Department of the Environment,
Transport and the Regions
Rethinking Construction

CHAPTER 3
Improving the Project Process

Production of Components

  1. There is no reason why construction's approach to component production should be radically different from that used by today's leading manufacturers of consumer products. It should involve the detailed planning, management and sustained improvement of the production process to eliminate waste and ensure the right components are produced and delivered at the right time, in the right order and without any defects. The Task Force believes that construction has a great deal to learn about effective logistics management: the industry would do well to study the experience of the retail and distribution industries and vehicle manufacturing in this respect.

Production of Components
  • Detailed engineering design of components and sub-assemblies.
  • Planning, management and continuous improvement of the production process.
  • Development of a range of standard components which are used in most projects.
  • Production of components and sub-assemblies to achieve 'right first time' quality.
  • Management of the delivery of components and sub-assemblies to site exactly when needed.
  • Measurement of the performance of completed components and systems.
  • Learning from experience about product performance and durability.
  • Innovation in the design of components to improve construction products.
  1. Component production also includes the sustained commitment to innovation in the design of components, and development of a range of standard components which are used in most projects. By working closely with the product development teams component manufacturers can push forward the boundaries of client aspirations. The construction industry very often fails to educate the client about what improvements in products are available and this is an especially serious omission when dealing with smaller clients who are naturally less familiar with what is available.

Sustained Improvement

  1. Once the integrated project process has been put in place the next step is to maintain the momentum of the increases in efficiency and quality that it offers. The key to this is to implement a programme of sustained improvement of the construction process to eliminate waste and increase the value that it adds to the client. Again the Task Force has turned to other industries with experience of success in this area for guidance.
  2. We have investigated the emerging business philosophy of "lean thinking" which has been developed first in the car industry and is now spreading through the best manufacturers and into retailing and other industries. Lean thinking presents a powerful and coherent synthesis of the most effective techniques for eliminating waste and delivering significant sustained improvements in efficiency and quality.
  3. We are impressed by the dramatic success being achieved by leading companies that are implementing the principles of "lean thinking" and we believe that the concept holds much promise for construction as well. Indeed, we have found that lean thinking is already beginning to be applied with success by some construction companies in the USA. We recommend that the UK construction industry should also adopt lean thinking as a means of sustaining performance improvement.

What is Lean Thinking?
  • Lean Production is the generic version of the Toyota Production System, recognised as the most efficient production system in the world today. Lean Thinking describes the core principles underlying this system that can also be applied to every other business activity - from designing new products and working with suppliers to processing orders from customers.
  • The starting point is to recognise that only a small fraction of the total time and effort in any organisation actually adds value for the end customer. By clearly defining value for a specific product or service from the end customer's perspective all the non value activities, often as much as 95% of the total, can be targeted for removal step by step.
  • Few products or services are provided by one organisation alone, so that waste removal has to be pursued throughout the whole value stream- the entire set of activities across all firms involved in jointly delivering the product or service. New relationships are required to eliminate inter-firm waste and to manage the value stream as a whole.
  • Instead of managing the workload through successive departments, processes are reorganised so that the product or design flows through all the value adding steps without interruption, using the toolbox of lean techniques to successively remove the obstacle to flow. Activities across each firm are synchronised by pulling the product or design from upstream steps just when required in time to meet the demand from the end customer.
  • Removing wasted time and effort represents the biggest opportunity for performance improvement. Creating flow and pull starts with radically reorganising individual process steps, but the gains become truly significant as all the steps link together. As this happens more and more layers of waste become visible and the process continues towards the theoretical end point of perfection, where every asset and every action adds value for the end customer. Lean Thinking represents a path of sustained performance improvement and not a one-off programme.

Applying Lean Thinking in Construction

Pacific Contracting of San Francisco, a specialist cladding and roofing contractor, have used the principles of lean thinking to increase their annual turnover by 20% in 18 months with the same number of staff. The key to this success was improvement of the design and procurement processes in order to facilitate construction on site, investing in the front end of projects to reduce costs and construction times. They identified two major problems to achieving flow in the whole construction process - inefficient supply of materials which prevented site operations from flowing smoothly, and poor design information from the prime contractor which frequently resulted in a large amount of redesign work.

To tackle these problems Pacific Contracting combined more efficient use of technology with tools for improving planning of construction processes. They use a computerised 3D design system to provide a better, faster method of redesign that leads to better construction information. Their design system provides a range of benefits, including isometric drawings of components and interfaces, fit co-ordination, planning of construction methods, motivation of work crews through visualisation, first run tests of construction sequences and virtual walk-throughs of the product. They also use a process planning tool known as Last Planner, developed by Glen Ballard of the Lean Construction Institute, to improve the flow of work on site through reducing constraints such as lack of materials or labour.

Applying Lean Thinking in Construction

The Neenan Company, a design and build firm, is one of the most successful and fastest growing construction companies in Colorado. The firm has worked to understand the principles of lean thinking and look for applications to its business, using 'Study Action Teams' of employees to rethink the way they work. Neenan's have reduced project times and costs by up to 30%, through developments such as:

  • Improving the flow of work on site by defining units of production and using tools such as visual control of processes;
  • Using dedicated design teams working exclusively on one design from beginning to end and developing a tool know as 'Schematic Design in a Day' to dramatically speed up the design process;
  • Innovating in design and assembly, for example through the use of pre-fabricated brick infill panels manufactured off site and pre-assembled atrium roofs lifted into place;
  • Supporting sub-contractors in developing tools for improving processes.

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Published 16 July 1998