Lean Construction
Productivity Australia can now deliver Lean Construction Awareness training including an outline of the Last Planner System. We hope soon to be accredited with the Lean Construction Institute to deliver Last Planner training in detail. Last Planner System (LPS) is a registered trademark of the Lean Construction Institute, more information is available in the Useful Sources section below.
As experienced implementers of Lean principles into a wide range of industries including Finance, Health care and Government Services, we can certainly help you implement lean project management into your business. More about Lean Construction below.
TRADITIONAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT COLLABORATIVE PLANNING IN ACTION
LEAN CONCEPTS
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In the 1960’s Toyota noticed that Work In Process (WIP) inventory created waste and impeded improvement. It is there just in case it is needed to cover for variability in equipment and labour, changeover, quality problems etc. Variation, they learned from Deming, was the cause of most waste.
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The 'Just In Time' idea was developed to reduce WIP to the minimum to expose systemic problems, free up cash and reduce waste. This also allowed work to flow, removed the need for quality inspections and enabling continuous improvement.
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To address problems effectively operators were empowered to ‘stop the line’ if they noticed a defect so that it could be addressed permanently and as soon as possible.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT All projects have the following structural elements:
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an organisational structure, which is typically, command and control
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an operating system, which is typically, activity / task based (Critical Path Method)
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a commercial structure, which is typically, transaction and risk management based
This system is not working well. Projects (of all sorts) are too often overdue, over-budget and subject to safety problems and litigation. During the 80’s and 90’s Ballard, Howell, Koskela and others were examining this problem at the same time as Lean concepts were emerging from the automotive industry. They applied the 5 lean principles (Customer defined Value, the Value Stream, Flow, Pull and Perfection) to project management and developed a startling new way of looking at projects, outlined above.
HOW DOES IT WORK IN CONSTRUCTION?
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In construction, WIP inventory is equivalent to contingency (time, labour, material, cash$). It is there just in case but it hides systemic problems like unpredictable contractors, bad information management systems, material defects and so on.
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Process variation is equivalent to task completion variation. Up to 50% of tasks are not completed by the promised date. There are always many reasons why which, of course dilutes accountability.
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Stopping the line to address a quality defect is equivalent to the last planner (the person who issues the lowest level assignments) saying no to the commencement of an assignment if it is not made ready.
LAST PLANNER
Ballard and Howell, founders of the Lean Construction Institute developed the Last Planner System to improve work flow by improving predictability. Systemic problems are exposed and the project is optimised as a whole.
Basically the last planner meeting (of those who issue work assignments) only allows work to commence that is ‘made ready’ ie the right people, information, equipment, materials, prior work and safe conditions are in place. If a task is not made ready the last planner will not issue an instruction to commence. If a foreman is asked start at a particular time and his feels he is not ready, he is empowered to say ‘NO’ (stop the line) and promise an alternate date which he is happy to be held accountable for. Ultimatly the project is seen as a network of commitments. In this way Lean Project Management builds the fundamental disipline of any organisation, the ability make and keep promises.
Greg Howell of the Lean Construction Institute, developed this table to summarise a new way of looing at project managment.
A new way of looking at projects
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All projects have:
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which is traditionally
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but in lean
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an organisational structure
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command and control
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is collaborative, engaging all in continous improvement
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an operating system
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activity or task based
(using Critical Path Method)
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is work-flow based
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a commercial structure
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transactional and risk management based
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relational, using integrated agreements
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Article on Last Planner by Alan Mossman, LCI UK
Intro to Lean Construction and guidelines on Integrated Agreements with contractors as distinct from traditional contracts by Will Lichtig
Useful Sources:
The Lean Construction Institute was started By Glenn Ballard and Greg Howell in the early '90's. Their website www.leanconstruciton.org is the most comprehensive source of material.
LinkedIn has several excellent Groups which are blogged regularly. Lean Construction Institute, Lean Construction Institute UK, Lean Construction Network (International), Last Planner Users, LCI Australia
Wikipedia has a good entry on Lean Construction
Contact us for more information
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