The application of lean production to project management

Project management that solely focuses on the management of time, cost and quality cannot comprehensively ensure the satisfactory meeting of a customer’s needs. Project management performance with regard to this issue can be improved by enhancing project management’s ability to meet a customer’s needs. This paper introduces lean project management to address this concern. Lean project management forms a complementary approach to current project management practice and has been constructed by drawing together two approaches: management of projects and lean production. The management of project’s emphasis on meeting customer needs effectively and lean production’s emphasis on meeting customer needs efficiently are utilised in lean project management to improve project management performance. The amalgamation of lean production with management of projects to form lean project management is examined and justified at the methodological level.