This e-newsletter is written by Dennis Sowards to share ideas on the 5S’s and Lean practices especially as they are applied in construction. If you have ideas or lessons learned to share please contact me.

Lean Leaders

Lean does not happen by chance. It requires champions and leaders. Most Lean initiatives fail because they have weak or no leadership. What is a "Lean Leader?" Lou English, a Lean consultant, describes them as: “a person who first and foremost is willing to learn. Willing to admit that they don't know the answer in a traditional culture that rewards them for having all the answers. This is a person who is willing to see, go to the place where the problem is occurring and actual see what is happening. This in a traditional culture that says the further you are away from the place of production the more successful you are.”

”The Lean Leader is a person who is willing to dismiss all the ‘success rules’ (loyalty, reactivity, financial analysis...) that got them the position they have today. They have the courage to replace those ‘success rules’ with new ones, based on very different premises about mass production and people. This in turn threatens everyone's status, accomplishments and knowledge about the best way to manage the business.”

“In my opinion this lack of Leadership is why the Lean way of doing business is struggling to take hold in this country and Europe. It’s not the tools. They have been around for 50+ years. It is the Leadership with its ROI, you do it first mentality. When what is needed is the ability to understand and lead from a new set of principles and the courage to follow through even when the data doesn't justify it.” (1)

Jim Womack describes the problem with typical American leadership in this way: “I would say that's the biggest single change in management mentality, to step back and say, ‘Gosh, the reason why we're fighting fires all the time is we don't have any fire marshals around here. We've got an incredible fire department with the very best equipment and the fastest, brightest trucks, but we don't do any fire prevention at all.’ That, I would say describes American management at this point: brilliant at fighting fires, but not adept at all at preventing fires. And to take our poster boy company, that's what Toyota historically has done so well, is to put bullet-proof processes in place for product development, fulfillment, order delivery and supplier management so that actually things work, as opposed to ‘nothing works, but that's okay because we've really got some bright people on it and we'll get back to you, boss, in four days with an answer.’ That's a big, big difference in what managers think they do.” (2)

Construction managers are very much as Jim describes, great at putting out fires and weak on preventing them. How does one change to Lean Leadership? It starts with a personal commitment to Lean. One must believe in it even when no one else in the company cares. One must start as a Lean ‘pioneer’ in construction. Pioneers didn’t have all the answers of how things would work, but they started out towards a goal. A Lean Leader needs to gain enough knowledge to know what Lean is and then try something. Typically the 5S’s is a good tool to apply. A Lean leader can do the 5S’s in his/her area. That includes his or her own office or workstation. Leaders walk the talk. The Lean leader will also champion the Lean cause every time he/she has a chance. Getting others to try it is important. It’s like getting people to ride a bicycle, show them the benefits, teach them the basics and get them on the bike. Sure there will be some falls but the leader helps them to keep trying because once mastered, riding a bicycle is much better than walking everywhere. Are you a Lean leader or champion?

Sources:
(1) Lou English PhD. NWLEAN: Digest Number 1816, Nov. 2, 2007
(2) Thought Leaders -- Lean On Me, More from Lean guru Jim Womack. By David Blanchard, IndustryWeek, Dec. 1, 2007.

Lean Paint?

Why paint your shop walls? It ‘s more than just for the benefits of painting and improved lighting. It is even more than the possibly of achieving better quality because you can see better. “It delivers the (possibly subliminal) message that management cares about their shop floor associates. This is a powerful message that can (and has) led to lower absenteeism, more suggestions and small improvements, and generally better relations between management and the shop floor, among a host of impacts that are hard to correlate directly to the cost of painting. “

“When the Japanese automotive transplant companies started to look for local suppliers, they based a good deal of their opinion of a potential partner on how light and bright the work areas were, and how clean and pleasant the washrooms in the plant were. These
demonstrate fundamental aspects of one of the pillars of Lean - Respect for People. Quality and delivery can always be improved, but without the basic attitude that shop floor workers are associates, and a key part of the business, long term partnership is not possible in a Lean supply chain.”

Source quoted: Anders Nielse, NWLEAN: Digest Number 1861

The Last Planner

One key action of the Last Planner System is removing constraints to make tasks ready to be done. The Look-ahead plan serves as a check-sheet to identify what constraints exist for each task. Here are the top five actions to take to remove constraints:

1. Review the Look-ahead plan each week in the week coordination meeting. Ask what constraints apply to each action.
2. Commit to resolve each constraint identified. This is done by requesting of the person, who owns the constraint, a promise to address it. A promise will have a specific action to take and a due date.
3. Record the promises on the meetings actions list and review it during each weekly meeting.
4. Do not let work that still has unresolved constraints move on to the weekly work plan.
5. Review the work that was not done as planned the past week (see last week’s weekly work plan’s variances.)

Do not automatically move an unfinished task to the next weekly work plan if it was judged to not be ready as the cause of variance.

2 Bin System

To learn more about how a two-bin system works, watch this short video

Learning Opportunities

You may be interested in attending one of these training seminars:

• Feb. 21, 2008 – Lean applied to Construction - Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy
• March 3, 2008 – Lean Works in Construction, Oakland, CA – Sponsor: Bay Area SMACNA Chapter – contact Audrey Kerns at (510) 635-8212. Must be a SMACNA member to attend.
• March 20, 2008 - 5S’s Any CEO would Love - Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy
• April 3, 2008 – Lean Contracting Practices, SMACNA – SMWIA –2008 Partners in Progress, Las Vegas, contact
• April 17, 2008 – Job Planning that Works - Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy
• 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
• May 21, 2008 - Lean Works in Construction, Portland, OR – Sponsor: Columbia SMACNA Chapter – contact Tom Goodhue at 503.220.2303. Must be a SMACNA member to attend.

Other Lean Construction Institute sponsored events
March 6 -7, 2008 – Introduction to Lean Construction: Foundations, Opportunities, and Implementation - Hilton Garden Downtown, Denver, CO

***************** A Quick Thought
"Failure to change is a vice! I want everyone at Toyota to change and at least do not be an obstacle for someone else who wants to change."
-- Hiroshi Okuda, Senior Advisor, board member and former chairman of Toyota Motor Corp.

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