Knowledge Management and Its Application in Developing Lean Culture

Abstract

Construction projects generate a lot of learning during their lifecycle. However, it is common to see this learning go underutilized in subsequent projects. If an organization learns to control the “waste of knowledge” during the project lifecycle and utilize this knowledge in subsequent projects, it can form a significant competitive advantage for the organization. Knowledge management (KM) is defined as the process of capturing, managing, and disseminating the knowledge of an organization. This paper presents our experience of implementing of an award-winning knowledge management system for construction projects and explores how knowledge management activities facilitate and enable to build lean culture within an organization. It shows how our KM system allows for “information pulling” by project team members to get the correct information, to the right people, in the relevant form, at the appropriate time. We show how different facets of KM aid in promoting Lean Principles and through examples from our projects, how Lean Culture can be developed by sharing best practices and learning from past projects.