7 Project Risk Factors That Can Be Improved By 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...

Enter value stream mapping!

Value stream mapping is a method of assessing your current state of operations and developing a streamlined and improved flow of the most value-based activities ranging from pre-construction planning to final project delivery. It allows you to take a hard look at all existing processes within your organization, and to change or eliminate those which present the greatest potential for inefficiency and failure.

Sounds involved right? Indeed it is. 

So, why devote the time and energy to practice value stream mapping?

Well, when deployed properly, VSM attacks organizational inadequacies at their core, which dramatically improves your ability to maintain budget and schedule-certainty.

Foremost, it gives you the insight and power to improve your bottom-line.

Just a simple awareness of the most common risk factors for overruns and schedule-delays in high performance buildings and construction projects can not only improve your ability to drive budget, schedule, productivity, and project delivery metrics, but can generate fundamental improvements in your entire work environment. 

Here's a list of 7 of the most common project execution risks or constraints which can be dramatically improved by value stream mapping:

• Financial – project costs too much due to scope uncertainties or complex technical issues affecting business profitability, competitiveness, and / or internal rate of return.
• Schedule – project delivered too late to meet a market window, which could put pressure on the project team for acceleration, affecting quality, safety, performance, market share, and / or cost.
• Quality – poor overall project quality due to materials, installations, or project acceleration affecting performance, functionality, and / or reliability.
• Safety- construction hazards due to installation requirements affecting insurance premiums, regulatory compliance, cost, and / or reputation.
• Technical – project complexity due to manufacturing process requirements, hazardous materials, or multiple systems that require coordination for installation and operation affecting process performances, reliability, and / or maintainability.
• Environmental – regulatory compliance for emissions, hazardous waste, or product safety affecting the business profitability, product safety, or market share.
• Teamwork and organizational- the people side of the project, teams working together that might not have worked together or do not understand the complexity of the project.

Continue to Part 2 of our series, where we deliver 4 tips on how to begin implementing VSM >> 

OR

Jump to Part 3 of our series, where we deliver 6 tips for success with VSM >>

Part 1 | 2 | 3

*Infographic Courtesy Economist.com and McKinsey Global Institute