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Lean is a journey and there are several levels of maturity in lead adoption. 鈥淚ndian companies have recognised the need to improve productivity through waste reduction,鈥� believes Dr Koshy Varghese, Professor, Building Technology & Construction Management Division, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT-Madras. 鈥淟eading companies have initiated their efforts towards Lean. But the industry is fragmented and it will take several years for all players to align their processes to the Lean-based approach.鈥滻n the view of Prakash Patil, Secretary General, Institute for Lean Construction Excellence (ILCE), and Vice President-Projects, Tata Realty and Infrastructure, Indian companies are not yet adopting Lean. 鈥淚t is at a preliminary stage in India; however, a few construction giants are following Lean practices such as Last Planner (r) System (LPS), Big Room, Pull Planning, 5S, Kaizen, Building Information Modelling (BIM), etc. Lean is at an initial stage not only in India; it is not very effectively implemented in the US either.鈥� He adds that ILCE is trying to create awareness about Lean at the government level, so that some level of participation from the government will help bring awareness and better practices in the industry. 鈥淟et鈥檚 say, like in the UK, if it is made mandatory in India to provide all design submissions to government as BIM models, it will be a good tool to detect a lot of design clashes. BIM helps as one of the tools of Lean construction.鈥� Barriers to implementation What are the current barriers to the successful implementation of Lean construction? 鈥淪hort-sightedness is the biggest barrier,鈥� believes Dr Ritesh Chandrashekar Tiwari, Director - Highways & Structures, Egis India. He elaborates: 鈥淐ompanies cutting corners in the short term need to understand that construction is not a FMCG product. It lasts decades, if not centuries. Therefore, serious players need to look at Lean construction as an investment and a way of benchmarking themselves in the industry. Lean is an investment, not an expense. Once more companies realise this, the problem is addressed.鈥漈he Indian construction industry is relatively labour-intensive. Dealing with machines is way more formal than dealing with humans, says SC Dixit, Executive Director, Shapoorji Pallonji Engineering & Construction, 鈥渨hich, in consequence, throws additional challenge to organisations to choose among process change or building on experiences of its traditional workforce.鈥� He highlights identified hurdles during implantation as: Temporary multi-organisation-execution team varying at every project; continuous inflow of unskilled labour and outflow of trained ones from various labour contractors; subcontractors鈥� vision towards their own workforce; lack of collaborative working of information sourcing teams (design consultants and PMCs) creating delay in timebound availability of desired changes and approvals; regularisations of changes as per frequent change in needs of customer restarts; information creation; and approval processes.As change is always inevitable, for Dixit, adopting a hybrid mechanism seems a way forward, 鈥渨here the industry trains its incoming workforce on new practices with the help of experienced hands, settling down differences faced during the adoption process.鈥漇teps forwardWhat would be the first step to implement Lean in construction companies? 鈥淩ecognising the waste in current processes and taking steps to identify and quantify it,鈥� responds Dr Varghese. He adds that the Government should structure contracts to include Lean-based approaches in project delivery and provide frameworks to support organisations to train people in Lean thinking. Patil, too, opines that the government should add Lean elements in the contractual process. 鈥淐ontractors should be made to give a Lean construction report on the savings encountered by implementing LPS, BIM, collaborative contracts, etc.鈥漃atil emphasises that Lean is a 鈥渃ulture鈥� that has to be embedded in your chain. 鈥淕radually, when companies see Lean being practiced and experience the benefits, contractors will become competitive about it and eventually benefits will pass on to developers.鈥� Meanwhile, Amit Uplenchwar, CEO, HCC Engineering and Construction, emphasises that the success of Lean construction in any organisation depends on leadership commitment. 鈥淚t must start at the top and filter down to project teams working at construction sites.鈥滱ccording to Kamal Hadker, Chairman and Managing Director, Sterling Engineering Consultancy Services, the Indian construction industry will be quick to adopt Lean construction 鈥渂ecause it speaks for economy and efficiency and speed.鈥� There are several players who are using cutting-edge tools to minimise human interventions, says Dr Tiwari. 鈥淎nd their numbers are growing.鈥滱s India aspires to global standards in infrastructure output, it鈥檚 clearly time to get Lean! - SERAPHINA D鈥橲OUZA