The fields of design management and lean construction appear to be developing independently. This volume brings together authors from four continents to argue that lean thinking should be integral to design management in the fields of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC).

The publication brings together a variety of perspectives on lean design management as experienced in Africa, South America, Australasia and Europe. Themes covered include:

• lean thinking and flexible building solutions
• quality and flow of information in fourteen sub-projects of a major airport project
• Ghanaian consultants' perspective on process waste
• target costing and its application to social housing projects in Brazil
• concept of 'first' and 'last' value, drawing on social housing projects in Chile
• development of a lean design management model specifically for remote sites.

The papers offer a mix of theoretical materials and empirical research findings, providing a unique insight into aspects of lean design management.

This book was published as a special issue of Architectural Engineering and Design Management.