Improving Construction Site Organization – Lean Construction
My most recent client is a subcontractor who provides finishing on large construction projects. This has provided me with the opportunity to spend a significant amount of time in the Gemba, on the construction site observing and working with the trades to identify opportunities for increasing their value-added activities. My observations were from three different sites run by two different general contractors. What is odd was that each of the sites offered as completely different experience. Even when sites were run by the same general contractors the operations were completely different. I would have expected those sites to feel similar. The first site, I visited was a school that was being built with an Intergraded Project Delivery (IPD) contract in place. The site talked Lean and applied some of the lean principles. To me the biggest difference on this site was the fact that they were communicating. Good bad or indifferent, the general and the trades were talking about challenges and seemed to be working together to overcome challenges. They seemed to be more focused on the build. Each of the trades understood their weekly commitments and trusted that peers would get their stuff done. The other two sites operated much differently. Chaos is the only right word to describe how the daily operations were carried out. The weekly planning meeting was a formality, where the schedule was presented and pushed down to the team. The trades would leaving those meeting knowing that they would not be able to complete the tasks they had just committed to. It was not because they were complacent; it was because they knew that the work site would not be ready for them. As a result, the foremen were focused on how they were going to get their team switch from plan to plan. It is a tough position to be in and stay optimistic when they cannot see a win in your future. Our foremen have been relegated to fire fighting the schedule each and every day. It should be noted that the IPD was not completely devoid of impact on the value chain. The items in the list below are the most common waste observations that were made at these construction sites…
| Item | Site Waste Observations | Who fixes it? |
| 1 | Not having the supplies, they need to do the work | Fixed at the Subtrade |
| 2 | Materials located too far from the work | Fixed at the General and Subtrade |
| 3 | 40% of the time, tomorrows plan is interrupted | Fixed at the General |
| 4 | Trades is working in an area that is not ready, climbing over materials, excessive movement | Fixed at the General |
| 5 | Trades spending time focused on information they are missing for tomorrow | Fixed at the General |
| 6 | Minimum quality preconditions not met, nails not removed, materials on floor, dirt/debris | Fixed at the General and Subtrade |
| 7 | Poor finished construction quality, related to constrained trade | Fixed at General and Subtrade |
| 8 | Running to the truck or trailer to get tools to do work | Fixed at the General and Subtrade |
The items in this list we sampled specifically by watching one of the sub trades but is typical across all the work that was occurring on our construction sites. The trades doing the work are frustrated and feel like they have little control and do not see a path to change it. The team I am working with is beginning to understand that we can improve what we can control. And it is through focussing on what add value to the customer, reducing our work batch sizes, standardizing our work setups, so we can increase our flexibility and become more successful in spite of the broken site systems. If the full roll out of Lean Construction is not possible, we should be looking to improve our results with these our results by nailing these key activities.
- Control the materials flows across the building site more tightly
- Coordination the materials on and off the site.
- Manage the flow to and from work.
- Have a lay down strategy that moves with construction phase.
- Use a site layout to communicate the strategy.
- Locate materials closer to point of assembly.
- Plan, map and improve communication strategy across the project life cycle.
- Focus first on communication, then write the schedule.
- It’s guaranteed the schedule will change, if we have a strategy to deal with issues causing the change, recovery happens more quickly.
- In the design phase it is all about information and establishing a clear information flow.
- Ensuring designers, engineers and trades are at the table as early and as often as possible.
- Have a daily strategy for ensure everyone know what is happening.
- Focus first on communication, then write the schedule.
From the owner’s perspective, we need you to stop thinking that your project is going to be different. We are using the same groups of resources with the same patterns of behaviors “aka habits”. The likelihood that your project outcomes will be any different than the constructors last 3 to 4 projects is extremely low. If we continue to only push on projects schedule, your construction projects will continue to be late. The alternative is to push the General Constructors for a solid information flows and communication strategy that focus on issues resolution. Ask them to be proactively focusing on readiness. When contractors shift their focus from there own work to what is needed to clearing the path for the next value add step, issues get resolved before the work is started. This improves the ability for the frontline trades to build without interruption or delay. Only then will we reduce the calendar build time.