34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34) - Singapore, Singapore - 2026

https://doi.org/10.24928/2026/0178

Aligning digital safety technologies with lean construction principles

Nelson C. Salim1, Phuong-Linh Le2 & Jacob J. Lin3

1MS Student, Dept. of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan Univ., Taipei City, Taiwan, [email protected], orcid.org/0009-0005-4440-3017
2Ph.D Student, Dept. of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan Univ., Taipei City, Taiwan, [email protected], orcid.org/0009-0002-8593-9086
3Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, National Taiwan Univ., Taipei City, Taiwan, [email protected], orcid.org/0000-0002-3781-9402

Abstract

Digital safety technologies have been increasingly promoted as tools for enhancing construction site operations. While the value of technological innovation has been well established in management functions such as planning, monitoring, and control, its theoretical integration into construction safety management and its contribution to lean construction principles remains underexplored. Existing studies tend to focus on individual technologies or operational outcomes, offering limited insight into how digital safety activities systematically support lean objectives. To address this gap, this study conducts a literature review to develop an interaction matrix that conceptually aligns digital safety activities, defined in a Taiwanese technical guideline, with lean principles. A total of 44 cross-interactions is identified and substantiated by evidence from the literature. The results indicate that achieving lean principles requires a comprehensive digital safety management system, with particular emphasis on the digitalization of site hazard identification. Digital hazard identification is shown to reduce human effort and error-proneness while supporting multiple lean objectives simultaneously. By mapping these interactions, this study provides a foundation for prioritizing digital safety activities and offers directions for future research on the integration of digital technologies and lean construction safety management.

Keywords

Lean construction, lean principles, digital technologies, safety.

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Reference in APA 7th edition format:

Salim, N. C., Le, P. & Lin, J. J.. (2026). Aligning digital safety technologies with lean construction principles. In Hamzeh, F., Poshdar, M., & Garcia-Lopez,, N. P. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34) (pp. 62–73). https://doi.org/10.24928/2026/0178

Shortened reference for use in IGLC papers:

Salim, N. C., Le, P. & Lin, J. J.. (2026). Aligning digital safety technologies with lean construction principles. IGLC34. https://doi.org/10.24928/2026/0178

 

Founded in 1993, the IGLC is an international network of researchers from practice and academia in architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) who feel that the practice, education, and research of the AEC industry have to be radically renewed in order to respond to the global challenges ahead.

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