Nkrumah Univer- Above 20 years 12 19
Total 63 100
sity of Science and Technology (KNUST) and registered
 Boateng, Supply chain management and lean concept in construction   2039

elimination. The summary of building projects studied is of coordination and collaboration with clients highest,
given in Table 2. recording a mean of 4.67. Viewing the ultimate goal of
Data collected were analysed using descriptive sta- successfully completing a project supersedes all other
tistics and one-sample t-test at 95% confidence interval. interests, with stakeholders to a project complementing
One-sample t-test compares the mean of the sample data rather than competing with each other. This is fostered in
with a known value when the population standard devia- an atmosphere of mutual trust and cooperation. This trait
tion is unknown or sample size is small. This tool tests a was very noticeable particularly in procurement-related
null hypothesis that a population mean is equal to a spe- issues among industry players. Long-term relationships
cific value. Thus SPSS was used to calculate mean scores have been established with trusted suppliers, stated an
and standard deviations. Mean scores of greater than 3 interviewee, who know when and what to supply at any
were considered statistically significant for the research given time. The interviewee continued that this relation-
(Ofori et al. 2012). ship further boosts the cash flow of the company as it
permits the arrangement of flexible credit terms, while
suppliers could also count on the creditworthiness of

4 Results and discussions contractors. Although the current Procurement Act in

Ghana favours ‘hit and run’ when it comes to contractor
selection, contractors are more likely to have had previ-
4.1 Coordination and collaboration ously engagement with the University. Based on previous
performance, the University is at ease, retaining the hope
As pointed out earlier, SCM largely thrives on coordi- that quality work would be delivered at the end of the
nation, cooperation and integration among all parties day. Suppliers too, benefit from mutual trust and loyalty,
along the supply chain which have the ultimate goal of occasioned by the higher level of collaboration and coop-
ensuring consumer satisfaction. Mean scores as found eration existing among industry players. One supplier
in Table 3 indicate that all other stakeholders have very buttressed this by pointing out that contractors do hardly
cordial relationship among themselves as mean scores default on payment thus ensuring their continuous exist-
are statistically significant. Respondents rated the level ence in business. The picture thus painted is a win–win
situation for all involved.

Tab. 2: Characteristics of case projects

4.2 Communication and information sharing

Project name Contract sum (US$) Contractor

Construction of 4-Storey 5,500,000 Berock Ventures Effective collaboration and coordination largely thrive
Examination Block Limited on information sharing. Information sharing can also be
Construction of 4-Storey 6,200,000 Berock Ventures as effective as the mode and effectiveness of communi-
N-Block for the College of Limited
cation. Respondents generally agreed that there existed
Engineering
Construction of VIP Ward for 2,200,000 Stivo Company
cordial relationship among all parties with respect to
KNUST Hospital Limited communication and information sharing. This is evident
Construction of 3-Storey 1,500,000 Asib Company in all respondents’ responses attaining significance, as
Computer Laboratory and Limited indicated in Table 4. The modes include site meetings,
Canteen Block for KNUST JHS letters, site instructions and phone calls. Electronic means
such as email was seldom used though communication

Tab. 3: Level of coordination and collaboration among industry

players Tab. 4: Communication and information sharing

N Mean Standard Standard N Mean Standard Standard

deviation error mean deviation error mean

Consultants 63 4.48 0.602 0.131 Consultants 57 4.68 0.478 0.110

Subcontractors 63 3.90 0.944 0.206 Subcontractors 60 4.30 0.571 0.128
Major suppliers 63 4.14 0.910 0.199 Major suppliers 60 4.25 0.550 0.123
Clients 63 4.67 0.483 0.105 Clients 63 4.43 0.746 0.163
2040   Boateng, Supply chain management and lean concept in construction

between subcontractors and main contractors occasion- Strong coordination among parties on a project will
ally employed this mode. be stepped in the right direction towards the success-
It came to light from the interview that these meet- ful completion of a project. This is because individual
ings are held on monthly basis and may be reduced to companies with separate corporate interests have come
biweekly when a particular project is nearing comple- together to execute a particular project. One subcontrac-
tion. It was also found out that aside monthly site meet- tor who installs lift stated that he can only move to site
ings, technical meetings are scheduled to iron out critical after the main contractor has finished with all concrete
and pressing issues that may arise in between monthly works related to the lift well. He elaborated further that
site meetings. Interviewees generally believed that the this explains how reliant he is on the main contractor.
regular nature of the meetings help to clearly define He however agreed that the main contractor would also
roles, address issues, set targets and source for ways of have to wait for him to finish with his works before making
achieving them. good any works disturbed. All interviewees agreed that
Site meetings and technical meetings provided an they could hardly achieve the level of success required if
effective avenue for all parties to deliberate on issues they do not take into account the concerns and influences
bothering on the smooth execution of projects. It is at of other players. Team work, to them, is the watch word.
these meetings the wide range of issues that will promote
the efficient site management and material deliveries were
discussed. Other issues include the clarification of dis- 4.4 Wastes in construction
crepancies in working drawings, waste generating activ-
ities; any other issues that militate against the smooth For the purpose of this study, waste is understood to be
execution of projects are looked into and solutions are any losses produced by activities that generate direct or
found. Meetings also served as conflict resolution plat- indirect costs but do not add any value to the product from
form. Since meetings bring together all these players the point of view of the client. Respondents understood
under one umbrella at a time, coordination and collabo- waste to mean one of the following: leftovers of materials
ration are greatly enhanced. on-site, unwanted material, excess material not used after
a construction activity, materials that are supposed to go
into the works but do not find their way into the works,
4.3 Coordination in planning percentage of material which was not used as intended
as a result of improper usage and/or supervision and any
The results prove that generally the various players took unwanted materials. In line with the set criteria, items
into account the concerns of others when planning their O–X, with mean scores of less than 3, were considered
activities. This is because there exist healthy relationship insignificant.
among players. Respondents ranked the relationship that Another observation was that respondents under-
exists among them as very healthy. It was found out from stood waste from the point of view of one or more of the
the interview with subcontractors that they also see the categories of waste but not certainly all. Subcontractors
relationship between themselves, main contractors, con- generally preferred to consider excess materials in inven-
sultants and clients as very healthy. Consultants held the tory as locking up their capital rather than waste. They
same view. The planning of activities by main contractors also understood waste in relation to rework. Different
was influenced to a greater extent by consultants, subcon- from the above explanations, one respondent understood
tractors and major suppliers and the reverse also holds waste as activities carried out which do not add value and
true. This explains the higher level of coordination among lead to loss of time, quality and cost.
all parties. It was therefore not surprising to find activities
such as defects, unnecessary work, poor storage of mate-
Tab. 5: Coordination in planning of activities
rials and poor quality of work not being usual occurrences
on-site and hence not sources of waste for the purpose of
this study. Coordination in planning of activities by all N Mean Standard Standard
parties ensures that work is done according to specifica- deviation error mean

tion, doing the right thing at the right time and allocation Consultants 63 4.57 0.746 0.163
of the right type and quantity of materials to the right type Subcontractors 60 3.65 1.137 0.254
of activity. Table 5 summarizes the level of agreement to Major suppliers 60 3.30 1.380 0.309
Clients 60 4.20 1.005 0.225
coordination in planning of activities.
 Boateng, Supply chain management and lean concept in construction   2041

Respondents mostly did not define waste with respect help them identify and eliminate waste. Although most
to value adding as 57% said that it was difficult for them to respondents were not familiar with lean concept, after
identify value-adding activities. It gives rise to situations a little explanation, they expressed willingness to adopt
where contractors are not able to identify all wastes and such a concept. One respondent, who has some knowl-
make them targets for reduction or elimination. Site obser- edge in lean concept, though accepting to adopt this
vation confirmed this position because most site supervi- concept, particularly concerned about the capital inten-
sors’ efforts at waste reduction were geared towards the sive nature of its implementation in the initial stages but
efficient use of materials to prevent them from being agreed that it paid off in the long run. This study, however,
wasted. Very little consideration was given to time-related did not go into the monetary requirements and implica-
waste. From the findings, most activities that are time- tions of implementing lean concept in construction.
related such as delays in arrivals, slow decision-making Identifying value-adding and non-value-adding activ-
by consultants and inefficient movement of workers were ities on-site will greatly help in detecting activities that
usual occurrences on-site. On the other hand, activities generate waste and subsequently target them for reduc-
such as defects, over allocation of materials and work tion and/or elimination.
not done, which the respondents considered to generate
waste, were not significant to this study, thus giving a
clearer picture of the angle from which waste in construc-
tion is tackled. 5 Conclusion
The above can be explained by the fact that 61.9% of
respondents said that they had no tools and techniques Clients have become increasingly demanding and require
that helped them identify waste. In the absence of such products and services at lower cost, higher quality,
tools, it only follows naturally that not all activities that shorter execution duration and more reliable schedule. In
generate waste would be captured. Overwhelming major- response to this, industries are reviewing their operations
ity of 90.5% of respondents said that they would like to to meet the demands of the end user. In the light of the
introduce the concept of lean in their organization to above, the author sorted to study into how SCM can benefit

Tab. 6: Sources of waste

Item N Mean Standard deviation Standard error mean

A Delays in arrival of workers, plant and materials 63 3.7619 0.70034 0.15283

B Slow decision-making and instructions by consultants 63 3.6190 0.74001 0.16148
C Waste of materials 63 3.5238 0.74960 0.16358
D Shortage of materials 63 3.5238 0.87287 0.19048
E Inefficient movement of workers 63 3.3810 0.80475 0.17561
F Poorly scheduled delivery of materials to site 63 3.2857 0.84515 0.18443
G Accidents 63 3.2381 0.62488 0.13636
H Excess materials in store 63 3.1905 0.92839 0.20259
I Waiting and idling 63 3.1905 0.92839 0.20259
J Double handling of materials 63 3.1429 0.91026 0.19863
K Use of materials over and above specifications 63 3.1429 0.96362 0.21028
L Deterioration of materials 63 3.0952 0.76842 0.16768
M Rework 63 3.0476 0.80475 0.17561
N Unnecessary or not enough information flow 63 3.000 0.89443 0.19518
O Waste of space on-site 63 2.9524 0.74001 0.16148
P Defects 63 2.9524 0.74001 0.16148
Q Work not done 63 2.9524 0.86465 0.18868
R Over allocation of materials to an activity 63 2.9524 0.97346 0.21243
S Unnecessary work 63 2.9048 0.88909 0.19401
T Poor quality of materials 63 2.8571 0.79282 0.17301
U Poor storage of materials 63 2.8095 0.74960 0.16358
V Workers performing activities well below their capabilities 63 2.8095 0.87287 0.19048
W Abnormal use of equipment and tools 63 2.7143 0.84515 0.18443
X Inadequate storage spaces 63 2.7143 0.84515 0.18443
2042   Boateng, Supply chain management and lean concept in construction

the Ghanaian building construction industry through the Ahmad, M. O., Kuvaja, P., Oivo, M., & Markkula, J. (2016).
application of lean concept. Specific areas that were target Transition of software maintenance teams from scrum
to Kanban. In: Proceedings of 49th Hawaii International
for study were to assess the level of collaboration and
Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), Koloa, HI, USA, 5-8
coordination in planning of activities among construction
January 2016.
players and the sources of waste in construction. Ayarkwah, J., Agyekum, K., & Adinyira, E. (2011). Barriers to
Waste reduction is the best and usually the most eco- sustainable implementation of lean construction in the
nomical of the different management alternatives. This is Ghanaian building industry. In: Proceedings of 6th Built
achieved by avoiding activities that do not add value to Environment Conference, JHB, South Africa, July 31–Aug. 2.
Ayarkwah, J., Agyekum, K., Adinyira, E., & Osei-Asibey, D. (2012a).
the customer, while keeping quality requirements intact.
Perspectives for the implementation of lean construction in the
To implement an efficient waste reduction programme in Ghanaian construction industry. Journal of Construction Project
the Ghanaian building construction industry, it is neces- Management, 2(2), pp. 345-359.
sary to identify what is generating waste and its causes. Ayarkwah, J., Agyekum, K., Adinyira, E., & Osei-Asibey, D. (2012b).
Results showed that there exist commendable level Barriers to successful implementation of lean construction in
the Ghanaian building industry. Journal of Construction, 5(21),
of collaboration and cooperation among industry players.
pp. 3-11.
This position is further reinforced by the study pointing
Aziz, R. M., & Hafez, S. M. (2013). Applying lean thinking in
out that stakeholders share information freely among construction and performance improvement. Alexandria
themselves while taking into account the interest of others Engineering Journal, 52(4), pp. 679-695. doi: 10.1016/j.
when planning activities. aej.2013.04.008.
Additionally, the study indicated that concepts such Badri, H., Bashiri, M., & Hejazi, T. H. (2013). Integrated strategic
and tactical planning in a supply chain network design with a
as waste and value are not well understood by construc-
heuristic solution method. Computers & Operations Research,
tion personnel. The personnel often do not realize that 40(4), pp. 1143-1154.
many activities they carry out do not add value to the Christopher, M. (2016). Logistics and Supply Chain Management,
work. These issues contribute to a reduction in the value 5th edn. Pearson Education Limited, Harlow.
of construction productivity and could reduce a compa- Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research Design Qualitative, Quantitative
and Mixed Methods Approaches, 4th edn. Sage Publications,
ny’s performance and profitability. By identifying the inci-
London.
dence of waste during a project, construction personnel
Dave, B., Kubler, S., Framling, K., & Koskela, L. (2016). Opportunity
are able to easily identify the best solutions and ways to for enhanced lean construction management using internet of
apply new technique for reducing the amount of waste, things standards. Automation in construction, 61, pp. 89-97.
leading to increase project productivity. doi: 10.1016/j.autcon.2015.10.009.
Fitzsimmons, J. A., & Fitzsimmons, M. J. (2011). Service
Management: Operations, Strategy, Information Technology,
7th edn. McGraw-Hill, London.
6 R
 esearch limitation and future Gustafsson, J. (2017). Single case studies vs multiple case studies:
A comparative study. Halmstad University. School of Business,
direction Engineering and Science. Available at http://urn.kb.se/
resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-33017.
Ho, C. H., & Kuo, J. D. (2015). Making formwork construction lean.
The study was situated geographically within the con-
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fines of KNUST, covering contractors in the financial
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classification of D1K1. To better understand the entirety Holmemo, M. D. Q., Rolfsen, M., & Ingoaldsen, J. A. (2018). Lean
of the construction industry in Ghana with regard to lean thinking: Outside-in, bottom-up? The paradox of contemporary
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