Abstract:
The construction industry in South Africa is not perfect and there are all kinds of
chronic problems like for example low productivity, poor safety, inferior working
conditions, waste and insufficient quality, and evaluation of the performance at site and
project level. These problems also exist in other countries around the world. In
some of these countries (like Japan, America and some European countries) they
developed a new production philosophy, called lean construction, which was
developed to solve these problems.
The objective of this treatise is to investigate this process called lean construction
to see what it is; how it is implemented; how its performance can be measured; and
what tools are used to execute lean construction in a construction company. The
sole point of this investigation will be to show that this new form of production
management should become part of a construction company’s objective, aim and
goal in South Africa and will not only help these companies to solve chronic
problems in a construction company itself but also on the different sites of the
construction company. This will not only apply for construction companies in South
Africa but also for construction companies around the world.
