Sutter’s Lean Process Articulated
November 8th, 2006 by HalDavid Long described Sutter's process using Jeffrey Liker's 4P approach.1 Used the Five Big Ideas as the basis for the philosophical foundation of the lean approach. He claims the Five Big Ideas and the associated emergent outcomes have been the most important thing they have.
Starting with the idea of an elevator speech, Sutter developed a one slide statement of what lean is in a project setting. It finishes with
"The Right people talk about the Right things at the Right level of detail at the Right time."
The process currently includes:
- Target Value Design (TVD)
- Last Planner System® (LPS)
- Integrated Form of Agreement — tri-party agreement between owner, architect, and contractor that other performers join as they are contracted
- Network of Commitments
- Continuous Learning, e.g. Plus-Delta
To those five items David added that it works when people are speaking (and listening) about the right things at the right times. He claims this five item approach allows them to spend all of the budget to deliver the most value to the project while still getting it done on time.
David went on to describe all five items in detail. He started by describing TVD as a process for managing cost during design before those costs are incurred.
Sutter had an insight about the bottoms-up use of the LPS for measurement and improvement of project results. LPS is required to be used by the CM/GCs. They encourage the design community to use LPS.
The Integrated Form of Agreement defines Sutter's required lean process. It includes incentives while moving away from a basis of litigation by producing a setting for trust.
Sutter is embracing the idea that projects are conducted as a network of commitments. They see how breakdowns and waste are produced when the assurance phase of work is not conducted by the customer of project work. David said,
"The assurance step is overlooked time and again. It leads to growing waste."
He shared results of before and after lean. Before projects were routinely late and over budget. The first four projects after lean were on time or early and on or below budget.
David finished by mapping the process with the Five Big Ideas.
- philosophy, process, people and partners, problem-solving, from The Toyota Way [ ⇑ back ]
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