LCI Funded Lean Construction Research Papers

Dodge SmartMarket Insight

Discover Lean: Insights from Over a Decade of Industry Research
Dodge Construction Network and LCI
Since 2013, LCI and Dodge Construction Network have partnered on six extensive surveys of owners, designers, and contractors, all aimed at one question: does Lean actually change how projects turn out? This SmartMarket Insight brings the most critical findings from that research into a single data-driven view of where Lean improves cost and schedule, how it shifts team dynamics, and where adoption still lags what the numbers justify.

Construction Worker Mental Health

Addressing Construction Worker Mental Health Using Lean Approaches
San Diego State University and Syracuse University, funded by LCI
LCI funded researchers at San Diego State University and Syracuse University to examine something the industry rarely measures: whether Lean practices change how construction workers actually feel on the job. The study looks past schedule and cost at the human side of how work gets planned, coordinated, and handed off.

The State of Lean in Our Industry (2024)

2024 LCI Lean Adoption Survey

Industry-wide

Is Lean adoption really growing, or does it just feel that way? The 2024 LCI Lean Adoption Survey put numbers to it, measuring promotion and adoption across company size, market sector, and role, then holding the results against the identical 2022 subset. Originally presented as a general session at LCI Congress.

The State of Lean in Our Industry (2022)

LCI and Dodge Data & Analytics

Industry-wide

LCI and Dodge set out to answer a question the industry had been guessing at: how widely is Lean design and construction actually understood and used? Responses came from hundreds of owners, architects, engineers, general contractors, and trade contractors working across commercial, industrial, and infrastructure projects.

Operational Excellence Improved by Lean

Lean Construction Institute Contractor Survey (2021)

Co-sponsored by LCI and AGC of America. Conducted by Dodge Data & Analytics

Contractors

The first research of this scale to examine Lean from the general contractor’s seat, covering building, highway, federal, and specialty contractors. Findings run across schedule, cost, safety, employee engagement, and client satisfaction, and are presented against the two earlier owner and designer studies so the three can be read together.

The Business Case for Lean in Design

Lean Construction Institute Designer Satisfaction Survey (2017)

Co-sponsored by LCI and AGC, and conducted by Dodge Data & Analytics

Designers

Design professionals were asked to compare their best projects against their typical ones, establishing a performance benchmark and isolating what Lean methods change about design quality and the client relationship. Practitioners talk through what the findings meant for their own work in the accompanying video.

The Business Case for Lean Project Delivery

Lean Construction Institute Owner Satisfaction Survey (2016)

Co-sponsored by LCI and Canada’s Integrated Project Delivery Alliance

Owners

LCI’s first research effort funded two studies examining 162 projects across the United States to find out why some finish ahead of schedule and under budget while comparable projects do not. Lean intensity turned out to be the variable that separated them. Owners who took part describe the effect on their teams and organizations in their own words.