Top Ten Things I Learned at IGLC-14

Each year the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC) holds a conference in one of four parts of the world. This year IGLC-14 was conducted in the southern American hemisphere in Santiago, Chile. Professor Luis Fernando Alarcon, one of the founders of the IGLC, was the organizer and host. While it got off to a lousy start for me — American Airlines lost my luggage — and for Greg Howell — it took 3 days for him to get from Denver to Santiago thanks to departure delays and airplane maintenance problems — they proved to be short memories due to the wonderful hosts and enthusiastic participants. Here's my list (Letterman-style):

IGLC-14 was a fine conference. The organizers have set the bar very high for next year.

10. The more we learn about and develop lean construction the more value we get from revisiting prior work. Some of the best papers were on topics that have been presented many times.
9. The world is turning towards lean construction. 50 papers were presented from people representing 22 countries.¹
8. The Internet is a wonderful thing. Skype allowed people around the world to make presentations to the group. (Do we really need to travel 18 hours to attend a conference?)
7. Computer modeling and simulation are at a point where design and construction firms can make use of them for learning and for design of the production system.
6. There is a solid argument supported by research and simulations for using the Last Planner System®² in a way that project performers share and discuss PPC data about reliability. Post that data for everyone to see. Have daily conversations where performers declare complete. Sharing PPC builds trust and planning reliability.
5. Less than 10% of the papers were on the people aspects of lean construction. Toyota's Thinking Production System gives equal weights to just-in-time and respect for people, a.k.a. autonomation and jidoka. The lean construction community needs to do the same.
4. More work can and should be done on construction safety. The few papers presented showed promise, but not enough is being done to link reliability of workflow to the safety of workers.
3. The language action perspective has taken hold as a theory to explain effective project management. Researchers used the terms network of commitments, declaring complete, and re-promising to explain good project behaviors.
2. The people researching and writing in the IGLC community are passionate about their work. They are ready to share what they are doing, to listen intently while others describe what they are doing, and to collaborate on research.
1. There are no finer hosts than Chileans. The Universidad Catolica faculty and staff impressed me throughout the week with their charm, engaging smiles, offers to take care of our smallest needs, and their curiosity. And the food was outstanding!

One thing I didn't learn at IGLC-14, but many people might have learned, is Senator Fernando Flores — called 'Fernando' throughout Chile — is a powerful leader, philosopher, entrepreneur, teacher, and collaborator. It was a pleasure to have my friend and teacher speak at the IGLC conference.

1. Australia, Belgium, Brazil (11 papers), Chile, Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Singapore, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom (7 papers), and United States(14 papers) (Why none from Canada?) [ ⇑ back ]
2. Registered trademark of the Lean Construction Institute, www.leanconstruction.org [ ⇑ back ]

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