A critical review of lean construction practices and frameworks for reducing waste and achieving sustainability

Abstract The construction projects produce high material waste and Non-Value-Added (NVA) processes inefficiencies that reduce productivity and hinder sustainable project delivery. The current literature on lean construction is more of a hodgepodge, highlighting individual tools, building projects, or theoretical proposals. However, it does not provide a critical assessment of lean practices in a synthesis that explicitly links to measurable waste reduction and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our paper fills that gap by conducting a systematic and critical review of lean construction frameworks with a bibliometric analysis of peer-reviewed articles accessed through the Scopus database via a structured Boolean search strategy, and filtered under the PRISMA guidelines. We then thematically classified and compared across studies ( n = 174) which were further categorised by the evidence type, such as the Last Planner System (LPS), Value Stream Mapping (VSM), Just-in-Time (JIT), 5S, Kaizen and Building Information Modelling (BIM)-Lean integration. The studies were further analysed based on the type of waste they addressed, project contexts and empirical validation. The current research shows that the use of lean in infrastructure settings is underrepresented and that most of the existing frameworks do not provide longitudinal and field-validated waste performance data. Systematic Literature Review (SLR) findings demonstrates that lean construction activities contribute to SDGs 8, 9, 11, 12 and 13. These contributions include enhanced labour productivity, industrial innovation, safer built environments, responsible consumption of resources and construction-related carbon emissions. Our results provide a theoretical and practical focused background to the creation of context-specific, empirically tested, and SDG-oriented lean frameworks, especially in the context of infrastructure projects and in developing countries like India.