Integrating lean construction and BIM for enhanced planning in construction projects

Construction projects persistently fail to meet planned time, cost, and quality targets due to fragmented planning, late constraint discovery, and reactive decision-making. Despite growing interest in both Lean Construction and Building Information Modeling (BIM), a structured, planning-phase-focused conceptual framework that explicitly links Last Planner System (LPS) workflows to BIM functionalities remains absent from the literature. This paper addresses that gap through a structured literature synthesis of 50 peer-reviewed sources. The principal contribution is a Lean-BIM Planning Framework that maps each LPS planning level - master scheduling, phase planning, lookahead planning, and weekly work planning - to specific BIM tools and mechanisms, including 4D simulation, clash detection, automated quantity take-off, and common data environment. Synthesized findings indicate that Lean-BIM integration can increase plan reliability, reduce waste from rework and idle time, improve resource coordination, and enhance cross-disciplinary collaboration. The paper also consolidates key implementation barriers: BIM interoperability constraints, level-of-detail mismatches, investment and training demands, and organizational resistance to change. The framework is intended to guide future empirical research and early-stage practical implementation of integrated Lean-BIM planning approaches.