Dave MacNeel, Principal and Lean Coach, On Point Lean Consulting
The Voice Newsletter June 2024
In lieu of Technical Director Mike Hernandez's article, this month we present an article from Dave MacNeel, Principal and Lean Coach, On Point Lean Consulting. His firm, On Point Lean Consulting, coaches general contractors and specialty trade contractors to apply Lean principles and tools in the field. Prior to consulting, Dave spent 20 years in operations with Baker Concrete Construction. Dave will be speaking at this year's Concrete Executive Leadership Forum, July 18-21 in Stowe, VT on "Leveraging Lean Construction for Enhanced Efficiency and Profitability. For more information, click here.
Lean Construction offers significant opportunities to the concrete construction industry. I have seen robust implementations deliver 80% fewer injuries, 30% faster completion, and 20% lower cost. If these numbers sound appealing, then read on. However, recognize that Lean Construction doesn't come fast, easy, or without considerable effort.
Lean Construction focuses on impeccable planning and coordination by mastering these three key components:
- Deeply engaging craft supervisors
- Eliminating waste and rework
- Driving continuous improvement
Most construction companies make plans, communicate, watch costs, and try to avoid making the same mistake twice. But how can companies consistently deliver world-class results? Eliminating waste is the primary answer. In 2004, the Construction Industry Institute (CII) studied manufacturing versus construction and found that manufacturing, on average, wastes 12% of its energy and effort while construction wastes 57%. While it is painful to see this statistic, it is not all that surprising – especially since we never build the same project twice. The Lean Construction Institute developed The Last Planner System of Production Control® (LPS) to attack waste and variation.
Engagement
The system has several tools to attack variation and poor handoffs – starting with Phase Pull Planning. Upstream activities are ‘pulled’ by downstream work and interim completion milestones. The site team analyzes a project's intricacies and secures reliable commitments from each other about workflows and durations and what is needed for a satisfactory hand-off. Weekly planning begins once the project is pull-planned collaboratively. In the weekly coordination sessions, the project team looks at several items, including a six-week look ahead plan, to ensure the work is ‘made ready’ in advance.
Trade supervisors collaborate on detailed, day-by-day plans for the coming work week. Aside from confirming what will be done and when, there are two additional elements: constraint removal and workable backlog. Constraint removal involves finding and removing any roadblocks that could derail the plan. Examples include missing information or resources. These potential roadblocks are assigned to individuals with a mission to remove the constraint by a specific date.
‘Workable Backlog’ is any work that could be performed but is not part of the production plan. This contingency work would be initiated if the main plan gets derailed or if the planned work is completed early, which is often the case on Lean projects. For concrete contractors, remember that the rebar and other materials must also be available.
Supervisors become engaged and take ownership when their thoughts and opinions and sought out and heard. Therefore, they must be included in discussions of schedule, methods, logistics, site utilization, materials, and equipment. If supervisors are involved in planning, they generally will do everything possible to make that plan happen. So, set goals to beat industry averages by 5%, 10%, or even 20%. Then, as work gets closer to being performed, flesh out the details by phase and with the people who will be performing the work.
Eliminating Waste
Stockpiling excess materials and running at full throttle every minute is rarely the best way to eliminate waste. In fact, it often causes waste on a project. Material stockpiles can be damaged by weather, stolen, or made obsolete by a design revision. Excess materials can lead to double and triple handling and interfere with other activities.
In our rush to get things done and overcome poor drawings or upstream delays, we sometimes overburden our craft workers with undue overtime. Crews rarely complain because it is good money. However, studies show enormous productivity losses and higher accident rates are associated with extended overtime.
Learning & Continuous Improvement
Growing a company’s knowledge base is much more than simply not making the same mistake twice. It involves continuous improvement through deeply reflecting on problems and determining the root cause. When this step is taken, the proper countermeasure can be implemented, which reduces the possibility of recurrence. In The Last Planner System, production variances are analyzed to learn collectively about how and why there was a variance and to explore options to prevent it from happening again.
Some Caveats
A company's biggest mistake is thinking, "We already do all this!" Much like safety, Lean Construction is a never-ending journey to improve operational efficiency. Start small - use pilot projects to learn and create in-house ‘Lean Champions’ to drive the effort. Get proper coaching to accelerate learning the principles and applying the tools.
Like a golfer who improves with coaching and dedicated practice, a company can improve its operations through engagement, waste elimination, and continuous improvement. Lean Construction requires total commitment from both executives and project supervision. This system has been shown to work repeatedly, but only when a firm develops discipline and sticks with it.
Most companies have some elements of Lean in their operations. However, very few have all of the elements together as a system, and even fewer practice every day in a consistent manner. The good news is that any serious effort in these areas will make the firm better than when it started. Just know that utilizing all of the elements together as a production system will yield the maximum benefit.