Jacobsen, E.L., Strange N.S., and Teizer J. (2021). “Lean construction in a Serious Game using a Multiplayer Virtual Reality Environment.” Proc. 29 th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC29), Alarcon, L.F. and González, V.A. (eds.), Lima, Peru, pp. 55–64, doi.org/10.24928/2021/0160, online at iglc.net. Enabling Lean with Information Technology 55 LEAN CONSTRUCTION IN A SERIOUS GAME USING A MULTIPLAYER VIRTUAL REALITY ENVIRONMENT Emil L. Jacobsen 1 , Nikolaj S. Strange 2 , and Jochen Teizer 3 ABSTRACT Whereas Lean Construction is a state-of-the-art practice in construction, associated simulation games in academic or professional education still rely on manual data input and analysis. Proposed is a digital learning platform that teaches the concept of lean construction using an active, hands-on serious gaming environment involving multiple players simultaneously in virtual reality. The novelty is to share rapid feedback with the participants while playing the game. Findings through testing demonstrate they benefit from the run-time data analysis and more effectively understand lean principles to eliminate waste, allow collaboration, and optimize quality in the value-added building chain. KEYWORDS Lean, education and training, multiplayer virtual reality, runtime data, serious gaming. INTRODUCTION Labor productivity in the construction sector has seen little growth over the past decades (Barbosa et al., 2017). To direct necessary change, many possible avenues exist. One is labor productivity-increasing measures. Several other directions range from more effective collaboration among project partners and new contracting options to project- level actions, e.g. using emerging technology that optimizes construction operations. For years, leading construction companies have identified waste in human capital as a prime reason for low productivity in construction. For this specific purpose, simulation games are used to educate project personnel with better results than traditional lectures (Herrera et al., 2019). For example, lean construction principles can be learned in simulating the real-world experience in form of a hypothetical scenario in a serious game (defined as a purpose other than just fun). While lean construction simulation games assist in the task of aligning the individual project personnel to teams well, for several reasons, they have not become part of a general best practice developed for the construction industry (CII, 1997). One main reason is, playing such simulation games is a resource-intensive task. It: (a) requires often one or a group of experienced lean expert/s with adequate training skills to convey the learning goals and measure accordingly the team’s progress; (b) involves typically large scale physical models, which are difficult to set up on the day of training and transport; (c) requires quite some maintenance to replenish individual pieces that are being 1 PhD student, Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, elj@cae.au.dk, orcid.org/0000-0001-6008-2333 2 MS student, Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. 3 Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark, teizer@cae.au.dk, orcid.org/0000-0001-8071-895X