The Centre For Lean Projects Enables The Exchange Of Learning From Construction Practice To Classroom

The Centre for Lean Projects (CLP@NTU) at Nottingham Trent University is a research-led group concerned with researching and developing improved management and delivery of projects for businesses. As well as representatives from academic Schools across Nottingham Trent University, the CLP is made up of researchers and partners from both industry and academia.

The CLP@NTU – which aims to provide firms with a range of personal, team and organisational learning to help develop new ways of thinking and working – is being spearheaded by the university’s School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment. It will run events, workshops and seminars for networking and dissemination of research; continuing professional development and short courses; and industry-based action learning projects.

Its international team of doctoral researchers are working on industry level research around lean project production. The lean approach changes the way work is done throughout an organisation’s project delivery process, with the principal aim of maximising value and minimising waste.

The Centre will also carry out blue sky and exploratory research including research into commercial arrangements supporting lean project production, integrated project design and production processes, the management of complex or multiple projects, or making the cultural shift to ‘lean’ in project-based organisations.

The CLP@NTU, which has some major construction clients and contractors supporting its work, will also deliver an MSc in lean project management, full-time, part-time or via distance learning, and ‘Lean Learning Laboratories’ for team and organisational problem solving. Self-directed learning programmes, via PhD and MPhil routes, will enable individuals to take their learning to a higher level and allow students to make use of academic research for the good of their organisation.

Christine Pasquire, Professor of Lean Project Management in Nottingham Trent University’s School of Architecture, Design and the Built Environment, said: “The Centre for Lean Projects enables the exchange of learning from practice to classroom and back again, promoting a continuous improvement spiral. Lean is about continually improving what we do by engaging with people to take charge of their own work and make it more efficient. This is crucially important at a time when the government is calling for efficiency savings.”