The
construction agency is badly broken and needs fixing, How can an industry work
on rising up and meeting the challenges of customer demand for a better
quality, improved profitability and the shortage of workers that are actually
skilled and know how to do their jobs right?
The first step that should be considered is to cast aside the not
invented here syndrome and embrace a time tested manufacturing solution, the Toyota production system commonly called lean. Why should construction company
managers even consider lean as a way to improve their business, here are some
facts that will open your eyes about the construction industry in the United
States.
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Most
of the time is spent waiting or fixing mistakes critical
shortages exist is those workers that are skilled or qualified.
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The
return on equity for construction pales in comparison to all other industries
in the US An
average working for construction shows only 40% efficiency customers
are mostly frustrated with poor quality, confrontation, excessive change
orders, and scheduling delay.
these are some of the same or similar issues, Japanese companies like Toyota faced in the 1950’s. Lean construction can help remediate the dire conditions described above. While lean is no gold or silver bullet, lean construction offers substantial improvements to the problems facing the construction industry? If construction companies want to prosper in the 21st century then they should go on towards lean thinking.
Now
the question that comes is, Why is there so much waste?
Construction projects are so fragmented. Many times subcontractors do their
work disregarding how what they do impact the work of other subcontractors. We
call this the "throw it over the wall' mentality. One functional
department ( in this case subcontractor) completes its part of the project and
throws it over the wall to the next department (subcontractor) who throws it
back over the wall because it isn't right. This mentality sub-optimizes the
performance of the entire project creating quality and schedule problems. Lean construction is a very systematic application of lean thinking to the design
and construction of buildings that do what clients and end users want value.
Lean thinking was evolved over the last 50 years and as revolutionized a few parts
of manufacturing and is now facilitating significant improvements in the way
service organizations like hospitals banks etc. are meeting customer
requirements.
Adopting
lean thinking requires sustained work over a number of years. There are no
instant solutions. For most people, lean requires a change in the way they
think and the behaviors that support their actions. There are many things that
lean organizations do that can be copied
partnering, supply chain management, value stream analysis, flow and
things related to these, but they are only lean when they are done with lean
intent. That requires lean thinking around how the organization
works.
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