Lean Builder

Follow me to my new blog - Hospital Kaizen

2011-04-10T10:36:00.001-05:00

Now that I've moved into healthcare, I'm blogging on that topic now over at my new blog - Hospital Kaizen. I'll be blogging about continuous improvement concepts in the context of a hospital setting. Come on over and check it out.

My Guest Post at the Lean Six Sigma Academy

2010-03-15T15:22:00.002-05:00

Dang, I totally forgot to cross-link to my guest post over at Ron Pereira's Lean Six Sigma Academy. Here it is:

"Lean Leader, circa 2020."

You CAN Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

2010-03-15T13:07:00.011-05:00

Anybody who has studied for the PMP Exam, or who has undergone extensive Project Management training, has had the concept of The Triple Constaints pounded into their head over and over again. If you don't know, The Triple Constaints (aka the Project Management Triangle) are Cost, Schedule, and Scope. This photo illustrates:

The Assumption

The idea is that if you alter one constraint, you affect one or both of the other two. For example, if you want to reduce the project budget, you will have to lengthen the schedule and/or sacrifice scope. In other words, you can't have your cake and eat it too. "Pick two, but you can't have all three!" is a common refrain. Common wisdom says that if you violate the Triple Constraints, then the item in the center of the diagram, Quality, will erode.

I get it, but I don't accept it.

I agree that under static circumstances, the Triple Constraint theory holds true. However, I don't believe projects are static circumstances. In other words, I think we have the ability to improve our circumstances. How can we do this?

We can reduce waste.

Waste is present on all projects, and manifests itself in many forms, most of which we are way too familiar with: re-work resulting from defects, delays resulting from late delivery of needed materials and information, extra processing resulting from poorly designed work flows, and on and on. In addition to the waste itself being harmful to our projects, it also has the side-effect of creating overburden on our people, which brings a whole new set of HR-related problems. Waste is truly evil.

Fortunately, there are many ways to attack waste, most of which are within the grasp of any project manager. Lean, as a project management methodology, offers a wide array of process improvement tools that have been successfully and repeatedly shown to reduce waste on a wide range of projects. Furthermore, beyond lean tools, lean culture instills in organizations a higher awareness of, and stronger problem-solving skills for eliminating, waste. Eliminating waste is what lean project managers do best.

The Opportunity

If we can harness lean thinking to eliminate waste, we can create huge opportunities. Reducing waste means fewer resources being assigned to inefficient activities. It means less delays and fewer defects. It means finding ways to tailor the scope of the project to what the customer actually values.

Imagine being able to cut costs AND shorten the schedule WITHOUT sacrificing scope. Imagine Quality actually improving when all this is happening. Sounds like a pie-in-the-sky fantasy to most project managers, right? Well, for project managers who know how to attack waste, it's a reality.

Where I Go to Get My Lean Fix

2010-03-11T20:41:00.008-06:00

Today, I was asked by a newcomer to Lean to recommend some good reading to help bring him up-to-speed on some of the basics of Lean. While I did recommend a couple of books (Lean Thinking and Lean Production Simplified by the way), I was much more enthusiastic about recommending my favorite Lean-related blogs.

That got me thinking about which ones are my favorites. For anybody looking to learn about Lean, here are my top 5 in no particular order:

Lean Blog by Mark Graban - "A blog about Lean in hospitals, business, and the world around us." - combination of commentary on Lean-related news, developments in Lean healthcare, essays on specific topics, podcasts, and guest posts from some great writers...a good overall source of Lean information, especially for Lean Healthcare.
Gemba Panta Rei by Jon Miller - educational blog that can easily transition from the abstract philosophical side of Lean to the specific tools-oriented side of Lean...indispensable source of information for anybody new to Lean.
Evolving Excellence by Kevin Meyer and Bill Waddell - I hope you have thick skin, because these guys pull no punches. They call it like it is, and in doing so, provide readers with a real understanding of how things work in the world of manufacturing, business, politics, and so on. This might be for people who have studied Lean for a minute.
Jamie Flinchbaugh's blog - another great Lean teacher, one who focuses on the human side of Lean: leadership, employee engagement, job roles, etc. Jamie's blog is kind of new, but he's been blogging and writing about Lean for a very long time on the web.
Lean Six Sigma Academy by Ron Pereira- when you need to get your geeky Six Sigma fix, but don't want to stray to far from the Lean nest, this is your site. Also a great place to get good deals on free training videos and whatnot.

Honorable Mention:

Lean Communications by Liz Guthridge - I just found out about this blog earlier today, so I can't put it in my top 5 yet, but it's one of the best that I've come across in a long time. One of the neglected sub-topics of Lean, communication, is addressed in a way anybody can relate to, whether you are new to Lean or not.

Miscellaneous:

Also check out the list of people I follow on Twitter by clicking here. The Lean Enterprise Institute's web site is also a great source of information. If you prefer books, check out the Lean Library here. Good luck!

The "Unwitting" Lean Thinker

2010-03-10T12:42:00.005-06:00

If you're a Lean geek like me, you might have read All I Need to Know About Manufacturing I Learned in Joe's Garage. It's a fun little book about utilizing lean thinking in our everyday world.

The title of the book got me thinking about when I used to spend summers working as a roofer for my dad. After thinking about it for a while, I realized--all I need to know about Lean I learned working for my dad.

My dad is what I call an "unwitting" Lean thinker. I say this because he had never heard of Lean until a few years ago when I started learning about it, but he has for years operated his small roofing business in an extremely Lean fashion. Here are a couple of Lean traits that his business exhibits:

Just-In-Time (JIT) material supply...No warehouses, no inventory. Materials arrive within a half-hour of when the roofing begins. No exaggeration. This results in extremely low overhead and less conveyance and motion waste from material handling.
Close partnership with suppliers...Item #1 above would not be possible if it weren't for the fact that my dad has an extremely tight relationship with his materials supplier, Bradco. He's been with them for years, hasn't beat them up on prices, and enjoys the benefits of a cooperative arrangement (one of which is JIT delivery).
Employee loyalty...Construction trades are infamous for churning employees. A common practice for roofing contractors is to add on some "strong-backs" for a few weeks when business is good, pound out a lot of work quickly, and then lay-off half the crew when the backlog vanishes. My dad has taken a different approach. He keeps his crews together for years and years, rarely adding or losing any team members. His crew members can anticipate each other's moves, are best friends off the roof, and understand the performance level that is required to work for my dad. This is invaluable.
Workload balancing...One reason why my dad has been able to keep his crews together so long is because he balances the workload. By working steady like the tortoise instead of frantically like the hare, he is able to reduce the overburden (muri) on his people and avoid the senseless depletion of the work backlog that is caused by overproduction. Even in these desperate times for the construction industry in Florida where my dad works, he has been able to keep his crews working steady.
Focus on value...My dad doesn't try to be the low-cost provider, or try to reach customers via fancy marketing, or try to land huge contracts through political networking. He just focuses on minimizing waste by keeping things simple, maintaining the highest quality by having the best crews, and creating word-of-mouth advertising by being more focused on customer satisfaction than anybody else. That's value.

As a Lean advocate, I've drawn upon my experience with my dad countless times. People intuitively understand these concepts, regardless of the organization. I think if you could strip an organization down to a simple business like my dad's, you could get going on the Lean path a lot quicker.

All the complexity and distractions of a modern bureaucracy get in the way. That's why I think it's important that we Lean advocates get better at organizational design. We can begin by going back to basics, maybe by studying small businesses like my dad's.

Here's a photo of my dad...in full company uniform, but not exactly hard at work :)

What is a Lean Advocate?

2010-03-07T14:08:00.006-06:00

Hey Lean Advocates, do you ever struggle with how to explain to people what you do for work? Some people have well-recognized professions: lawyers, engineers, nurses, and so on. Unfortunately, most people I meet have never heard of Lean. This can make it hard for us Lean Advocates to validate our experience and describe our skill-sets.

Maybe it's just me, but there just seems to be a lot of unresolved questions about being a Lean Advocate. Here are a couple that come to mind...

What is the job description?

It's not the same thing as a Lean expert, because I know I'm not that. It's more about being passionate about Lean than being an expert. It's somebody who wants to achieve excellence in everything they do, using the principles, thought processes, and tools that have collectively become known as 'Lean.'

The problem that I've personally encountered in my career is translating my role as a Lean Advocate into the common vernacular of the business world. Am I a management consultant? Sometimes I guess. Am I a process engineer? Sometimes, but not really. Am I a project manager? Yes, oftentimes. What about trainer/coach? Oh yes.

So, I guess Lean Advocates are consultants, engineers, project managers, trainers, and coaches. As unrealistic as that seems, it's actually true from what I've seen.

What industry though?

Lean Advocate is one of those roles that really is not associated with a single industry. Does that mean we can move around from industry to industry? For example, lots of Lean Advocates come from manufacturing. I worked for a construction company for seven years. Am I disqualified from working in manufacturing because of my construction background? What about being a Lean Advocate in the burgeoning Lean Healthcare sector? Do the skills translate?

Many HR/recruiting folks might disagree, but I think Lean Advocate skills absolutely translate. Being able to communicate with people, facilitate collaboration, identify waste, increase customer value, scientifically solve problems, help relieve overburdening of employees, help create alignment throughout the organization, and foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement...where do these skills NOT translate?

How do we prove our value?

How do we avoid being considered non-essential? How do we show that we add value? I think we sometimes do a poor job of defining our value to our organizations. The most successful Lean Advocates I've known are not the smartest or most passionate ones, but the ones who connect improvement activities to business results. I believe this is sometimes referred to as...Show Me the Money!

Anybody interested in Lean Advocacy as a career choice will need to get really good at showing the money. If we can't consistently prove the value of Lean, we'll always be susceptible to cost-cutting. Lean Advocates are too talented and too passionate to be considered expendable.

Just as safety advocates proved that good safety saves money, quality advocates proved that quality is free, and sustainability advocates are currently demonstrating that being green makes business sense, us Lean Advocates must make the business case to the decision-makers...over and over again.

So, what is a Lean Advocate?

Everybody has their own definition, but I think the job description needs to be something like: "A person who harnesses and promotes Lean as a means to better tangible business results in pursuit of excellence." Is that too far off the mark?

Learning & Teaching with the Dallas Chapter of PMI

2010-03-05T11:29:00.002-06:00

Message for my Project Management friends--start going to the PMI Dallas Chapter events!

I went to my first monthly meeting last night, and was impressed by how much value it delivered. And I'm not even talking about the high-quality dinner buffet. What I am talking about is the quality of the people that attended. I met consultants, educators, recruiters, fellow project managers, Dallas-based corporate leaders, and more. A great mix of professionals.

Specifically, I had the pleasure of meeting two impressive people that I'm tremendously excited to collaborate with in the near future: Colleen Drabek and Beth Burnside. They are involved with the Dallas chapter's Education Committee, which develops educational programs, such as PMP Exam reviews and practical training on specific aspects of project management. The committee also networks with local universities, colleges, and other types of schools through the Student Outreach sub-committee.

As a lover of learning and teaching, I can't wait to get involved with this committee. Colleen and Beth's enthusiasm for their work only bolsters my enthusiasm to volunteer.

If education is not your thing, project managers, then opportunities exist with several other committees. The point is, us folks living in Dallas-Ft. Worth are fortunate to have such an active PMI chapter, and we should take advantage of it. I know I will.

Great Expectations for Lean Construction in DFW

2010-02-25T21:58:00.006-06:00

Today, I was fortunate enough to attend a kick-off meeting for the new Dallas-Ft. Worth chapter of the Lean Construction Institute. The meeting, which was hosted by Texo and facilitated by Cynthia Tsao from LCI headquarters, was an excellent opportunity for us participants to brainstorm and identify priorities for the chapter moving forward. I was truly impressed with the brainpower, experience, and boldness in the room today. I was equally impressed with the quality of ideas and priorities that were identified during our meeting.

For me, three items stood out as the most critical items to focus on, at least during the first year or so of the chapter's existence. In no particular order:

Developing internal knowledge and competency of Lean Construction principles. This process can be initiated through education and training, although true learning ultimately comes from doing. LCI and its friends have the ability to provide this, and the construction folks in DFW want and need it. Developing that common vocabulary, understanding the thought process behind Lean, and getting some hands-on practice with everyday Lean tools are all valuable objectives for the DFW Chapter.
Engaging all construction-industry stakeholders. The expectation is that the architects, engineers, and construction folks will probably join in on the fun, but that's not enough. The customers of the A-E-C industry (building owners, building operators, developers, etc.) must also be engaged. So much of lean construction depends on the level of commitment and cooperation of our customers because of the way construction contracts are typically structured. Without the support of our customers, establishing a better approach to construction will be so much more difficult. One way to begin gaining support for lean construction is by demonstrating how it actually reduces risk for the customer (more on this in a future blog post).
Creating the buzz. Dallas-Ft. Worth is such a great capital of business for the U.S. and the world. So many talented people, so many successful companies, so many industries, and so much pride! The DFW Chapter of LCI needs to take advantage of this by creating a buzz about lean construction. This will have to happen on many fronts, one of which should be through online social media. With plenty of talented people willing to contribute value-added content, and a wide range of platforms for delivering this content to the people that value it, there's no reason why we can't build a tribe of people who are passionate about lean construction in DFW. Once we have a tribe of passionate people spreading the word about lean construction, we have a chance at really opening it up to the mainstream construction industry.

There are numerous other focus areas that are all important. These are just the ones that really stood out to me after listening to the discussions and presentations at the meeting today.

I'm just thrilled to be involved at such an early stage of the DFW Chapter. I see limitless potential in this group, and have no doubt that we will improve the construction industry in North Texas. This will not happen over night, but in true Lean fashion, it will happen through continuous improvement over time. Today's meeting was a great first step.

Seven Years of Lessons Learned at PHH

2010-02-15T11:51:00.010-06:00

Last week was my last week at Palm Harbor Homes, Inc.. I spent seven wonderful years with this company (the only place I've worked since graduating college in 2003). Before I turn my sights towards the future and my next great company (TBD), I think it's appropriate to reflect back on the time I spent at my first great company. In the Lean world, they might call this hansei; while in the Project Management world, they might call this "Lessons Learned." Either way, the idea is the same--learn from the past. Here are some of the things I've learned from my time at PHH...

Lesson Learned: Get your hands dirty, often.

When I was first hired as a Manager-in-Training in 2003, I thought I was going to be sitting at a desk, firing off e-mails, and filling out TPS reports. That's not what happened...not by a long shot! On my first day, I was sent out to the shopfloor to start welding steel I-beams together. Within about six months, I had worked hands-on in every department in our homebuilding factory. Blood, sweat, tears, and all. After that, I spent another six months supervising our crews and doing quality control inspections. Not exactly what I expected coming out of college.

But let me tell you, that was the most important year of my life. That was the year I first learned the importance of going to the place where the real work is being done, and seeing for myself how things are functioning. In the Lean world, they call this genchi genbutsu. At Palm Harbor, we just call it getting your hands dirty. Whatever you call it, just recognize that without it, you're limited in how deeply you can really understand the problems faced by your people everyday. This is no doubt one of the best lessons I ever learned at PHH.

Lesson Learned: Communicate, communicate, communicate.

After that year out on the shopfloor, I got promoted to our on-site construction division as a Personal Construction Manager. At first, I spent all my time putting together detailed construction schedules, examining blueprints, and analyzing cost estimates. Then, in no time at all, I began receiving all sorts of complaints from my customers, sub-contractors, employees, and just about everybody else. While I was paying so much attention to the technical aspects of my job, I had failed to pay attention to the communication needs of my project stakeholders.

The lesson I learned is that stakeholder communication is absolutely critical to project success. You can bring in a project on-time, on-budget, within scope, and with great quality; but if you fail to address the communication needs of your stakeholders, you can have a completely failed project on your hands. I learned that lesson the hard way, on more than one occasion.

Lesson Learned: It's the money, stupid.

For a couple years, I was one of PHH's most staunch supporters of the Lean Manufacturing methodology. For a while there, during my stint as the company's Corporate Lean Manager, I was responsible for spreading the Lean gospel to all our manufacturing divisions, and I did so with the fervor of a zealot. People started calling me Mr. Lean, and I felt good about that moniker. What I should have felt was the need to be a little more business savvy.

By that, I mean that I should have been doing a better job of framing Lean as an approach to achieving our business objectives. I was such a believer in Lean that I never felt the need to translate the benefits of Lean into dollars and cents. Unfortunately, many business managers only speak the language of accounting. I should have recognized that fact and adjusted my approach accordingly. That was an extremely hard lesson to swallow.

Lesson Learned: It's hard to fit a square peg in a round hole.

Following my time as Mr. Lean at PHH, I got deeply involved with the company's large-scale military construction projects. These projects were completely different from any work we had ever done before at PHH. Not only was the complexity of the buildings much greater than our normal product, but we also had a much larger scope of work being performed on-site (as opposed to in our controlled homebuilding factories). To top it all off, we had the pleasure of complying with the labyrinth of federal and military regulations pertaining to these types of projects. This was definitely not our bread & butter work.

But, it wasn't the complexity, or the huge scope of work, or the mother lode of bureaucratic red tape that caused us the most problems. It was actually our organizational structure that hurt us the most. Without going into great detail, PHH has always been organized around ongoing manufacturing operations, as opposed to temporary construction projects. As expected, PHH is quite experienced and competent at managing operations, but much less so at managing projects. Making the transition from our traditional type of work to large-scale construction projects was a huge challenge for us.

Fortunately, PHH has a great organizational culture to help mitigate the shortcomings of its organizational structure. The culture essentially smooths out the square peg so that it fits nicely into the round hole, albeit with a good deal more effort and stress involved. But that's Palm Harbor Homes in a nutshell--not a perfect company, but a company with a team full of people willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done. This wonderful organizational culture really sets PHH apart from other companies I've dealt with in my career.

Final Thoughts (Jerry Springer style)

I learned a lot in my seven years at Palm Harbor. The four lessons learned mentioned above are just the ones that stick out to me at this transitional moment. They are the ones that have resonated the most with me, and that will help me the most in my career, but there are literally hundreds of other important lessons that I've learned over my seven years with PHH. My entire time with the company was one giant learning opportunity.

I suffered through many mistakes, and enjoyed many successes. The company allowed me to try a wide range of jobs, and gave me serious management responsibilities early and often. This is a great business best practice that I wish every company utilized. I just can't see how I could have had a better environment in which to mature professionally.

On top of it all, I made friends for life while at PHH. Some of the people I worked with are just incredible. I could not have asked for a better place to begin my career. While I'm anxious and excited about the future, I'm appreciative and respectful of the past seven years. Thank you to the entire Palm Harbor family.

My Scrum Infatuation

2010-02-08T14:23:00.008-06:00

I'm infatuated with Scrum. I had heard the term before, but never really knew what it meant. This past week, I was lucky enough to attend a lecture on the subject by Dr. Tom Sheives with the University of Texas at Dallas' Project Management program. Keeping in mind that this four-hour lecture/discussion was pretty much my first and only exposure to Scrum, I gotta say I like the concept a lot.

The Scrum Process in a Nutshell

I won't go into the history of Scrum, or how it fits into the Agile Project Management methodology, but you can read all about it here on Wikipedia. I'd rather just focus on one of the visuals that Dr. Sheives used in his presentation (courtesy of Mountain Goat Software):

This gorgeous graphic explains at a high level how Scrum works. Going from left to right on the graphic, here is the Scrum process:

Product Backlog is established by a Product Owner
Blocks of the Product Backlog are moved into the Sprint Backlog and decomposed into smaller chunks of work
The project team processes the smaller chunks of work in 2-4 week intervals called "sprints"
There are also 24-hour feedback loops during the 2-4 week sprints that include Daily Scrum Meetings
The Scrum process yields an output called a "Potentially Shippable Product Increment"

Interestingly, on projects utilizing Scrum, there is no project manager per se. There is the previously mentioned Product Owner, who decides on the features of the product and prioritizes the Product Backlog. There is also a ScrumMaster, who supports the project team during the sprints and conducts the Daily Scrum Meetings.

The project team is somewhat self-managing, as the team members decide for themselves how to break down the work in the Sprint Backlog and how to execute the work during the sprints. This approach to project management is quite different than the standard approach as defined by PMI's Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). Not everybody likes this departure from the standard.

Scrum & Lean

To traditional project managers, the Scrum approach seems risky and laissez-faire, but not to us Lean advocates. We understand the power of Scrum because it adheres to many principles of Lean:

Pull...the project team pulls work from the Sprint Backlog, which is pulled from the Product Backlog
One-Piece Flow...work is processed in small, rapid intervals with frequent course corrections along the way
Daily Accountability...during the Daily Scrum Meeting, commitments are made, progress is verified, and problems are communicated
Customer Value...the Voice of the Customer is provided by the Product Owner
Servant Leadership...the ScrumMaster supports the project team, Gemba Kaizen-style
Self-Adaptive Teams...the constant change inherent in a Scrum environment tends to yield flexible team members capable of adapting to the needs of the project
PDCA...the Daily Scrum Meeting and the 2-4 week Sprints allow for frequent PDCA cycles, as do Sprint Reviews and Sprint Retrospectives, which are pretty much self-explanatory

Anybody who has studied Lean can see elements of lean thinking embedded within the Scrum methodology. For me, one of the best ways to tell if something is "lean" or not is to see how traditional managers react to it. While the audience at Dr. Sheives presentation seemed to be curious about Scrum, I definitely sensed some apprehension about using it in the real world. I've seen this same reaction dozens of times in regards to Lean, so I have a good feeling that Scrum is a lean approach to executing project work. This is obviously a silly way to judge the merit of a management system, but it has been surprisingly accurate in the past.

Scrum & Construction

During Dr. Sheives' presentation, one of the first things I thought of was the Last Planner System, which is an approach to construction management developed by the good folks at the Lean Construction Institute. Similar to Scrum, the LPS focuses on short time increments, rapid feedback, frequent course corrections, and continuous planning.

Whereas Scrum was developed in response to the constantly changing product requirements of the software industry, LPS was developed in response to the overwhelming complexity and lack of control in the construction industry. Scrum and LPS are just two variations of the same concept--lean project management.

Scrum has proven to be a highly effective approach in the software business, just as LPS has in the construction business. However, Scrum seems to be more utilized in software than LPS in construction, which probably points to the cultural and organizational barriers we face in construction. Figuring out how to remove these barriers is key. If we can do this, we can increase the adoption of lean methods in construction and start seeing the same great results that the software folks using Scrum often see.

Work-Arounds in Haiti

2010-01-23T13:55:00.013-06:00

A good friend of mine, Mike Wnek (pictured above), was down in Haiti shortly after the devastating earthquake hit there on January 12, 2010. His story was well-documented in the news (click here, here, and here), as he and his contingent were one of the first groups to deliver desperately needed food and water to the ravaged city of Port-Au-Prince.

While tons and tons of supplies and resources were being bogged down at the airport in Port-Au-Prince or being re-routed to neighboring nations, Mr. Wnek was riding shotgun on a rented truck as his group made their way from the Dominican Republic to the Haitian capital with a truckload of survival supplies. Only their courage and resourcefulness made it possible for them to successfully complete their voyages across Hispaniola. Their actions were truly remarkable.

Once I had time to reflect on what my friend and his group had done, I began to assess their actions in an objective way (this is easier said than done when people are performing heroic deeds to save lives). Once I had assessed their actions from a business perspective, I realized that they had made great use of one of the all-time most frequently used tactics--the work-around.

Work-Arounds

Pretty much anybody who has ever worked in an organization has had to resort to work-arounds to get things done. Work-arounds are informal, alternate methods for completing work that frequently arise in response to ineffective formal work processes. Basically, whenever doing work the normal way is just not practical, we resort to the path of least resistance.

Folks in the the Lean world understand this concept all too well, as the presence of work-arounds is one of the best indicators of poor process flow. Sometimes a process is unreliable, thus requiring an expert to babysit the work. Sometimes there is too much buffer between processes, thus requiring an expediter to push the work to the front of the line. There is no limit to how many work-arounds we might find in a workplace.

Work-Arounds on Projects

On projects, every bit of the work might be completed through work-arounds. This is quite common in organizations that are not organized for project work. These types of organizations typically feature a traditional vertical hierarchy, and are usually geared for only ongoing operations, not temporary projects.

The unfortunate soul who is assigned to lead a project in this type of organization usually has to navigate a byzantine web of work-arounds cutting across several vertical silos to get anything accomplished. This sounds a lot like what my friend, Mike Wnek, had to do in Haiti.

Quick Fix in Haiti

When it became apparent that the most obvious needs of the earthquake survivors, food and water, were not being met by the official agencies in charge of the relief effort, Mr. Wnek and his group immediately constructed a makeshift work-around to get aid flowing. They went to small grocery shops in the Dominican Republic and bought their entire stocks of food and water, and then proceeded overland to deliver the goods.

Forget the airport. Forget the air drops. Forget bureaucracy. Forget red-tape. Just get food and water to the survivors! This was a classic example of the use of work-arounds, albeit in a highly remarkable context.

Learning from Haiti

Why did my friend and his group have to resort to these desperate work-arounds? Why didn't the aid start flowing into Port-Au-Prince sooner from big relief agencies? Why did the focus early on seem to be on riot control instead of the delivery of survival resources? Why were evacuation efforts diverted? Why was the airport bogged down? Lots of questions.

If we can say that disaster relief efforts are a form of project, then we can probably deduce that many of the same factors that we see on everyday projects are in play on relief efforts as well. Maybe we have vertical silos that aren't communicating with each other. Maybe decision-making is not being made by the people who understand the situation on the ground. Maybe not enough contingency planning had been performed (there is no time to plan a relief effort after the fact). Many factors could have contributed to the delays in Haiti, but there's no way to completely understand the situation from afar. Maybe an expert in large-scale project management will someday publish a case study on the response to the Haitian catastrophe.

Moving Forward

Understanding the lessons learned from Haiti is critical. Without it, we are doomed to repeat the failures of Haiti, Katrina, and elsewhere. But we can not blame individuals! The people working on disaster response projects deserve our respect and appreciation. Just as on everyday projects, the system is usually the culprit, not the individuals. We need to have better project delivery systems in place to support the efforts of individuals.

If we don't improve our systems, we better pray that we never find ourselves in the middle of a natural disaster. After all, there are only so many people like Mike Wnek who have the ingenuity and courage to establish a lifesaving work-around supply chain in a disaster zone. Do you want to rely on heroics?

3 Lean Tools for Improving Construction Reliability

2010-01-04T08:33:00.008-06:00

The Opportunity

“Let me get this straight, you think we should reduce our inventory of cabinets? That’s our safety buffer! What are we supposed to do when the hot glue machine breaks down again and we can’t build cabinets, huh? We gotta have a buffer.”

That was the reaction I got from a construction manager upon hearing my suggestion that he winnow down his inventory of finished cabinets (this was on a construction project where the cabinets were being prefabricated nearby). His response was valid, but so was my suggestion.

From my perspective, I saw several problems with the excess inventory—problems that are usually associated with this form of waste: finished cabinets were getting damaged as they sat around, they were often in the way of installers working in the building, and they were even creating a trip hazard for any passersby. It was not pretty.

From the perspective of the construction manager, he saw any reduction in cabinet inventory as a risk to the project schedule. His point was that if he eliminated his safety buffer, the unreliability of the cabinet-building process could cause cabinet production to halt, and potentially cause construction delays. Not only did the cabinet shop folks have problems with the hot glue machine, but they were also dealing with a whole host of other issues that created variation in process results: untrained cabinet builders, a messy workshop, conflicting production schedules, etc. Again, it was not pretty.

The Lean Approach

So, what to do? What would you, as a lean thinker, do to create more reliability in the cabinet-building process? I’m certainly not an expert in the lean methodology, but I have seen some practical lean tools applied to construction processes that have yielded improved levels of process stability. Here are 3 of my favorite such tools:

1. Tool # 1—5S Visual Workplace

We all know about 5S by now, I’m sure (check out JC’s excellent blog post). It’s a fantastic tool that can really help us create visual control of the workplace, so that we can spot abnormalities quickly. This would help reduce variation in the cabinet shop by reducing time wasted looking for tools and materials, as well as by eliminating the chance for a lost-time work accident by removing safety hazards from the workspace. This would no doubt help improve the stability of any construction process.

Construction Industry Particulars...

However, applying 5S to a construction site is a bit different than in a traditional workplace. The main difference is that construction projects are temporary in nature, while ongoing operations tend to be a little more permanent (although a wise strategy would be to design the workplace to be flexible enough to change with the times). This means that a 5S process designed for construction sites would need to be able to be implemented during a short ramp-up period, flexible enough to accommodate multiple stages of construction, and exceptionally easy to understand for those random people that tend to visit construction sites (inspectors, salespeople, etc.).

What other barriers exist to using 5S in construction?

2. Tool #2—Preventive Maintenance

Just like factory workers depend on conveyor belts, press machines, and welding robots, construction workers depend on their ladders, generators, and hand-tools. Unlike lean factory workers, most construction workers do not perform much preventive maintenance for their equipment. Often, equipment is just loaded up at the end of a long work day and tossed in the work truck. Worse yet, construction equipment is often exposed to Mother Nature in ways that most industrial equipment is not. This leads to a ton of equipment failures that slow down our construction processes, much like the hot glue machine did for our cabinet shop. A great approach for mitigating this source of variation is to implement basic Preventive Maintenance (PM) procedures.

Construction Industry Particulars...

PM is not a difficult concept to explain, but a frustratingly difficult tool to implement in the construction industry. This probably has more to do with bad habits than anything, so the big challenge is creating a work culture than encourages good habits. Instead of making it a habit to knock off work at the last second before the sun sets (which leaves little time for Preventive Maintenance), we should build-in time to inspect and repair our equipment. Instead of making it a habit to drag equipment on the ground, we should make sure that our people have better ways of transporting heavy items. Bad habits are hard to break, but the benefits of having reliable equipment far outweigh the costs of making a cultural change.

Do you think it would be too hard to get buy-in for PM based on your experience?

3. Tool #3—Job Instruction

Job Instruction (JI) is another great tool for improving process reliability. With construction processes, a lot of variation comes in the form of different techniques being used by different installers. Often, you can observe two installers building cabinets in four different ways. This is not good for consistency.

JI helps mitigate this source of variation by providing us with an effective approach to teaching standardized processes. Once we have established a set of best practices for cabinet building, we can incorporate them into a job sequence that can be taught using the Job Instruction method. This is a great tool for training new installers and cross-training veteran installers. By properly training our people, we can reduce variation between installers and greatly reduce the chance of human-related errors occurring.

Construction Industry Particulars...

The difficulty of implementing JI in the construction industry is that quite often the work is being done by sub-contractors who are not always amenable to being trained. Their business relies on having a reputation for knowing how to do good work, so nobody wants to submit to training, as that is an indication that they are still learning how to do good work. This is a huge cultural, systemic issue in the construction industry.

One way to overcome this barrier is to take the Toyota Way approach of investing in long-term suppliers. Choose sub-contractors who are open to long-term learning and partnership. Provide them with training on how to perform JI, and let them become their own trainers. Work together to develop the standard job sequences that are being taught. Include JI as part of the statement of work for the contract. Think long-term.

Do you foresee construction managers allocating time for JI?

Reflection

The three tools listed above are just a few of the many available in a lean construction manager’s toolbox. What other tools might you recommend for our cabinet shop? Do you think the tools I listed are appropriate given the situation I’ve described in the cabinet shop?

Of course, the particular tool chosen is not what’s important; it’s the thought process that counts. The thought process should be to look for barriers to creating better process reliability, and then pick the right tool to address those barriers.

Eventually, as we stabilize individual processes, we can begin to reduce our buffers and improve the flow between processes. This leads to problems being surfaced more easily, and to waste being systematically eliminated from our processes.

In the case of the cabinet-building process, if we were to implement 5S, Preventive Maintenance, Job Instruction, and other appropriate tools, we should see an improvement in process reliability. This would allow us to lower our inventory of finished cabinets at the job site, which would in turn eliminate the wastes associated with excessive inventory. This would lead to what we all lean thinkers want—better results.

Do you agree with my hypothesis? Do you have an alternative approach?

Technology is Cool, Collaboration is Better

2009-10-08T16:56:00.017-05:00

When it comes to utilizing technology in the construction business, I'm a little ambivalent. On the one hand, I consider myself an early adopter of technology (for a construction guy anyways) who can't have enough Google apps and online social networking tools. On the other hand, I'm a firm believer in the Toyota Way principle of "Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology that serves your people and processes." I'll often get all excited about some new project management software, only to be reminded that many of my project stakeholders don't have work computers or aren't too proficient at using even basic software. It's a major barrier that we must overcome in the construction industry, because there are some technology tools that could serve our people and processes well.

While this technology barrier won't be eliminated in the short-term, I still plan on utilizing technology tools whenever and wherever I can on my projects. For example, one tool in the pipeline that I'm really excited about is Google Wave. If you haven't heard anything about it yet, you can check out this long demo video here or a good assessment from a construction industry perspective here.

I really think that Wave can be a powerful means of developing project knowledge and building consensus among the project stakeholders. While I love the technology, it's the focus on collaboration that really appeals to me, not the tool itself. Even if I can never convince any project stakeholders to get on-board with Wave or other tech tools, the focus on collaboration can still be a constant part of the projects I manage.

By that, I specifically mean that I can treat project planning as a collaborative activity. If you think about it, building a project plan is nothing more than building a common base of knowledge and agreement that all project stakeholders can refer to throughout the project. The project plan is the standard by which the project will be managed, and as with any standard, the people involved with the work must lead its development. This is why Google Wave has the potential to be a powerful collaboration tool; it efficiently allows anybody we designate to contribute to the knowledge base and have a say in the project planning process, real-time and with rich multimedia communication. It's an awesome tool!

That being said, Wave is by no means the only collaboration tactic available to us. If we have folks with limited tech skills, as we often do in the construction industry, we can always fall back on more low-tech solutions. A face-to-face meeting, properly facilitated, is still an excellent approach. Regardless, the format is not what's most important; it's the end result that matters.

So, while I'm all for the construction industry shedding its Luddite past, and even though I'm tremendously excited about Google Wave, I think it's much more important for us to first start seeing collaborative project planning as a "must-have," not a "nice-to-have" element of construction management. While some folks, like proponents of the Last Planner system, have been actively promoting collaborative construction management methods for years now, a huge majority of builders still defer to the old-school "boss man" archetype. This has to change. No amount of technology will be enough if we fail to make this philosophical leap to collaborative planning.

Eliminating Tunnel Vision

2009-09-30T17:46:00.014-05:00

One of the most overused sayings is "Don't miss the forest for the trees." While it may be an annoying cliche at this point, we in the construction industry would do well to remember it as we manage our projects. I say this because I've found that construction project managers, including myself, often get so caught up in the technical construction requirements that we miss the overall conditions that must be met before we can call our project a success. In other words, we focus too much on assembling buildings and not enough on managing projects.

Typical construction industry approach...

When you put a bunch of veteran construction managers and superintendents in a room to discuss an upcoming project, the focus of the conversation is almost always on the specifics of the construction work. Rarely is the focus on the project management activities that must occur in order to bring the project in on-time, under-budget, within scope, and with good quality. Construction folks are typically really good at envisioning the construction deliverables that are required to assemble a building; however, they're usually not so good at envisioning the administrative deliverables that are required to successfully complete a project. Why is this?

Well, many construction project managers have solid backgrounds in construction (as installers, superintendents, engineers, etc.), but oftentimes have much less knowledge of standard project management best practices, such as Scope Management. For this reason, a lot of administrative-type deliverables are unaccounted for on construction projects. This is a huge risk!

Failure to deliver on any project requirement can cause huge problems. For example, if we fail to plan for team-building activities, our project group will probably have difficulties becoming a high-functioning project team. If we fail to plan for stakeholder communication, we can have all sorts of misunderstandings and overreactions. If we fail to plan for collaborative scheduling sessions, we can have wildly inaccurate schedule updates. None of these activities are directly related to assembling a building, but are just as critical to the overall success of a project as pouring a level foundation, framing a square wall, or setting sturdy trusses.

So, how do we go about doing a better job of meeting all project deliverables?

The Lean approach...

First, we need to get good at hearing the Voice of the Customer (VOC). The VOC is a central element of Lean thinking, and hearing it is a talent than all Lean thinkers must acquire. One of the best commonsense strategies for hearing the VOC is to get out of the office and go talk to your project stakeholders. We shouldn't try to predict our stakeholders' needs; we should just ask them! We shouldn't try to be the know-it-all construction manager; we should be the facilitator for communication. We don't have all the answers, but we can get them easily by just listening to our stakeholders.

Second, we need to get good at performing Scope Management planning. This is a standard part of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), so it's nothing new to professional project managers; but, it may be somewhat foreign to traditional construction project managers. The good news is that Scope Management planning is not all that complicated. The PMBOK guides will take you through the details, but it boils down to defining the project scope, breaking it down into manageable pieces, and having a gameplan for adjusting the project scope as necessary throughout the course of a project. By going through these steps, we develop a Project Baseline that we can use to ensure that we're delivering on our stakeholder requirements.

So, hearing the VOC is the social skill that we must learn, while performing Scope Management planning is the technical skill we must learn in order to eliminate tunnel vision. By eliminating tunnel vision, we are no longer blind to all the project deliverables that we might otherwise ignore. Ignoring stakeholder requirements is a big reason why the construction industry is infamous for being unreliable and disagreeable to work with, and is a construction management practice that must end. If we as construction project managers can learn to hear our stakeholders and properly plan for managing the project scope, we can fulfill all the project deliverables, not just those related to slapping a building together.

Defining the Lean Project Manager

2009-07-13T13:36:00.009-05:00

I've met some good project managers, and some bad project managers. I think we all have. I've met some project managers who know a thing or two about lean thinking, and some who have never and will never make any attempt to learn about it. For the most part, I think the project management body of knowledge lacks a lot in terms of being a lean methodology, so it's natural for most project managers to lack knowledge of lean principles. The same goes for most types of managers. For lean project management to spread, we need to develop PM's who display the attributes and behaviors of a lean thinker.

So, what makes a Lean Project Manager?

While I've yet to achieve a level of understanding sufficient to call myself a Lean Project Manager, I do have some thoughts on the attributes that I need to attain to become one some day. Here goes:

Communicator...This doesn't apply just to lean project managers; this is a prerequisite for all project managers. Written or verbal, formal or informal, one-on-one or in front of a group; PM's have to be able to communicate.
Learner...This is also sort of inherent in the project management profession. Because we can be leading projects across a wide range of fields, we have to be quick learners if we want to be able to understand what our subject-matter experts are saying. We don't have to be experts in every field, but we have to be able to understand enough to manage the projects. Lean PM's take it to another level. A true Lean PM will make continuous learning a standard part of their work, not something to do in their spare time or accidentally. Establishing goals for self-development and then creating a strategic plan for achieving that goal is Lean PM behavior.
Socratic Teacher...I think this is a big departure from standard project management. Most PM's tend to focus on solving problems as quick as possible, and don't take the time to use problems as learning opportunities. The Lean PM is always looking for learning moments with his project team. These moments don't occur in classrooms, but out where the work is being performed. The Lean PM doesn't teach by telling team members why problems occurred and how to fix them, but by asking elegant, insightful questions that force the team members to develop a strong understanding of the problem at hand. By doing this, the Socratic Teacher not only helps the team identify countermeasures to its problems, but also teaches it to be a self-reliant, self-adapting, problem-solving team.
Systems Thinker...Again, this is an area where I think lean project management departs from mainstream project management. Most PM's tend to view projects as discrete packets of work that can be scheduled, delegated, measured, and completed by individuals or teams. The strong emphasis on the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) as the primary planning tool is evidence of the way the project management community views work production. In the manufacturing operations world, ERP systems kind of perform the same function. This view on operations management stems from an erroneous assumption that a top-down push planning approach is capable of accurately predicting how the work will flow. A Lean PM does not try to control work through top-down planning. A Lean PM thinks in terms of self-sufficient systems that can rapidly adapt to the constantly changing conditions on the ground. The people closest to the work have the best shot at predicting the work flow, so Lean PM's focus on creating systems composed of well-trained, capable people performing well-refined, stable processes.
Experimenter...Even well-oiled machines can become obsolete. For that reason, Lean PM's need to constantly tinker with their systems and encourage their team members to do the same. Every aspect of the project should be fair game. Will every idea be feasible? No. Will every feasible idea get implemented before the project is complete? No. Is this is a problem? Not at all. Just the simple act of proposing a mundane suggestion has a beneficial effect on the project team. It's exercise for the brain. Following standard processes for completing project work is efficient, but can be deflating for team members if they're not empowered to propose ideas for improvement. If the PM is not the Experimenter-In-Chief of the team, team members will not feel as free to make suggestions.
Gemba Walker...Some traditional PM's will have big problems with this one. With the proliferation of powerful, easy-to-use IT solutions for project management, PM's are tempted to run the show through their computers, and not where the real work is being performed. The problem with this is that PM software only shows an abstract representation of the status of the work, not the actual status of the work. Lean PM's spend a crazy amount of time out at the gemba (the place where the real work is done) observing the work, learning, teaching, experimenting, and communicating. By spending time at the gemba and seeing reality firsthand, Lean PM's can identify waste and problems before they become project killers.
Visual Manager...This is related to gemba walking. When we are observing work, we are much more effective if we have visual controls to aid us in understanding irregularities. A line chart is more effective if there's a benchmark line that shows the performance goal. It's much easier to determine whether a garbage can is in the right place if there's a spot marked on the floor showing where it goes. It's much easier to audit a process if a standard work chart is posted visually in the work area. Lean PM's constantly walk the gemba and ask "How do I know if this is right or wrong?" and insist that the status of the work be displayed visually at the workplace. Lean PM's should use the 30-second rule, which says that within 30 seconds a manager should be able to walk into the workplace and understand the status of the work. Then, Lean PM's should insist that information be shared with the entire team, via visual control boards, in order to "create participation through shared information."

These are the behaviors and attributes that I'm trying to incorporate into my practice of project management. I'm sure there are other elements that I'm missing, but I think this is a pretty good start. For the lean thinkers out there, I wonder what characteristics they've observed in PM's that they regard as lean project managers.

Warning: Warranty Service May Induce Violence

2009-07-05T13:51:00.007-05:00

You know, we in the construction industry do a darn good job of stressing-out our customers. Have you read Lean Solutions by James P. Womack & Daniel T. Jones? While their previous work, Lean Thinking, discusses the elimination of waste from our value streams, this book focuses on the elimination of waste and frustration endured by our customers in procuring our products/services. Here are the titles of a few chapters from the book: "Don't Waste My Time," "Get Me Exactly What I Want," and "Solve My Problem When I Want." In my experience as both a homeowner and a construction manager, I've yet to see an example of these requirements being consistently met by a builder (especially with respect to performing warranty service work). Ughh.

Typical Construction Industry Approach

We're pretty bad at this. We have to face this reality. Especially in the homebuilding sector, and specifically with home warranty repairs, some builders seem to make a living out of wasting customers' time, getting them something other than what they want, and not solving their problems when they want want. If you've ever bought a home with a builder warranty, you probably know what I'm talking about. These are just some of the difficulties I've personally encountered with getting my home serviced:

-Sub didn't show up
-Sub showed up extremely late
-Sub showed up without the proper materials
-Sub showed up on unscheduled or unconfirmed dates when nobody was home
-Nobody cleaned up the mess caused by the repairs
-The repair didn't actually fix the problem
-Sub needed 4 days advanced notice to schedule an appointment
-Sub only provides service during normal business hours
-Sub had to wait for approval from the builder
-Builder pulled the sub off of my repair to work on new construction
-Builder didn't inform the sub of the full extent of the repair

Like I said, these are just some of the problems I've encountered. Also, that list doesn't take into account all the problems that I've created for other customers in my former role as a construction manager for residential work. This is definitely an example of the pot calling the kettle black! I accept my mistakes, but I can't accept not doing anything to improve the way we handle warranty service.

The Lean Approach

So, lean thinker, what would you do differently if you were a construction manager? And you can't say "find another job." Here are some thoughts:

1) Eliminate Defects...This is a blinding glimpse of the obvious, but we should begin by eliminating the root cause of warranty service--poor quality. Fewer defects lead to better quality, so we should use all the lean tools at our disposal to eliminate defects: standard work, job instruction, job methods, poka-yoke, visual management, etc.
2) Hassle-Free Warranty Service...Since even Toyota can't achieve perfect quality, we must have a good warranty service process. This should be hassle-free for the customer. A big part of this is getting over the whole "we only set appointments for Monday thru Friday between 9 am and 5 pm, and we can't give you an exact time" mentality. That's just not practical for the typical customer. Most folks can't or don't want to take off several hours during a workday to wait around for a sub that might or might now show up on-time. And most of us don't want to leave strangers in the house alone, so it's not like we can just leave them a key or anything. Smart builders will work around the customer' schedule, which will often mean working on nights and weekends. Might this cost the builder more in the short-term? Absolutely. We'll either have to hire weekend crews or pay our normal crews overtime. We'll have to make our superintendents available over the weekend. This is reality. But, these short-term costs will be far outweighed by the long-term benefits of increased customer satisfaction. How much value would you assign to a customer who enthusiastically touts your customer service to everybody they know?
3) One-Piece Flow Warranty Service...In addition to being hassle-free for our customers, warranty service needs to be as productive as possible for the builder. By definition, any work done in response to poor quality is waste. Therefore, we should seek to minimize the amount of resources we have to expend to perform this type of work. As any lean thinker knows, the optimal approach to production is one-piece flow. As I've previously discussed here, we typically "batch" construction work into specialized trades performed by specialty sub-contractors (drywallers, electricians, plumbers, etc.) who strive for local optimization of their scope of work, even at the expense of the overall project. A better way would be to look at warranty repairs holistically, and put together cross-functional teams capable of performing all the work required for a particular repair. When I had a wall repaired at my home, I had to wait for the drywall hanger to tear out the sheetrock, then the framer to replace a stud, then the drywall hanger again to replace the sheetrock, then the drywall finisher to tape, mud, and texture the sheetrock, then the trim guy to replace the base board, and finally the painter to paint the drywall and trim. It took over a month for this to happen, partly because we had to schedule the installations around my work schedule. What a nightmare! This work could have been performed in less than eight hours on a single Saturday had the builder utilized a cross-functional approach.

So, that's my prescription for better warranty service. Use lean tools to eliminate as much of it as you can, make the process hassle-free for the customer by working around their schedule, and minimize the waste for the builder by employing one-piece flow via cross-functional teams. Now, what are the myriad reasons why we can't do this? Old-school thinking? Short-term costs? Tradition? Lack of leadership?

Are those reasons more compelling that the potential of becoming the Toyota of homebuilding?

Give Construction Workers a Break!

2009-06-24T11:10:00.010-05:00

When I was a kid growing up in Florida (home of the mighty Gators), I spent every hot, muggy summer working as a roofer for my dad. We tore off old shingle roofs and installed new ones at a frenetic pace. I would often find myself literally running across a roof with a handful of nails or a bundle of shingles. Pretty much on a daily basis I would come close to having a heat stroke (that's what running on a 120+ degree roof will do to you!). I just thought that killing yourself at work was part of the gig. Little did I know that I was experiencing firsthand what Lean thinkers call muri.

Muri is a concept borrowed from the Toyota Production System, and basically means "overburden, unreasonableness, or absurdity" according to Wikipedia. My experiences on those roofs all those years ago were definitely absurd, but not at all rare in the construction industry.

Typical Construction Industry Approach

We routinely ask our installers to perform superhuman feats: working in unbearable heat or in muddy conditions; carrying heavy materials by hand; performing ergonomically unsound installations that contort and strain the body; starting work at sunrise and finishing at sunset; and so on and so forth. This has happened since...well, forever. The excuse usually given is the old "Gotta get the job done come hell or high water!" adage. Or sometimes you get the "When I was young we didn't even take lunch breaks!" diatribe. What they really mean to say is "We have too much waste in our processes, so we make up for it by overburdening our people." or "We don't have faith in continuous improvement as a means for innovation, so we just go with what we've always done." Isn't that sad?

The Lean Approach

How would a lean thinker go about reducing muri on construction sites? As I've stated before, I'm not an expert in the Toyota Production System or Lean Enterprise, but here are some ideas:

Stand in the Circle...Construction managers should spend almost all their time on the job site, "Standing in the Circle" to deeply observe the work being done. This is different from just "making the rounds" from job site to job site. Being in a single place for an extended period of time exposes the senses to stimuli that we normally ignore, which helps us be more aware of working conditions. Once we are aware of what's happening on a job site, it's harder for us to overlook muri.
Team-Based Problem Solving...Construction managers should make it part of their everyday job to facilitate team-based problem solving. Make it extremely easy for employees, sub-contractors, inspectors, customers, and anybody else on the job site to make suggestions and have their ideas reviewed. Use a whiteboard posted on the job site to highlight problems that need to be addressed. Support experimentation with new installation techniques or new equipment. If we engage our people, they will tell us about the muri on the job site.
Manpower Planning...Think long-term when planning for manpower requirements. Scheduling extra manpower to avoid overburdening our people will certainly cost more in the short-term, but will result in tremendous savings over the long-term: reduced injuries leading to reduced WC costs; reduced employee turnover leading to reduced recruiting, hiring, training, and "new-guy" costs; and improved quality leading to reduced re-work costs.
Safety Planning...In the project safety plan, include provisions for good ergonomics and humane working conditions. Always provide sufficient ramps, scaffolding, ladders, etc. Have established standards for working in adverse weather conditions. Always provide creature comforts close to the job site: drinking water, toilets, hand cleaners, etc. Put a limit on the number of hours per week an installer can perform physical work. Rotate job tasks to avoid repetitive motion injuries.
Eliminate Waste!!!...Finally, the best way to reduce muri is to eliminate process waste from our work. Waste leads to longer completion times and additional costs, and forces our installers to work harder. If we remove waste, we create a win-win: the project is completed faster and cheaper, and our workers don't have to kill themselves to get the job done. It's obvious, if an installer doesn't have to walk out to the truck every five minutes to grab a tool, he can get the job done easier. If we're not waiting around for an answer from the architect on a change order, we don't have to work nights and weekends to finish the job on-time.

Your thoughts? What's holding us back from doing all that? Old-school thinking? Short-term costs? Tradition? Lack of leadership?

At some point (hopefully sooner rather than later), we need to get past the mentality that work is supposed to be hard. Work should be challenging, but not absurdly so. Work should be engaging (yes, even in the construction industry), not all-consuming. We can get past this historical barrier to operational excellence if we can accept that muri is a problem.

Batch & Queue Construction?

2009-06-05T09:39:00.008-05:00

Have you ever been in line at a sandwich shop where the "sandwich artist" was making three sandwiches at a time? You know, he pulls out three loafs of bread, puts the meat & cheese on all three sandwiches, wraps each of them in deli paper, and hands all three to the clerk at the cash register. It's happened to me, and I was not amused. Why? Because I was first in line out of the three, and I had to wait three times as long to get my sandwich. Not only that, but I had mine toasted and it was darn near cold by the time I sat down to eat it! Okay, I'm a little demanding of my eateries, but I can't help it; I'm a lean geek.

What does this have to do with Lean? It's all about batch-and-queue vs. one-piece flow (click here for a good explanation from the Shmula blog).

The Case for One-Piece Flow

In the lean manufacturing world, the debate on batch-and-queue production vs. one-piece flow production has long since ended (batch-and-queue lost). Anybody who has studied the Toyota Production System understands the superiority of one-piece flow: reduced inventory, early detection of defects, reduced transportation, more scheduling flexibility, and (most importantly) an increased organizational awareness of the need to solve problems preventively due to the lack of buffers in a single-piece flow.

So, where do we stand with respect to these principles in the construction industry?

Batch & Queue Construction

I've had a difficult time explaining my thoughts on this. My belief is that in the construction industry, we typically exhibit the traits of a classic batch-and-queue operation, even though we're not technically batching buildings together. Here are some of the similarities:

Work is done by specialized groups (concrete finishers, framers, drywallers, plumbers, electricians, etc.) dedicated to performing a narrow scope of work
These specialized groups try to optimize their own operations, even if that means a delay in the completion of a building
Item #2 above means huge amounts of time are spent waiting for the product to transition from one specialized phase to the next
Because of the delays between specialized work phases, the cause & effect trail of defects can go cold, resulting in fewer problems getting solved at the root cause
There is little collaboration between specialized groups, resulting in less innovation

Hey, lean geeks, does this sound familiar at all?

Lean Construction

So, what is the lean approach to construction? What could be done to move from a batch & queue approach to a one-piece flow approach? Do the construction folks think it's even necessary to make this transition in order to achieve operational excellence? Your thoughts? I certainly don't have all the answers, but here are a few pie-in-the-sky ideas:

Create multi-functional work groups, consisting of highly-skilled installers capable of performing a wide range of installations
Equip your highly-skilled installers with all the equipment (possibly custom-built equipment) necessary to complete a wide range of installations
Utilize visual management to encourage participation through shared information
Pre-fab as much as you can inside factories on lean assembly lines

I'm sure that experts like Dr. Michael Mullens with the Housing Constructability Lab or Hal Macomber at Reforming Project Management have a lot more to say about this subject than me, but those are my wild fantasies. Are they feasible? Your thoughts?

Short Attention Spans

2009-05-30T13:35:00.004-05:00

If you want to see people sleep, just put a bunch of construction folks in a classroom. We can't help it, but we're just more prone to stay awake when we're building something or pounding a few bottles of Shiner Bock (that's a Texas beer, for those of you having the misfortune of not living in the Lone Star State). We're just not house-cats, if you know what I mean. That's why I was happy to come across this article from the incredibly, incredibly, incredibly useful Gemba Pante Rei blog:

"One-point Lesson: One-point Lesson"

Basically, a one-point lesson is just a quick 5-10 minute learning opportunity focusing on a single topic (either basic knowledge, an improvement example, or a problem example). I think this is an ideal format for developing people in the construction industry. On construction sites, we're trained to "stay busy" and move from one task to the next. With this mentality, we need to have an efficient and focused way of training our associates.

P.S. Be sure to check out the free template that is provided in the "One-Point Lesson" link above; it's a good one.

Old-School Vertical Hierarchies

2009-05-18T08:23:00.009-05:00

As the saying goes, I wasn't born in Texas, but I ran here as fast as I could. When I arrived, I found that the Lone Star State produces some fine beer, specifically, Shiner beer...

While I could go on all day about the merits of Shiner Hefeweizen compared to the original Shiner Bock, that's not really the point of the above photo. What I want to discuss is how folks on large-scale construction jobs view the relationships between the prime contractors, secondary contractors, sub-contractors, and so on.

Typical Construction Industry Approach

In case you haven't figured it out yet, the construction industry typically views sub-contractor relations like the above photo...with each contractor dominating the one below it and being subservient to the one above it. An old-school rigid, vertical hierarchy. This is based on standard construction practice, which typically involves a contractor doling out aspects of the work to sub-contractors. In this arrangement, the contractor is viewed as the customer and the sub-contractor is viewed as the provider of the product or service. This is an external customer relationship, and it's repeated over and over again at each level of the hierarchy, so you can have dozens of external customer relationships on a job site. How fun! A bunch of people showing "respect" for their boss man above them. Old school mentality.

The Lean Approach

From a Lean perspective, I would say a collaborative model would be more effective than a rigid vertical hierarchy. If you've read Gemba Kaizen, then you know about the inverted pyramid that places management below the gemba (the place where the real work is done) in a support role. Essentially, the gemba is viewed as the internal customer of management, and I would say that prime contractors should view their sub-contractors as their internal customers. They should support them, not threaten them with punitive actions. They should identify and solve problems, not pass the buck just because the contract says they can.

Your thoughts? I'd be interested in learning if other traditional industries are as "old-school" in their relationships with vendors/suppliers. How would you rank your industry's level of collaboration on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being a rigid, vertical arrangement and 10 being a progressive, Gemba Kaizen-like approach?

All I know is that until the construction industry embraces Lean thinking and begins working more collaboratively, we'll be doomed to mindless obedience and endless frustration. Thank goodness we have beer.

Photos from the '09 International Builders' Show

2009-01-30T11:44:00.001-06:00

I posted a whole bunch of photos from the 2009 International Builders' Show over at my other blog. Check it out:

http://www.thegreeniuses.com/2009/01/pics-from-2009-international-builders.html

Guest Post @ Lean Six Sigma Academy

2009-01-09T15:22:00.005-06:00

Ron Pereira over at the Lean Six Sigma Academy was kind enough to ask me to write a guest post for his popular blog. Being totally stoked by last night's BCS National Championship game that my Florida Gators won, I decided to write about how Urban Meyer is in fact a Lean leader. Check it out: "Urban Meyer is a Lean Leader (and Go Gators!)"

From The Greeniuses blog: "Revolution in Consumption"

2009-01-07T14:01:00.002-06:00

Here a link to my post over at The Greeniuses blog where I discuss how much I hate waste in all its forms: "Revolution in Consumption"

A3's are Awesome

2009-01-06T17:12:00.008-06:00

Got this A3 from the Lean Enterprise Institute:

I'm a big fan of the A3 methodology. I loved Pascal Dennis' book "Getting the Right Things Done" and John Shook's new book "Managing to Learn." If there's a single mistake that sticks out among all the mistakes I've made in attempting to implement Lean at my company, it's that I didn't introduce A3 and Hoshin Planning earlier. By not having these systems in place, we failed to show how improvement activities were linked in with business results. This led to our Lean initiative being viewed as an ancillary activity not critical to the mission in times of desperation (like we're facing now in the homebuilding industry).

What about you, you lean genius? Did you have the knowledge and foresight to introduce the A3 approach early and often? Was it effective as they portray it in the books? What would you have done differently? By the way, I hate you because your were either smarter or more experienced than me (just kidding ya'll).

Book Review: "Creating a Lean Culture"

2007-08-10T07:29:00.000-05:00

I just finished reading "Creating a Lean Culture" by David Mann. I thought it was an excellent addition to the Lean library. Here's a quick recap of the highlights:

Lean processes need Lean management. As technical changes are made to the flow of work, we should concurrently make changes to our management system. A focus on PROCESSES (not just making the numbers) is a must. Changing the management system will eventually change the culture.
Lean management system consists of four principal elements: 1) leader standard work, 2) visual controls, 3) daily accountability process, and 4) leadership discipline
Leader standard work is the first element. Leader standard work consists of routine checks of many aspects of work (productivity, cleanliness, safety, quality, etc.). Redundancy is built in between management levels (team leads check on associates, supervisors check on team leads, production manager checks on supervisors, etc.).
Visual controls are the second element. Visual controls make it easy for front-line leaders to compare expected versus actual. They can be any type of visual communication that allows us to see the status of something at a glance. Visual controls are the link between the leader standard work and a daily accountability process (discussed next). Without visuals, it becomes nearly impossible to anticipate problems ahead of time.
A daily accountability process is the third element. This process takes the information that is gathered from the routine checks of front-line leaders and displays it in a visual way. Then, the information is assessed by the next level of leadership and any problems are addressed. There are three tiers of meetings: 1) associates w/ team leader, 2) team leaders w/ supervisor, 3) supervisors w/ production manager. Meetings should be brief (less than 15 minutes), held on the shopfloor with everyone standing, and centered around a visual display board. These meetings result in many follow-up assignments, which are tracked until completion. This allows front-line leaders to develop skills as project coordinators.
A visual improvement suggestion process supports Lean management. Basically, you just create a board with four sections: 1) Ideas, 2) To Do, 3) Doing, and 4) Done. Associates can easily suggest any idea, and then the board pretty much manages the information. As part of their leader standard work, Team Leaders follow-up on suggestions from their associates. This process allows everybody to have a voice, which goes a long way in gaining buy-in for Lean.

Most of these highlights come from the first half of the book. The second half deals with supporting elements of Lean management (the role of a sensei, gemba walks, leadership qualities, etc.). These are valid ideas as well, but I've often seen the same material in other books. The first half of the book has material that you don't see in too many other Lean books, and this is what makes this book an invaluable part of my reading list.

So, how does this all fit into our Lean initiative? Well, some locations are already implementing certain aspects of Lean management. I've seen a few examples of leader standard work, visual controls, daily accountability, and visual suggestion boards. They're all terrific tools, but only if accompanied by real Lean improvements (specifically improvements that contribute to the stability of our processes). Basic Workplace Organization (BWO) is designed to be an initiative that will create immediate improvement, that doesn't require any Lean expertise, and that will build discipline among our front-line leaders.

The key to BWO is the auditing process, which is a form of leader standard work (an element of Lean management). So, as the book suggests, we make real improvements while simultaneously implementing aspects of a Lean management system. That is the best way to sustain Lean improvements and build a Lean culture. That is what I learned from Mr. Mann's book.