LEAN THINKING: A USEFUL TOOL TO INTEGRATE SUSTAINABILITY INTO PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Sustainable development is one of the challenges of our time. In order to survive, companies need to make changes and find ways to incorporate sustainability into all their activities, including Project Management (PM). Lean Thinking (LT) methods, which are tools that adopt the principle of focusing on customer value and waste reduction, are closely aligned with the principal features of sustainability. This close relationship therefore makes LT a useful tool that can be used by project managers to achieve sustainability. This study explores the relevance of LT concepts, their relationship with sustainability, with PM and consequently, the possibility to integrate sustainability into PM. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the state-of-the-art of research into the links between LT, PM and sustainability with a view to: 1) identifying and classifying the literature, 2) analysing the literature and uncovering gaps, and 3) finding new paths for future research. For this aim, a systematic literature review (SLR) has been carried out that extends from the PM, LT methods and sustainability.