Issues of the transition to Lean and BIM in Construction in Italian Local Public Administrations

The digitization of constructions, through tools such as BIM, presents in the Italian context some problems that need to be resolved in the coming years, within 2025, in which BIM will be mandatory even for small works of less than 1 million EUR. Firstly, the lack of specific training and competence of the technical staff working in (and for) the public administration (new skills and correct mindset). Secondly, the difficulty of operating on the vast Cultural Heritage, often consisting of spontaneous and complex architectures that are difficult to be represented in building models. Regarding the first aspect, Lean Thinking can undoubtedly contribute to developing the logical process required in such a complex change. But the introduction of Lean Logic is a process that implies a radical changing of the corporate culture and a considerable effort on the part of everyone, management, and employees. The Italian context consists of a large number of small local authorities (in April 2017 there were 7,982 municipalities in total, of which only 747 with a population of more than or equal to 15,000 inhabitants). And criticalities of digitization are present in all areas, including administrative ones. For example, the survey on the state of Implementation of the Digital Administration Code (Legislative Decree 82/2005), reported in the "Report of the Parliamentary Inquiry Commission on Digitization and Innovation of the Public Administration" reveals an inadequate level of knowledge and a lack of IT and managerial skills of Italian public managers. Regarding the second aspect, the modeling and managing of information about historical buildings require a reliable verification of the real degree of reliability of datasets introduced in BIM through the specific LOD for the historical building (UNI 11337-4 2017). In both processes, the role of the universities is fundamental to the transfer of knowledge and skills to the world of work and in particular to the public administration (particularly in response to Article 3 – Preliminary requirements of the contracting authorities – of the DM 560/2017: training personnel, acquisition, and maintenance of hardware and software tools for digital management of decisional and informational processes, organization of the process of control and management of data). This presentation focuses on the critical aspects of the transition from traditional models to Lean Construction in the Italian context of public administrations, especially the smaller ones. What can be the dynamics and problems (even economic) of public authorities in tackling the 'changes' particularly, introducing BIM? And what can be the most suitable and efficient Lean Tools to be introduced in small local administrations to implement the transition to Lean Thinking and ensure the full implementation of BIM?