Sustainable Construction - Dissertation Example

The concept of lean production started as a response to the perceived problems of Engineer Ohno, the maker of Toyota, to fordism (Womack, Jones, Roos, 1990), which prior to 1950s, was the primary theory that supported and enhanced the concept of mass production. Though, mass production had in itself some goods that have given humanity and the contemporary world a new face , it has failed to integrate the crucial factor in the production process – human beings coming together to create some value from that which is raw.

It is in this perspective that the innovativeness of the Egan and Latham report is distinguished marked for. As the two reports dwell on the apparent underachievement of the construction industry, both have shown that there is an alternative means that can surge forward the house building industry and global competitiveness. The key is the application of the basic principles of lean production to the construction industry in the United Kingdom; .which in Kosela’s term came to be known as lean construction.

The concern regarding the status of construction industry is of vital importance for the industry is perceived as an indicator of the health of an economy since “no industries play a more vital role than housing, energies, and autos”. In fact, “Construction is hugely important to the economy accounting in 2002 for 8.2% of both Gross Value Added and Gross Domestic Product with output at £102.4 billion in 2004 current prices”