An-Najah National University Faculty of Graduate Studies Towards Enhancement of Lean Practices in the West Bank Construction Industry By Wathiq Mohammed Abu Obaid Supervisor Dr. Mohammed Othman This Thesis is submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Engineering Management, Faculty of Graduate Studies, An-Najah National University, Nablus, and Palestine. 2016 iii Dedication  To the martyrs’ souls, who offered themselves for the liberation of Palestine.  To Palestinian prisoners behind the darkness of occupation jails.  To my loving parents who have supported me all the way  To my wife and children whose constant dedication and love enlightened me.  To all of my family, friends and colleagues who stood beside me with great commitment. I dedicate my research, hoping that I made all of them proud. Eng. Wathiq Mohammed Abu Obaid iv ACKNOWLEDGMENT  First and foremost, praise and thanks to God who helped me to finish this work.  I am grateful to my supervisor Dr. Mohammed Othman for his professional advice, useful guidance, and excellent support through all stages of preparing this research. Dr. Othman’s careful check and useful response have made a great contribution to the production of this thesis in its final form.  Deepest thanks go for the staff of Engineering management at An -Najah National University for their academic and scientific supervision during my study.  My grateful thanks to all contractors who participated in filling questionnaires and provided important information for this study. vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AT Attitudes BPR Business Process Reengineering CC Coordination & communications CE Concurrent Engineering CO Communications CPI Cost Performance Index CPM Critical Path Method CRM Customer Relation Management CT Cycle Time DETR Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. Regions. EAA Employee Affective Attitude GDP Gross Domestic Product HRM Human Resource Management IB Individual Behavior JIT Just-In-Time KPIs Key Performance Indictors LCI Lean Construction Institute LC-KPIs Lean Construction Key Performance Indicators LPS Last Planner System MC Management Commitment MMC Modern Methods of Construction NPD New Product Development OC Organizational Culture PC Production Control PCBS Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics PCU Palestinian Contractors Union PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, and Act) PFI Private Finance Initiatives PPC Percent Plan Complete R & D Research and Development SCM Supply Chain Management SE Skills and Experiences SPI Schedule Performance Index vii SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SR Sigma Rating TH Throughput Rate TPM Total Productive Maintenance TPS Toyota Production System TQC Total Quality Control TQM Total quality management TR Training TW Team Work VBM Value Based Management VI The Value Index WI Waste Index WIP Work-in-Process WS Work Structure (Last planner) WWP Weekly Work Plan BPM Building Project Management PPMS Project Performance Monitoring System viii List of Contents No Contents Page Dedication iii Acknowledgment iv Declaration v List of abbreviations vi List of Contents viii List of Tables x List of Figures xii Abstract xiii Chapter 1 1 Introduction 1.1 Overview 1 1.2 Background 1 1.3 Problem Statement 3 1.4 Significance of the Research 4 1.5 Research Objectives 5 1.6 Research Questions 5 1.7 Research Hypotheses 6 1.8 Thesis Structure 7 Chapter 2 9 Literature Review 2.1 Overview 9 2.2 Construction Industry 10 2.3 Problems of Performance in Construction Industry 12 2.4 Construction Management and Performance 13 2.5 Key performance indicators of construction projects 15 2.6 Lean construction concepts and tools 16 2.7 Lean construction key performance indicators (KPI) 17 2.8 Existing Researches in Lean Construction 20 2.9 Factors supporting successful lean implementation 33 2.10 Factors supporting Lean construction 36 2.11 Key success factors in the research and the research 38 model 2.12 Summary 57 Chapter 3 58 Lean Construction 3.1 Introduction 58 3.2 Construction industry Versus manufacturing industry 58 3.3 Construction process verses manufacturing process 59 3.4 Construction Waste 61 ix 3.5 Lean Thinking 64 3.6 Lean construction 65 3.7 Lean Construction tools 78 Chapter 4 81 Research Design and Methodology 4.1 Introduction 81 4.2 Research design 81 4.3 Settings and Participants 85 4.4 Instrumentation 88 4.5 Procedure 91 4.6 Data processing and Analysis 93 4.7 Validity of Research Tools 94 4.8 Testing Reliability 99 4.9 Ethical Considerations 101 4.10 Summary 101 Chapter 5 102 Results and Analysis 5.1 Overview 102 5.2 Questionnaire Analysis 102 5.3 Answers of research’s Questions 152 5.4 Conceptual Framework 159 Chapter 6 167 Conclusions, Recommendations 6.1 Overview 167 6.2 Research Conclusions 167 6.3 Hypotheses Conclusions 173 6.4 Thesis Contributions 173 6.5 Recommendations 174 References 176 Appendices 196 صخلملا ب x List of Tables Table Content Page 2.1 Lean KPIs related studies 20 2.2 The proposed framework variables 57 3.1 Construction process verses manufacturing process 60 3.2 Lean construction Principles 68 3.3 The conceptualization of the lean in construction 69 (Björnfot ,2006 ) 3.4 Lean construction tool 79 4.1 Likert Scale degrees 91 4.2 Correlation coefficient of each item of the variable 96 "management and planning systems" and the total of this variable 4.3 Correlation coefficient of each item of the variable 97 “Human factors ” and the total of this variable 4.4 Correlation coefficient of each item of the variable 98 “organizational factors ” and the total of this variable 4.5 Correlation coefficient of each variable of the third 99 part of the questionnaire i.e. "factors supporting successful lean implementation" and the total of this part 4.6 Evaluation of the Stability of the Tool Using 100 Cronbach’s Alpha 5.1 ANOVA Test for differences among participants 109 according to company's location. 5.2 LSD test for the locations of the companies 110 differences among participants(Work structure and Team Work ) 5.3 ANOVA test for differences among participants 110 according to the experience of the company (Organizational Culture and R&D). 5.4 LSD test for the experience of the companies 112 differences among participants 5.5 ANOVA test for differences among participants 113 according to the capital of the company 5.6 Likert Scale 114 5.7 Likert Scale level of agreements 114 5.8 Mean, standard deviation, One-Sample test and 115 Relative importance to Lean performance indicators 5.9 Mean, standard deviation, One-Sample test and 118 Relative to factor Management and planning systems