Abstract
The Lean Project Delivery System emerged in 2000 from theoretical and practical investigations, and is in process of on-going development through experimentation in many parts of the world. In recent years, experiments have focused on the definition and design phase of projects, applying concepts and methods drawn from the Toyota Product Development System, most especially target costing and set based design. These have been adapted for use in the construction industry and integrated with computer modeling and relational forms of contract. Although by no means a finished work, the Lean Project Delivery System has developed sufficiently to warrant an updated description and presentation to industry and academia, incorporating processes and practices that have emerged since earlier publications.

Keywords:

Lean project delivery, project business plan, project business plan validation, set based design, target cost

Introduction “The hospital is a machine the design of which facilitates or impedes its fitness for use.” (Dave Chambers, Chief Architect, Sutter Health)3
The implications of Chambers’ statement are important and far reaching. One consequence is that the use of hospitals and other such facilities must be designed before the facility itself can be designed. Common practice in the process industries, it has now become evident that it should be extended to other types of facilities. Such considerations have become both more common and more urgent with the emergence of knowledge areas such as evidence based design, which specifies causal relationships between features of designed environments and both desired and undesired outcomes, and the increasing importance of designing for sustainability. Examples of evidence based design are shown in the following recommendations from Ulrich, et al., based on their 2004 evaluation of the