Just Start Doing It

In May of this year, Mike King attended my presentation at the ASQ World Quality Conference in Houston. Michael works for Duro-Last Roofing, Inc in Saginaw, Michigan. He took the 5S’s back to his operations and has already reported some success. He writes:

Hi Dennis,
I am slowly implementing the lean 5s into our lab, So far by just moving
Things around I have saved 53% in wasted travel time on how we do lot acceptance. I did a flow map of the lab and saw that our work area needed to be condensed to optimize our process. I am happy with the results so far and I am eager to learn more.
Michael J. King
Quality Control Tech.
Duro-Last Roofing, Inc

You can do find improvements too. Go to Gemba and watch for waste.

The Last Planner System

How could my project be over budget? I’ve kept my workers busy the whole job! Have you ever asked this? Hal Macomber offers this insight:

”Someone asked, "What do we do when we are already busy? We'd like to improve but we don't seem to have the time for it." It just so happens the same group manages the project staff to virtually 100% utilization. They do it by seeing that everyone has more than one thing to do. The reasoning is understandable. So much of what we work on in projects is not ready for completion. People are expected to do what they can, then go on to another task. All the while, they keep their utilization high. This is a usual condition, particularly in engineering organizations and professional services firms.
High utilization is not equivalent to high productivity. Managers fail to realize the cost of the repeated de-mobilizations and re-mobilizations of work. Not only is that mobilizing time a pure waste, but for knowledge work and creative work the performer has fallen out of flow. The quality of the work has to suffer. Managers also fail to see they can do something about the exact issue they are responding to. They can set out to make work ready.

Ready work can be promised reliably. Ready work can be performed uninterrupted. Ready work completes on a predictable basis releasing work for others in the same predictable way. Ready work is simply more rewarding for the performers. It is a principal responsibility of the project manager and the planning system to make work ready.

The Last Planner System of Production Control is an approach for planning and preparing the work of the project team. In doing so, a principal source of variation -- planned work in an unready state -- is minimized. Oh, but we (the project team) don't have the time (capacity) for making work ready. What a shame. Stop”
How are you are doing with the Last Planner? Here are some tips to improve:

Top Surefire Ways to Continue to Improve Project Work Reliability
Commit yourself and your team to improve reliability.
Be clear why that is important to the success of your project, for your customers, your company, and the team members.
Act with data. Record your PPC and plan variances on Pareto charts.
Practice the actions for pursuing perfection:
Use Plus /Deltas Reviews at the end of meetings
Look at what is going well and replicate it
Support each other. Be encouraging and unconditionally constructive. Celebrate throughout the life of the project”

* Last Planner System is a trademark of the Lean Construction Institute.

Kaizen & the Floods

I recently led a Kaizen Event for Climate Engineers. We looked at the burn table and how to improve the processes surrounding it. We identified some real opportunities for improvement. Little did we know that two days after the Kaizen event another significant event would happen! Climate Engineers is headquarters in Cedar Rapids Iowa and as many of you know on June 12 and 13 they experienced massive flooding. At first Mark Watson and the management team thought they were safe from the flood, not being located on the river. But this was a 500-year plus flood. Their shop and newly finished offices were flooded with five feet of water. Like most contractors, they had no flood insurance but do have a strong will to fix up and keep going. They are working through the challenges. Some of their employees suffered significant damage to their homes and/or vehicles. Climate Engineers has set up a relief fund to help the employees. It has donated $5000 to the fund and other friends and contractors have also made contributions. If you are interested in participating please, mail your check to PO box 401, Cedar Rapids, IA 52406. Make it out to: Climate Engineers Flood Relief Fund.

Learning Opportunities

You may be interested in attending one of these training seminars:
July 29, 2008 - Lean Works In Construction – presented in the morning, Applying the 5S's for Lean Construction presented in the afternoon, Tulsa, OK, sponsored by SMACNA of Oklahoma, Inc., Contact: Terry Elliott at (918) 838-3223.
July 30, 2008 - Planning that really Works - The Last Planner presented twice, once in the morning and again in the afternoon, Tulsa, OK, sponsored by SMACNA of Oklahoma, Inc., Contact: Terry Elliott at (918) 838-3223.
August 1, 2008 – Leadership and the High-Performing Contractor, Phoenix. AZ. Sponsor Arizona Builders Association.
August 5, 2008 – Leadership and the High-Performing Contractor, Phoenix. AZ. Sponsor Arizona Builders Association.
Oct 2, 2008 – Lean Works in Construction, Seattle, WA – Sponsor: SMACNA - Western Washington Chapter – contact Joanne Williams at 206 285-4144. Must be a SMACNA member to attend.

Other Lean Learning Opportunities:

October 28-31, 2008 - 10th Annual Lean Construction Congress, Boulder Colorado Sponsor: Lean Construction Institute

I also provide customized Lean training for individual companies – let me know how I can help you.

A Quick Thought

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goals.
- Henry Ford

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