An Introduction to Lean
Construction for Today’s
Construction Professionals
What it really means when construction teams decide to go Lean
The Ultimate Guide to Lean Construction for Today’s Construction Professionals
What’s Inside?
Inside
4 Introduction
6 Productivity Has Flatlined
6 The Problem Can Be Solved
7 The History of Lean
7 Modern Usage of Lean in Manufacturing
8 Five Principles of Lean
8 Principle 1 - Define Value
8 Principle 2 - Map the Value Stream
9 Principle 3 - Create Flow
9 Principle 4 - Establish Pull
9 Principle 5 - Pursue Perfection
10 Leveraging Lean Principles in Construction
10 Lean Construction is Different
11 Integrated Project Delivery
14 The Benefits of Building Lean
15 Improves Work Quality
16 Modern Tools Facilitate Lean Construction
18 Conclusions
2
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The Ultimate Guide to Lean Construction for Today’s Construction Professionals
Introduction
If you attend a conference or participate in professional development related to
productivity in the construction industry, you will surely hear Lean Construction
come up. It’s become a popular buzzword in reference to the many different ways
to boost productivity on a construction site–but what does it really mean?
Lean Construction is the application of Lean production management and
manufacturing practices to construction project delivery. This includes the entire
construction industry (owners, designers, architects, engineers, general contractors,
subcontractors and end users) and not simply the work that occurs during the
construction portion of a project. In the 80s and early 90s, Lean production
techniques changed the efficiency and profitability of manufacturing across the
world. These techniques are now enthusiastically being applied by progressive teams
to a broad range of industries ranging from healthcare, services, retail and more.
Today’s construction professionals are looking for ways to maximize value and
efficiency and minimize waste, essentially doing more with less. Applying Lean
Construction management principles to a project and continuously assessing ways
to eliminate waste and inefficiencies achieves:
• Increased productivity
• Reduces waste
• Enhanced quality
• Advanced execution–less fire-fighting
• Improved operations–smoother flows
• Reduced operating costs
4
"It’s estimated that construction teams
in the US will lose $177 billion in non-
productive labor activities. The loss
includes looking for project data and
information, conflict resolution and
dealing with mistakes and rework."
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The Ultimate Guide to Lean Construction for Today’s Construction Professionals
Productivity Has Flatlined
Productivity improvements in the construction industry has flatlined in recent
decades compared to other industries like information technology, manufacturing
and agriculture. From PlanGrid and FMI’s report, “Construction Disconnected,” it’s
estimated that construction teams in the US will lose $177 billion in non-productive
labor activities. The loss includes looking for project data and information, conflict
resolution and dealing with mistakes and rework. Additionally, the report estimates
that poor data and communication contributes to $31 billion in rework. With this
level of waste across the globe, it’s no wonder that many organizations are looking
for ways to positively impact productivity and ultimately their bottom line.
This is a Problem That Can Be Solved professionals don’t perceive that there
If we assume that significant is a need for a change or acknowledge
productivity gains are possible in that there is even a problem.
construction, then there must be
opportunities for improvement that Nonetheless, looking at how Lean
are not currently being addressed. principles have revolutionized
Project owners are likely overpaying productivity in industries such as
for projects due to poor productivity manufacturing, construction teams
and general contractors suffering can begin to understand how Lean
from increasingly low profit margins Construction is a framework that
due to inefficiencies. What should be can boost efficiency and profits.1
most alarming is that many industry
6
The History of Lean
The first person to begin really streamlining the production process was Henry Ford
in the early 1900s.2 In 1913, he pioneered what he called flow production, which was
later referred to by the public as the moving assembly line. Ford was the first to line up
fabrication steps in a process sequence to better fabricate and assemble the components
of a vehicle in a matter of minutes. This was a revolutionary change in contrast to
practices of the time where general purpose machines were simply grouped by process.
Modern Usage of Lean • Workflow standardization→removing
in Manufacturing waste
The term Lean was first used to • Decentralized process improvement
describe the production principles responsibilities–workers as more than
applied in automobile manufacturing. cogs in a machine→adaptability and
flexibility towards improvements
It was coined by John F. Krafcik to
describe a production policy he • Just-in-time inventory
observed at automotive manufacturing system→remove waste
plants. The plants were able to • High emphasis on teamwork→respect,
produce a wide range of models, mutual trust and peer development
while still maintaining the highest
levels of productivity and quality.
In manufacturing, a team can analyze
the efficiency and productivity of a
Krafcik asserted that the use of
product over and over again until
technology did not yield the desired
they are able to nearly perfect the
impacts on quality and productivity if
process and the product’s quality. In
it’s applied without proper production
construction, most aspects of a project
management policies. Krafcik defined
are essentially a prototype. There is
the key policies applied at the most
no other previously assembled copy
productive plants, which have become
to refine that has the same conditions,
the basis for Lean production principles
same people and same process. Even
and the last 30 years of Lean studies:3
so, there are still many lessons and
principles from Lean manufacturing
that can be applied to construction
in an effort to achieve higher levels
of productivity and quality.
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The Ultimate Guide to Lean Construction for Today’s Construction Professionals
Five Principles of Lean
The Five Principles of Lean originate from a book titled “The Machine That Changed The
World.” This includes defining value, mapping the value stream, creating flow, using a pull
system and pursuing perfection. The goal of these five principles is to encourage creating
a better flow in work processes and developing a continuous improvement culture.
Principle 1 - Define Value to identify all activities required to
The first Lean principle defines value take a project from raw materials to
as the customer’s needs for a product. the final delivered product. Activities
It is vital to fully understand your that do not add value to the customer
customer’s needs. By using qualitative are considered waste. Waste can
and quantitative techniques (interviews, be broken into two categories: non-
demographic information, web value added but necessary and
surveys, etc.) you can uncover what non-value added and unnecessary.
customers want, how they want it Non-value added and unnecessary
and the price they’re willing to pay.4 activities are pure waste and should
be eliminated. Non-value added but
Principle 2 - Map the Value Stream necessary should be reduced as much
Identifying and mapping the value as possible. Reducing and eliminating
stream is the second principle of Lean. waste ensures that customers are
The goal of this principle is to use the getting exactly what they want
customer’s value as a reference point for the lowest possible cost.4
8
Principle 3 - Create Flow improved, the time required to deliver
The third principle of Lean is to the customer is also improved. A
creating flow. Once waste has been pull-based system allows for just-
removed from the value stream, it’s in-time delivery and manufacturing
important that the remaining steps where materials are delivered in only
flow smoothly without delay or the necessary quantities and work is
bottlenecks. Strategies to achieve completed at exactly the right time for
this include breaking down steps, the next step in the process to begin.
reconfiguring production processes, A pull-based system is driven directly
leveling out the workload, creating by the needs of your customers.4
cross-functional teams and training.4
Principle 5 - Pursue Perfection
Principle 4 - Establish Pull The first four Lean principles
Establishing pull is the fourth principle of prevent waste, but the fifth step
Lean. In a pull-based system, the goal of pursuing perfection may be
is to manage inventory and in-progress the most important step. Pursuing
work items to ensure that the materials perfection means making the Lean
and information needed for a smooth principles and process improvements
flow of work are available. If your flow is a part of your company culture.
This empowers your entire team
to strive for perfection and deliver
exactly what your customer needs.4
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The Ultimate Guide to Lean Construction for Today’s Construction Professionals
Leveraging Lean
Principles in Construction
In order to make Lean work for your organization, it’s important to remember that
this is a long term strategy. It makes much more sense to apply Lean techniques
globally instead of on a project by project basis. Your employees will learn the benefits
of Lean over time, making the techniques easier to apply on future projects. More
importantly, concepts like waste reduction need to occur on an ongoing basis and your
employees will further improve when they are empowered to act on Lean principles.
Lean Construction is Different Construction guiding principles.
When contrasting how Lean is applied The lack of predictability is the crux
in manufacturing versus construction, of the typical construction model.
it’s easy to recognize how different Unpredictability results in lost time,
a construction project is from the waste and stress. Lean Construction
majority of manufacturing plants. In is focused on predictability and flow,
manufacturing, a team can analyze thus eliminating most negative aspects
the efficiency and productivity of a from the typical construction model.5
product until they are able to perfect
the process and quality. In construction, Lean Construction forces all parties
each project is different and the to have clear goals, benchmarks and
lessons learned today may not apply objectives from end to end of the
to the next project down the road. construction process. Lean philosophy
ensures the team is maximizing
Today’s typical construction models performance at every level, focused
utilize the mass production mindset. on the goals of the customer. The silo
This means that every job is allocated effect of the traditional construction
to just one group with little or no model is eliminated, forcing everyone
interaction between stakeholders on the project to collaborate as a
(owners, architects, general contractors, single customer-focused group.5
subcontractors, etc.). The siloing
of work goes against all the Lean
10
Integrated Project Delivery their items on the pull plan. This also
To defeat the silo effect in typical gives them a forum to formally hand off
construction models, a new project work and ask for help when necessary.
delivery method has started to
become popular called Integrated For step by step instructions on how
Project Delivery (IPD). IPD is a cost to get your team set up for IPD, see
and profit sharing delivery method the American Institute of Architect’s
that eliminates typical contract official guide titled “Integrated
barriers and incentivizes all team Project Delivery: A Guide.”
members to make “project” decisions
rather than “trade” decisions.6 Last Planner System and IPD
One of the key tools of Lean is the
IPD allows you to create mini- Last Planner System (LPS) (also known
organizations that last for the length of as Pull Planning), which is a work plan
a single project to power that project method that is based on the following:
to success. When you bypass the 1. Creating a backlog of
traditional methods of running a project, tasks that are ready for
you can streamline it. IPD is uniquely execution (make-ready)
suited to put Lean Construction
2. Committing on tasks that will
principles into practice because it
be achieved in the next sprint–
has solved the contractual issues that
weekly work plan (e.g., one week,
prevent true collaboration–empowering
two weeks, three weeks, etc.)
team members in the sharing of
ideas, materials and manpower. 3. Reviewing and assessing the
success of those commitments–
The main goal of Integrated Project track progress, remedy issues,
Delivery is to create a team that feedback and learnings
can work together well enough to
power the project for success. This When implementing the Last
team works together for the length Planner System, detailed knowledge
of the project and may include of exactly where your team is at
members from a variety of disciplines every stage of the project (progress
including owners, contractors, tracking), and where they can
subcontractors, architects and others. execute most productively in the next
sprint (look-aheads) is required.
Note: An effective Lean strategy to
implement is holding daily pull planning When a team can closely monitor
huddles. Get your team together each their progress against the planned
morning for a 6 minute huddle where all commitments, it allows decision makers
the trades come together and update to identify potential upcoming risks and
work towards mitigating or eliminating
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The Ultimate Guide to Lean Construction for Today’s Construction Professionals
them before they occur. This process Look Ahead Planning
is very different from the status-quo, During look ahead planning, teams
where the people that are able to identify clear constraints that will
make course-correcting decisions are prevent upcoming work from being
the last to know when a commitment completed as planned. The goal
or plan isn’t progressing as expected. is to mitigate these constraints
In traditional methods of planning, the before they become a problem to
project manager or superintendents the project. Ideally this is occuring
frequently find themselves reacting four to six weeks out to best prevent
to fires and inefficiencies after problems from occurring.7
they’ve impacted the project, rather
than having the opportunity to Commitment Planning
eliminate problems proactively. On a weekly basis, teams should meet
to discuss current and future work in
Industry expert Michael Carr breaks progress. The goal should be to commit
down and defines the five steps to the approach to achieve completion
of The Last Planner System as7: of all work for the upcoming week.
It’s important to meet on a weekly
Master Scheduling basis, with daily huddles in place to
Teams should begin building their fully support the weekly meeting.7
master schedule as soon as possible.
All work will be based on this schedule, Learning
so it’s vital to complete it early. Master One of the most crucial points of
scheduling is the process teams use to Lean and Last Planner is learning.
schedule a project from start to finish. Teams must continually improve
It’s important that the full project is by taking notice of what went well
captured, with early phases being well (plusses) and what did not (deltas)
defined from the onset of the project.7 and actionably managing their
projects based on the successes and
Phase Scheduling challenges they’ve encountered.7
Phase scheduling is a collaborative
planning and sequencing of tasks to For more detail on getting started
complete the phases of work defined with the Last Planner System, check
in the master schedule. This is typically out the PlanGrid Blog “An Intro to
accomplished with Pull Planning as a the Last Planner System” written
team where they work backwards from by industry expert Michael Carr.
clearly defined milestones and identify
all tasks in detail required to complete
the milestone with satisfactory
handoffs occurring between tasks.7
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Prefabricated Construction
Since Lean Construction leverages
prefabrication wherever possible,
reduction in material waste is also
a great opportunity for gains in
profitability. More controlled production
environments allow for analyzing the
materials and the processes much
closer and maximizing the use of all
raw materials. Minimizing the need
for inventory and surplus materials
generates savings that can then be
invested back into the business.
By using prefabrication, laser scanning
and augmented reality–hospital owners
are able to apply Lean principles
and modularize how they fit out their
new facilities. Teams can take a kit-
of-parts approach by leveraging 3D
modeling to design repeatable and
reusable equipment, furniture, interiors,
above-ceiling components and in-wall
components. These design features
are created to be reusable in any new
facility, going against the traditional
‘one off’ design process that most
hospitals have undergone in the past.
By introducing this level of repeatability,
the cost and design time for future
hospital facilities decreases significantly.
This strategy is useful for any type of
owner that builds multiple facilities
with similar design requirements.
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The Ultimate Guide to Lean Construction for Today’s Construction Professionals
The Benefits of
Building Lean
One of the most important principles of Lean Construction is that when you
optimize a single step in a process, you de-optimize the rest. Traditional construction
contracts divide each team member on the project into separate silos solely
focused on optimizing their own part of the work, which de-optimizes the whole.6
Lean Construction principles help optimize the entire project
by maximizing value and minimizing waste by applying specific
techniques to the project delivery process. This results in:
• The project and its delivery process are designed together to better
reveal and support the customer’s intent. Positive iteration within the
process is supported while negative iteration is minimized.
• The work process is structured to maximize value and
reduce waste at the project delivery level.
• Efforts to improve total project performance are amplified because it’s a more
important goal than reducing the cost or speed of one single activity.
• Control over the project is defined as “making things happen” instead of simply
“monitoring the results,” with planning and control system performance being measured
and improved.
Reliably managing work between specialists in design, supply and an assembly
means value is delivered to the customer and waste is reduced. Lean Construction
principles are especially useful on complex, unclear and fast-track projects.
These principles challenge the common belief that there will always be a
tradeoff between time, cost and quality. When applying Lean Construction
management principles, the key benefits that can be achieved include:
14
Improves Work Quality outcome. When owners know that
Lean principles and the integrated their best interest is at the core of
project delivery process relies every decision that is made on the
heavily on trust and respect of all project, the speed at which issues are
people involved, resulting in a higher resolved in significantly increased.
emphasis on communication and Decision making and contributions are
team performance. When a team decentralized, which allow the project
is working as a unit and not in the to move quicker towards closeout.
traditional adversarial way that has
existed in the construction industry– A project team that can promptly
every stakeholder feels empowered resolve any blockers has a better
to highlight areas where more value chance of staying on schedule and
and quality can be obtained. tracking to budget. All of these
factors lead to a happy owner–and
Increases Employee Collaboration ultimately to more contracts, work
and Accountability and profit for everyone involved.
Lean Construction management
relies heavily on the collaboration Increases ROI
of the entire team. Managing a Companies have reported an
Lean Construction project involves increase in productivity through the
empowering all teams to contribute to application of Lean Construction
the continuous improvement process management principles to a project,
through collaborative problem-solving. translating to an increased return
on investment. Production rates are
One way to achieve streamlined, open the core measurement units that a
collaboration between all stakeholders subcontractor or any “producing” party
on a project is by utilizing technology on a project base their estimates on.
and software that facilitates Ultimately, meeting the production
communication and problem-solving. rate used for an estimate is the key
to being profitable. Any increase
Boosts Project Satisfaction in productivity reduces the risk of
Knowing which aspects of a project losing profit. Apart from the increase
are regarded as the most valuable in productivity, any reduction in
to the owner and end users allows waste–whether actual material
teams to make the best, quickest waste or procedural waste–results
decisions without jeopardizing the in overall efficiency of the project.
15
The Ultimate Guide to Lean Construction for Today’s Construction Professionals
Modern Tools Facilitate
Lean Construction
The good news is that software tools can help facilitate going Lean on your
projects. The core of many construction productivity tools (like PlanGrid)
can help facilitate the level of collaboration needed for Lean and IPD. When
all members of the team can communicate, collaborate and contribute
with real-time information and access, many of the traditional problems
associated with construction project management are drastically reduced.
The right technology can help with project planning (scheduling, estimating,
constructability), communication (bidding, meetings, etc.), document
management (sheet management, shared documents), reporting (daily reports,
asset tracking, time tracking), punch lists and facility management.8
Using collaborative tools to enhance and overcome IT and communications
challenges improves both efficiency and productivity. Data and documentation flow
are improved, and workers on-site are better able to convey needs and concerns
to those in the office in real time. By facilitating this communication, construction
brands can improve their customer experience and increase revenues and profits.
Today’s construction tools enable teams to focus on the Lean tenant of
pursuing perfection by more easily facilitating continuous improvement
and learning. Modern technology is one of the most strategic tools you can
employ to create value and eliminate waste on your construction projects.9
16
"Today’s construction tools enable
teams to focus on the Lean tenant
of pursuing perfection by more
easily facilitating continuous
improvement and learning."
17
The Ultimate Guide to Lean Construction for Today’s Construction Professionals
Conclusions
It’s clear that the decision to implement practices like Lean Construction,
Integrated Project Delivery or the Last Planner System should not be
taken lightly. There are costs of time and money to consider and the
rollout of any of these systems should be planned thoughtfully with
participation from everyone that will be impacted by the changes.
Traditional construction practices have remained the same for many years, so
getting buy-in from your team may initially be a challenge. Consider a pilot
project to showcase how Lean can work for your organization, allowing you
to build momentum and expand the program over time. During the pilot it’s
important to emphasize the benefits of Lean practices (greater project autonomy,
less waste, clearer workflows, easier handoffs of completed work, etc.). This
is an opportunity to show your team that going Lean will not make their jobs
more difficult and will ultimately give them a better platform for success.
References
1 Resistance to Lean & Integrated Project Delivery Part I: Three Root Causes, Victor Ortiz, August 2017
2 A Brief History of Lean, Lean Enterprise Institute
3 5 Unexpected Benefits of Lean Construction Management, Rebeca Ayala, February 2018
4 The Five Principles of Lean, Doanh Do, August 2017
5 An Introduction to Lean Construction, Conrad Mackie
6 IPD & Lean Construction, Integrated Project Delivery Collective
7 An Intro to the Last Planner System, Michael Carr, June 2018
8 How Technology Enables a Lean Approach to Construction, Jennifer Suerth, February 2017
9 Software Enables Lean Construction Methodology, Constructiontech Staff, November 2015
18
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is the first construction productivity
software that allows contractors and
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Guide Author:
Eric Thomas
Content Marketing Manager, PlanGrid
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