IOSR Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering (IOSR-JMCE) e-ISSN: 2278-1684,p-ISSN: 2320-334X, Volume 13, Issue 4 Ver. I (Jul. - Aug. 2016), PP 31-39 www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/1684-1304013139 www.iosrjournals.org 31 | Page A case Study on Agile And Lean Project Management In Construction Industry Ajendra Kashikar 1 Devansh Mehta 2 Bhawesh Motichandani 3 Prof/Dr. Dasika Chaitanya 4 A Research Project submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of MBA (Tech.) Under Supervision Year of Graduation – 2016 I. Introduction While attending one of the gruelling nine hour lectures on Project Management, our visibly tired lecturer while initiating the topic of Lean Management caught my attention when he said and I quote “India is not a poor country, it’s a poorly managed country”. He mentioned that majority of projects in India get delayed by years and having interned at a government company for a big infra project which had already missed multiple deadlines I could definitely relate to it. He went on to explain the lean principles like elimination of wastes and its success in Japan, intrigued by the whole concept I asked him about its application in the construction industry. He said although it’s been used overseas it still was at a nascent stage and had no evidence to support its usage in India. Drawn to the concept I decided to raise this with my father, who is a civil engineer with over 30 years of experience. I’m pretty sure I gave my father a shock when I asked him whether he uses lean management on his site. And he responded saying, “Haven’t even heard about it son”. It really puzzled me that despite being a core engineering sector the construction industry still uses old practices even though other sectors like manufacturing had evolved its practices to achieve efficiency in its operations. Using internet as my primary tool for researching this topic and by taking help from a Professor with a masters in Construction management I came across several research papers which added more weight to the argument that Lean construction was beneficial to this industry and while going through one such paper I stumbled upon another concept called Agile Project management which though primarily used in the IT industry, if used alongside lean would lead to great increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of projects. There were many papers proposing this school of thought, although there was no practical evidence to back it. This paper is an attempt to study whether project managers in the construction industry are aware of agile and lean project management techniques and its applications in the construction sector. We have measured the awareness levels of modern concepts like Agilean and LeaAgile which was proposed by Demur (2013) and Leagile, proposed by Owen, Koskela, Henrich, Codinhoto (2006). Our research is targeted towards builders and contractors who would ultimately be using these techniques as well as researchers and academicians who may find this paper helpful in convincing the builders/contractors for the benefits of these techniques. The real essence of this paper is to measure the awareness level of Lean and Agile Project management in the construction industry specific to the Mumbai environment. To add on, the opinions of industry experts show that these techniques will help increase the efficiency and effectiveness of projects which may also have high relevance in future. II. Present scenario The Indian Construction Industry lost its stream of growth drastically due to global financial turmoil. Lean construction and agile project management (APM), the two main representatives of recently emerging management philosophies, have been studied via this literature (Anwar, 2013) (Hass, 2007) (Salem O. S., 2006) and it is seen that these concepts are gradually accepted and implemented by the construction industry. Although their implementations have achieved great progress, difficulties and challenges are apparent. These two philosophies are both considering project complexity to a certain extent. However, none of them puts a main focus on interface issues as an integrated part of a project complexity. Actually some lean and agile applications increase project complexity to a great extent, such as complex relationships and intensive collaborations among small teams as well as constant changes. Interface Management (IM) (Chen, 2008) can be regarded as a facilitator when coping with project complexity. IM furthermore enables a smooth application for lean construction and APM. IM has been drawing more and more attention from both industry and academia in recent years Through managing and controlling boundary conditions among project entities, IM helps build a deep understanding of project complexity It is believed that IM benefits can greatly facilitate the further implementation of lean construction and APM in construction management.IM facilitate lean management by 2 theories: 1- last planner concept 2-transportation flow theory. To overcome the challenges faced IM makes use of work break down structure to eliminate the wastage and incorporate lean into construction industry. APM is