About ILCE

Institute for Lean Construction Excellence (ILCE) is a not-for-profit company established in November 2008 and registered u/s 12AA of the Income Tax Act, 1961, which exists to facilitate the creation of a world-class Indian construction sector and to establish new global benchmarks in the performance of construction projects.

It is also the premier Institute in India for Lean Construction, its propagation and application and hence providing a neutral networking platform to all the construction sector stakeholders and academic professionals to discuss, develop & experiment with new ideas.

Lean Construction is an emerging Project Management paradigm derived from the successful practices of Lean Manufacturing developed by Toyota Motors in the 1940s. Lean Construction developed around 1990 and has now become quite popular all over the world. It came to India in 2008 when ILCE (Institute for Lean Construction Excellence) was formed.

ILCE was founded with the help of Mr P. Sampath, who held the Director General position and was instrumental in driving the Lean Philosophy in India.

The first company that helped create ILCE was Shapoorji Pallonji under the leadership of Mr Cyrus Mistry, followed by like-minded organisations such as L&T, Tata, Godrej and the other founder companies Afcons, URC, Arcop, KPMG with knowledge partner IIT Madras.

Since 2008, ILCE has organised seminars, workshops, and webinars across India, featuring renowned international experts including Dr. Lauri Koskela, Gregg Howell, Dr. Glenn Ballard, Dr. Iris Tommelein, Dr. Tariq Abdelhamid, Alan Mossman, Dr. Zofia K. Rybkowski, Mr. Amr Abdel-Azim, and many others.

Lean Construction has become part of the curriculum in several leading Project Management institutes in India and around the world. In 2013, ILCE organised a Lean Training Program for coaching and training teams from founding companies and member organisations. IIT Madras designed the Lean modules and selected eight pilot projects for Lean implementation.

The core Lean philosophy of partnering and collaboration was promoted among project teams and vendors to improve workflow, build trust, and ensure transparency.

At the end of the program, a Lean Competition was conducted at IIT Madras, where all eight companies presented their Lean journey, learnings, and implementation results through detailed case studies.

In recent years, these initiatives evolved into the Integrated Lean Training and Implementation Programme (ILTIP), which provides:

• Introduction to Lean concepts and methodologies
• Hands-on training sessions
• Implementation support at project sites
• Maturity assessment and performance evaluation

The programme has been widely appreciated by industry stakeholders, helping organisations begin their Lean journey and continuously improve for long-term operational excellence.

To popularise Lean Construction in India, ILCE initiated the Indian Lean Construction Conference (ILCC) with ILCC 2015 in Mumbai.

This was followed by ILCC 2017, ILCC 2019, ILCC 2021, ILCC 2022, ILCC 2023, ILCC 2024, and ILCC 2025. ILCE also organised international events such as IGLC 2018 and LIPS 2019 (Lean in Public Sector).

In India, ILCE has taken up the mantle of Lean Construction Management and has been engaged in several ways to popularise the same.

ILCE has organised several major Lean Construction Management Conferences, including international events, webinars, workshops, and site-based training programmes to help construction companies and professionals gain knowledge on Lean concepts and practices.

ILCE engages with several international thought leaders in Lean Construction Management and constantly endeavours to enhance the deployment of Lean practices in the country.

The ILCE Charter Member organisations lead by setting examples in Lean Construction Management.

Several leading technology institutions led by IIT Madras, NICMAR, and CEPT teach graduate and post-graduate levels of Construction Management incorporating Lean Construction Management.