Be Lean…Build Lean
January 7th, 2008 by HalAs 2007 came to a close, lean design and construction got some well-deserved press. The manufacturing community shares their successes and learning about lean through Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) and their "Target Magazine". Most lean manufacturers operate in buildings that were neither designed or built lean. That can change. Karen Wilhelm, writing for Target, spent quite some time investigating the lean construction movement. She shares what she learned in a cover story, Collaboration Makes Construction Lean.
"The culture of heroes works against the smooth flow of work."
I won't spoil the article for you by summarizing it. Not only does Karen write well, she shares a vision of what we can be doing in the built environment. I will offer one teaser…
In Karen's closing comments she says,
"Projects are different from repetitive manufacturing processes. Many have attempted to apply the same rules of flow and standardization, but this can be the wrong move. The variables are different, and it's difficult to predict exactly when each stage will commence, how long it will take, and who will be available. The culture of heroes — overloaded people working through the night when deadlines loom — works against the smooth flow of work. Toyota's product development process, with teams working steadily in the "big room" or oobeya, has provided a better model."
Design and construction practices must change to reduce the wastes in creating new built environments…particularly the waste of injuries and loss of life. Karen shares a view of what is already possible and practical using lean construction approaches.
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January 7th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
Great to see the article; in NSW Government construction there has been an aspect of ‘lean’ design that’s been used for a few years now; we’ve had an active, but sometimes not well understood process of ‘value management’ which brings project players together in structured workshops to study and advance the project. These have proven to be successful, but they cut across the grain of people who see expertise as power and are not willing to share; or who adhere to a ’smoke stack’ style of management and resist collaboration.
See: http://www.treasury.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/5112/value_management.pdf.
January 7th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
Further to my previous comment, we use another collaborative system called the Gateway Review System, styled after a similarly named UK government program in the Office of Government Commerce. Gateway reviews are collaborative peer reviews to ‘test’ projects against set criteria. They’ve been very useful in improving projects and giving early warning of problems.
See: http://www.treasury.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/1360/gateway.pdf