Lean & 5S's in Construction - Dec 07, #29

What would Santa be like if he went Lean? – Answer is at the end of this email.

****************** How to Lead Lean
Lou English shares his views about how leadership must understanding Lean and be convinced of its value enough:
“To pay attention to it through goals, measures, problem solving and seeing it working every day.
To learn about it without trivial debate or challenge,
To speak about it at every opportunity,
To recognize its successes no matter how small.
To learn from its failures and not give up
To stop and replace processes that are counter to its principles
To replace people who are not willing to learn and change
To accept that as leader, you are the change agent, the initiator, the teacher, and that responsibility cannot be delegated
To risk loss of control and future career advancement in order to put into place new ‘success rules’ for all levels management which support a fundamentally new way of producing product, delivering service and utilizing the human resources of your company.”

Source: NWLean Digest #1826

****************** Lean Design
Set Based decision-making is used by Toyota to obtain better designs. It is starting to be applied in the AEC industry. Set based decision-making is “broadly considering sets of possible solutions (in parallel and relatively independent) and gradually narrowing the set of possibilities to converge on a final solution. Gradually eliminating weaker solutions increases the likelihood of finding the best or better solutions.” *

This tool can be used during pull planning sessions. In this approach, the design would be left open intentionally to allow the session participants to propose various ways to construct a specific component or structure. By keeping the design open, it allows the subcontractors to add value with their expertise. Toyota finds that this technique gives better value to the final product and customer. What it can do for construction is still being explored?

* Source: Traditional Lean Tools, Baker Concrete Construction, 9th Annual LCI Congress, Nov. 7, 2007

****************** SAT update
In the last newsletter I wrote that I was not aware of any teams who have used Study Action Team (SAT) for projects. Scott Muxen of Herrero Contractors shared this information about their use of SAT. “I also wanted to let you know that we use SAT at many project sites with great success. Some of the books we have used successfully are "The Toyota Way", "Product Development for the Lean Enterprise", "Who Moved My Cheese", "Learning to See", and Five Dysfunctions of a Team". I am preparing to start one titled "More Balls than Hands" and am currently reading one as a possible candidate for initiating change on a project called "Our Iceberg is Melting" by John Kotter of Harvard Business School. One of the keys to success is to really make the process a Study Action Team (SAT) process by identifying specific actions that are surfaced by the group that pertain to your specific project.”

Thanks to Scott for sharing. What can you share?

****************** Lean Article
If you don’t subscribe to Quality Digest, you might be interested in this article: Go to
http://www.qualitydigest.com/nov07/articles/02_article.shtml

**************** The Last Planner – Pull Planning
When doing pull planning Dean Reed of DRP suggests these points:
Learn in action – try it and learn from your efforts
Have the most current drawings available
Small phases work great
Work from the end back – plan from the future
It is hard to do at first and will feel uncomfortable – keep at it and it becomes easier with practice
Clarify hand-off criteria and interactions
Encourage debate and discussion
Work to make it fit within the milestone
End by identifying the next phase and when it will be planned

**************** Learning Opportunities
You may be interested in attending one of these training seminars:
Jan. 15 & 17, 2008 – How to Make Meetings Work (For You) - Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy at pipetrust@qwest.net
Feb. 21, 2008 – Lean works in Construction Too - Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy at pipetrust@qwest.net
March 20, 2008 - 5S’s Any CEO would Love - Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy at pipetrust@qwest.net
April 3, 2008 – Lean Contracting Practices, SMACNA – SMWIA – 2008 Partners in Progress, Las Vegas, contact http://www.pinp.org/conf08/registration.htm
April 17, 2008 – Job Planning that Works - Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy at pipetrust@qwest.net
May 6, 2008 – 5S’s in Construction – ASQ National Conference, Houston, TX
May 15, 2008 – Problem Solving Lite: Root Cause Analysis - Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy at pipetrust@qwest.net

The Lean Construction Institute sponsors this workshop:
Jan 10-11, 2008 - LCI and P2SL Design Forum, Berkeley, CA, Registration and additional information at http://designforum.eventbrite.com.

***************** A Quick Thought
“If you don’t make mistakes, you can’t make decisions. You can’t dwell on them.”
- Warren Buffett

For more information about Lean applications to construction and especially the 5S’s contact Dennis Sowards at his office at 480-835-1185 or his cell at 602-740-7271 or at his web site: www.YourQSS.com