APPLYING LEAN CONSTRUCTION PRINCIPLES TO REDUCE WASTE IN SAUDI PROJECTS

Mohammed Ahmed Ali

doi:10.5281/zenodo.22097355

Abstract

The construction industry of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has expanded rapidly over the past two decades under the impetus of national infrastructure and housing programmes, yet this growth has been consistently accompanied by cost overruns, schedule delays and large volumes of process and material waste. Lean construction (LC), an adaptation of the Toyota Production System to the built environment, has been promoted internationally as a means of eliminating non-value-adding activity and improving project performance, but its uptake in Saudi Arabia remains partial and uneven. This article synthesises evidence from ten peer-reviewed studies published between 2012 and 2026 to examine how lean construction principles can be applied to reduce waste on Saudi construction projects. The review traces the historical development of lean thinking in construction, catalogues the categories of waste most frequently reported in KSA projects, and evaluates the barriers, drivers and implementation frameworks proposed in the literature, including interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and DMAIC-based approaches. The findings indicate that waiting, making-do and rework are the most severe waste categories in Saudi projects, that traditional practices and client-related behaviour are the most pervasive barriers to lean adoption, and that a phased, multi-level implementation strategy anchored in government support, top-management commitment and workforce training is the approach most consistently recommended. The article concludes that lean construction offers a viable and increasingly urgent pathway to waste reduction in Saudi Arabia, particularly when integrated with digital tools such as Building Information Modelling (BIM) and formal environmental waste-management systems, and it proposes directions for future empirical research.

Keywords

Lean construction; construction waste; Saudi Arabia; Last Planner System; interpretive structural modelling; waste reduction

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