Lean proves its value to us on every project we construct, primarily by reducing wasted time, resources and opportunities. Dodge Data & Analytics recently established that “high Lean-intensity projects” were three times more likely to be completed ahead of schedule than conventional projects, and twice as likely to be completed under budget, according to owner-provided data.

How does Lean help to increase budget and schedule reliability?

One reason Lean is so successful is that it encourages active participation and input from every member of the team—both the people doing the hands-on work, the project executives and clients. In construction, we tend to hire people from the “neck down”, and we fail to use people as a complete physical and intellectual resource appropriately. By asking for their input, the project benefits both from their experience and expertise—not just their labor.

The Last Planner® System, a hallmark of the Lean construction approach, requires us to continuously check in with all the many people involved in a project. The term “last planner” refers to the people on the team who plan work to be assigned to specific performers and ensure that they have the materials, equipment and information available to complete their assignments. Last Planner improves both schedule and budget reliability using four distinct steps: Plan, do, check and act. Here's how it works:

Plan: Stakeholders, specifically including the last planners such as foremen, project managers, superintendents, collaborate at a phase meeting, also called a “pull planning”, held at the inception of each major phase of the work. It's a meeting involving a network of commitments from the actual 'doers' of work. By meeting together before the work begins, we expand the master schedule to include input from every last planner, ensuring that we include every perspective and process involved in the upcoming phase of the project.

Do: Having input into the schedule creates a sense of project ownership for all stakeholders and forms the basis of schedule that has been vetted for realistic timelines and expectations. As each subcontractor carries out their particular trade, the sense of ownership established at the phase meeting helps to maintain transparency and collaboration during task handoffs, issues or delays.

Check: A meticulously detailed and transparent Look Ahead Plan allows the project management team to easily check activities against the weekly work plan and hold every participant accountable for their work commitments. Because collaboration and mutual respect are established from the beginning, these conversations become a productive dialogue focused on understanding the root causes of issues and finding solutions as a team.

Act: Transparency allows the team to act rapidly to ensure that we meet our weekly commitments. Sometimes this means replacing specific sub-contractors or team members. For example, one Skender project manager noticed a consistent decline in productivity of the electrician on the job through the weekly Planned Percent Complete metrics. The project team rapidly discovered that the electrician was going out of business, and wouldn't be able to complete the job. The Lean process made it possible for us to see the warning signs and to make an immediate change. The project still finished early.

Where do you find waste is most easily found—and eliminated?

The construction process. Time and money slip away in many ways that were previously thought to be unavoidable. For example, errors in design/production that require rework are avoidable. Construction professionals can help their clients avoid extra time and costs by planning a look-ahead schedule day by day.

Overproduction is another place we find efficiencies. Producing or ordering material before it is needed or ordering extra material can create waste. We suggest managers focus on the last responsible moment and schedule deliveries to arrive just in time, rather than amassing large bundles of materials early.

Inventory is another area of opportunity. Storing unused, unnecessary product as a result of overproduction can be costly in time and money. To eliminate wasted inventory space, we only produce or order as much of a material as needed

Is wasted time wasted money?

Not exactly. However, keeping on schedule is a huge factor in staying on or under budget. When you eliminate wasted time, cost savings almost universally follow. We reduce wasted time by creating opportunities to work on parallel paths. Time spent waiting for equipment, information, plans, material and time sheets is unnecessary. Working with subcontractors who you know will deliver on schedule can save the time you'd waste waiting on less reliable collaborators.

A lot of time is wasted transporting people and materials—the unnecessary movement of materials, tools or parts between crews and processes. Designing a project site to minimize transportation of material will avoid the time and effort wasted on moving product. Any movement of people that does not add value to the process represents waste; some can be avoided by ergonomically designing the physical workspace.