The annual meeting organized by ITeC – Lean Construction Barcelona brought together the entire value chain of the sector under the slogan “Industry and construction: Value connections”.

Barcelona was the scene on June 9 of the eleventh edition of the Lean Construction Conference, held at the College of Civil Engineers and organized by ITeC, with the collaboration of the AEICE cluster, the CGATE (General Council of Technical Architecture of Spain) and Bimetric.

The day also had the support of the sponsors Sorigué (Gold), ASG – Aigües del Segarra Garrigues (Silver), COMSA Corporación (Silver) and Garcia Riera (Bronze), whose support was key to making the meeting possible.

Eleven years after its launch, the event reached a significant milestone by bringing together, for the first time, all the key players in the sector – material manufacturers, industrialists, construction companies, architecture and engineering studios – thus integrating the entire value chain into the same meeting and shared knowledge space.

The session began with a few words of welcome from Josep Maria Ruiz Boqué, secretary of the College of Civil Engineers, the institution that hosted the conference.

Next, Francisco Diéguez, CEO of ITeC, and Víctor Roig, CEO of Bimetric and member of the Lean Construction Barcelona Committee, welcomed the attendees, underlining the relevance of the context and the opportunity to meet.

The presentation and direction of the event was given by Montse Duran, Head of Lean Projects at ITeC, who placed the purpose of the day with a question that resonated strongly among the attendees: if we have been identifying and eliminating waste in construction for decades, what happens to those connections between people and industry that never happen? This intangible waste – the talent and value that are no longer generated due to lack of encounter – became the common thread of a day articulated in three thematic blocks and a practical workshop, inviting reflection and collective action.

Lean begins before the work

The first block, entitled Lean strategies in material manufacturers in the construction industry, focused on a principle that the Lean methodology has been defending for some time: efficiency does not begin on site, but much earlier, in the production lines and in the way the product is conceived. Companies such as FINSA, VEKA Ibérica, SIMON and PRECAST – Grupo Molins shared their experiences in the integration of Lean thinking from the origin of the industrial process. The subsequent round table, moderated by Oriol Cuatrecasas, from the Lean Management Institute, made it possible to contrast approaches and extract transferable learnings to the sector as a whole.

From the factory to the construction site: how industrialists are integrated

The second block addressed an issue that the sector has been debating for years without finishing solving: the integration of industrialists in Lean Construction. How do those who execute and assemble participate in a truly collaborative workflow? What barriers persist and what opportunities open up when they are incorporated from the earliest phases of the project? Roca Group, Modulacción, Constructora Calaf and EGOIN provided answers from direct experience. The moderation was given by Víctor Roig, CEO of Bimetric and promoter of Lean and BIM in Spain, who led a debate that made clear both the road that still remains to be traveled and the advances already consolidated.

A workshop to move from listening to action

Among the theoretical blocks, the conference reserved a space for collective work with the workshop Optimization of the value stream of construction, led by Enrique Cobreros, from AEICE, and Ferran Bermejo, from ITeC. Distributed in working groups, the participants addressed in a practical way how to identify and eliminate inefficiencies in the construction value chain. The results were shared after lunch in a second session that, according to attendees, generated some of the most productive conversations of the day.

Closing the Circle: Design as a Lever of Value

The third block, Lean Design and Lean Construction: manufacturers and industrialists adding value, closed the day’s tour with a look at the role of design as an integrating element. García Faura, E22 Servicios Integrales de Instalaciones, Batlle i Roig, WSP and Bosch Pascual showed how early collaboration between designers, manufacturers and industrialists is not a theoretical aspiration but a demonstrable competitive advantage. The session was moderated by Cristina Ayats, architect, founder of Efficax Lean Consulting and author of the book Lean: Design and Construction, which provided references to projects on an international scale.

The day concluded with a Delta/Plus dynamic, faithful to the Lean spirit of practicing what is preached: attendees shared what they took away from the value and what could be improved in future editions. Before the formal closing, Francisco Diéguez and Víctor Roig took the floor to close an event that, once again, showed that when an entire sector sits down to think together about how to generate more value, things happen that are difficult to replicate in any other format.

The meeting was attended by members from Spain, Brazil and Bolivia of the Lean Construction Latam organization, an international non-profit community where all Lean Construction in Latin America (14 countries represented) come together, also adding the experience and contribution of the community from the United States and Europe, with the aim of promoting the use of the Lean methodology.

You can relive the highlights of the day by visiting the section of the Lean Conference 2026, where you will find visual content and the report resulting from the workshop, which collects the learnings obtained.

Next year will see the twelfth edition of the Lean Construction Barcelona Conference, driven by a community that continues to grow and by an increasingly solid certainty: Lean is much more than a methodology; It is the engine of a more collaborative, efficient and productive sector. A new opportunity to meet again, share and continue building together.