Modular offsite construction, also known as prefabrication, offers several advantages for the construction of utility intensive high-tech facilities. By fabricating modular assemblies offsite and delivering them to the job-site complete, the time, cost, and safety liabilities associated with traditional stick-built construction are greatly reduced. Below, we will explore specifically how modular construction improves safety both on and off the job-site:
Topics: modular construction, construction safety
Inventory waste, also known as excess inventory or overproduction, is one of the eight wastes commonly identified in Lean Construction principles. It refers to the accumulation of materials, components, or finished products beyond what is immediately needed for the construction project. This excess inventory ties up capital, occupies valuable space, and can lead to various inefficiencies and problems within the construction process.
Below, we take a closer look at 8 consequences of inventory waste within the context of Lean Construction:
Topics: 8 wastes of lean
Transportation waste in Lean construction is defined as the unnecessary or inefficient movement of any materials, inventory, supplies or personnel related to a construction project.
In determining what is necessary versus wasteful transportation, it's important to identify whether the associated time, resources and energy that goes into a specified transportation activity are actually necessary to improve the final product or outcome.
Anything that is not necessary for improvement is seen as waste.
Topics: 8 wastes of lean
In today’s construction industry, over 90% of global infrastructure projects are either over budget or over schedule [1]. As present-day construction productivity metrics continue to sputter, stakeholders are feeling the pressure to find better tools and solutions to minimize project overruns and their impacts.
Topics: construction productivity
Construction risk can come in many forms including logistical, technical, managerial, and financial [1]. Through the adoption of Lean based principles, offsite manufacturers, contractors and owners alike have been successful in keeping common industry-related risks to a minimum.
Practicing lean established methods can maximize company efficiency, improve productivity, minimize waste, and reduce many construction risk factors for all participants and stakeholders.
Change is inevitable and critically necessary to influence competitive progress. Execution models need to change. It's real...and it’s referred to as a “nuclear” resource issue for the construction industry. With bidding wars for talent, construction projects at ten year highs, job creation growing 2x faster than labor pool availability, and 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day (which is most of our labor talent population today), we face a resource challenge to say the least.
Non-Utilized Talent is a key waste described in the lean construction ideology. It is a waste that is often hidden behind more tangible ones such as defects, time and transportation. This waste pertains to the loss or incomplete use of human capability and resources within a production process.
Topics: 8 wastes of lean, non-utilized talent
NEHP is pleased to welcome Adam Bowen to our growing roster of Construction Productivity experts. Adam has been hired to fill the position of Pre-Construction Manager, bringing with him two decades of project management expertise as well as an advanced degree in the same field from Wentworth Institute of Technology.
Adam has relocated to Vermont for this position, and will be in charge of project evaluation, team alignment and scheduling, logistical management, as well as refinement and integration of program management systems and processes to ensure our continued delivery of lean-driven and value-engineered projects.
Topics: pre-construction manager, careers
JIT Delivery, or just in time in construction, is an inventory management approach designed to eliminate waste by "receiving goods only as they [are needed] for production processes." [1] While JIT delivery is most often correlated with combating the issue of inventory waste, it is also perfectly applicable to the elimination of D.O.W.N.T.I.M.E and all of the 8 wastes of lean construction.
In construction processes, inventory waste is generally the result of unnecessary stockpiling of materials due to over-estimating and over-ordering. But it can also include and lead to the unnecessary use of said materials, thus translating to a whole host of wasted effort, time, and material.
A common risk (and constraint) to construction project schedules is the availability of project materials. Project materials can include anything from building materials, to office supplies, to tools, equipment needs, and even personnel.
Often times construction firms must procure materials and services from various suppliers who do not work in unison, but rather have multiple commitments of their own to complete and varying deadlines to complete them under.
All of these puzzle pieces must be carefully planned and aligned to keep construction deliverables flowing, schedules intact, and project costs in check.
Topics: construction productivity, lean construction, construction planning
Over the last 50 years many businesses in the manufacturing industry have dramatically improved their production protocols. Those businesses have achieved strong results by adapting methods from the Toyota Production System (TPS). The core tenet of TPS is to eliminate waste and improve efficiency, thereby earning the system the general name of 'lean' manufacturing.
Now, more and more industries are finding useful applications of 'lean' within their own productivity agendas.
Topics: value stream mapping, construction productivity, lean construction
The Last Planner System (LPS) is a workflow method developed by the Lean Construction Institute to increase worker productivity and accountability through tight scheduling and detailed group planning.
Last Planner is seen as a managerial approach on how to efficiently run a construction project. The guiding principle of the system is to ensure that each contractor and subcontractor on a construction site can manage their workload, while holding them responsible for the work they promised to complete.
In Part 1 of this series, we laid the groundwork for why KPI's can be an indispensable tool within the construction industry and we examined a handful of general KPI types.
Here we will provide a simple example of some construction KPI's in action.
Topics: construction productivity
When it comes to project management, the construction industry is perhaps one of the most logistically complex and unique industries there is.
Within a single construction project there can be multiple timelines, budgets, interests and vendors - and there's often a multitude of different contractors working on any number of punch-list items in any given area. While this hustle and bustle may seem efficient and productive on the surface, it can also be the source of miscommunication, confusion and lost assets.
Topics: construction productivity
We spend an unfortunate amount of time in our lives waiting. Some calculate this to be as much as 20% to 40% of our daily activities. Waiting at work, or at home, often amounts to nothing more than unproductive time, wasted time.
In the 8 wastes of lean, waiting waste can be attributed to inactivity or working slowly in a process, delays stemming from failure to complete a previous process or wasted time waiting for the next step in a process to begin.
Topics: 8 wastes of lean, lean time management
Overproduction is defined as any type of production that is more than needed or before it's needed. It can result in excess inventory and it consumes time, effort, money, materials and resources that could have otherwise been spent more effectively elsewhere.
With regard to construction productivity, modular off-site fabrication can help combat overproduction waste on large-scale process utility projects.
Topics: 8 wastes of lean, overproduction, lean construction
At the end of our value stream mapping series, we explored the concept of VSM as a mechanism for continuous improvement. The idea is that construction firms can utilize value stream mapping to continuously improve, identify, prevent, and eliminate the 8 wastes of Lean from impacting the productivity of their organization.
To that end, it pays to take a closer look at what constitutes the 8 wastes of lean and how each lean waste can disrupt a company or construction program.
Let's begin with Defects!
Topics: value stream mapping, 8 wastes of lean
In part 2 of our value stream mapping series, we provided a few essential tips for getting started with VSM. Now we will focus on to how to gain traction with the concept and reach and maintain a level of success.
Mapping the flow of value provides a great opportunity for people to align themselves and their work processes.[1] By encouraging value stream conversations and dialogues within your team, people will naturally begin to identify what they can do to improve.
Topics: value stream mapping
Value stream mapping is just one among dozens of Lean Construction principles, concepts, processes and practices designed to improve construction productivity and efficiency.
Also known as lean execution, it is a method of mapping the flow of a project or process based on its current state-of-being, and defining a future state from a careful analysis of all the working components.
Topics: value stream mapping
In today’s market, owners demand projects to be delivered on time, on budget, with high quality and without any injury. In order to meet these demands and improve project efficiency we need to truly understand project flow and the constraints that hinder value and productivity.
If we were able to better predict or plan for project unknowns, project risk, and non-valued added activities, we would be able to influence improvements in all phases of the construction process...