June 2010

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 Leadership

Lean requires real leadership from top management and we lead best by action. Leaders need to do what they ask others to do. Middle management is usually the biggest barrier in implementing Lean. Don’t let anyone hold the effort hostage. Behaviors resistive managers often engage in are:

• Slow to respond to requests regarding Lean actions
  
• Never have time to read or implement Lean
  
• Always point out what “we can’t do” not how “we can” do
  
• Will say they have been doing Lean for years. (Maybe they have been doing some parts, but usually this is just a smoke screen.)

Lean leaders need to set the expectations and hold people accountable. Those managers that drag their feet should be addressed individually. They need to understand the bus is moving forward and they need to be on the bus or be left behind. We cannot allow them to delay progress. One of the biggest challenges senior managers deal with is a “maverick” manager. This is one who does not play by company rules and causes much grief among all the support functions. This person does bring in projects that appear to be profitable. I suggest “appear” because there are hidden costs including lost trust and extra work required behind the scenes, which are not accounted for in the job costs and even damaged customer relations. The jobs seem profitable, but years later when the complete picture is seen, the executives regret that they allowed the maverick to do manage jobs.

History shows that getting everyone on the same bus for Lean initiatives leads to greater success. Managers, superintendents and foremen, who are CAVE men (Critically Against Virtually Everything), slow the bus down and contribute nothing to improvement.

Steve Lage, a Lean consultant, suggest these three actions:

1. Identify behaviors that will be required to sustain lean. Spend time as a leadership team discussing and agreeing on what you expect. Every leader needs to agree to hold people accountable for the correct behaviors.
   
2. Communicate by explaining and showing your employees what you expect. Use all forms of communications to reach the employees: employee meetings, emails, letters, visual reminders, informal conversations, and performance reviews. This may seem like overkill, but it isn't. Behavior change is personal and only happens when people decide it is worthwhile. In addition, people will interpret your commitment to Lean in part by how much energy you put into it. A small amount of energy will be seen as a small level of commitment.
   
3. Change your behavior. People pay much more attention to what you do than what you say, so you must act in a way that shows them you mean what you are saying. This goes for the entire leadership team. Undesired behaviors need to be dealt with in person at the instant observed. If a manager or supervisor isn't dealing with behaviors, give them the choice to change and remove them if they make the wrong choice. In contrast, be sure to recognize and reward people who are doing the right things. Communicate examples of success with enthusiasm and offer praise to the early adopters of Lean.

- Taken from Steve Lage’s newsletter, March 5, 2010

Wrong Thinking

“I believe that Taiichi Ohno started us all on the lean journey with a straightforward intuition: wrong-headed thinking - misconceptions in his terms - adds unnecessary costs to any activity. The two most obvious misconceptions he fought against in his time were producing ahead of demand and keeping production running although something is not right” - Michael Ballé . Gemba Coach, 03/11/10

These misconceptions apply in construction too. We often fabricate or order material well ahead of the needed install date. Materials delivered to job sites are handled several times and may incur damage or theft. General Contractors often demand that subcontractors start work that is not ready to be done producing “show pipe” work. Often a trade will install material even when they know a change order is being processed. None of which adds value. Lean works best as we see this and other misconceptions as waste and change how we run jobs.

Muda Walk for a Month is Coming

There has never been a better time to attack waste and increase productivity. The Fourth Annual Muda Walk for a Month is coming this September.

During September I will email participants the weekly theme to use while doing a Muda (waste) walk in one’s company. The walk may be at a job site, in the shop, office or even a service truck. During the walk, participants will look for ways to eliminate waste and improve operations. The Muda Walk challenge is to do a walk at least one hour a week and best if it is done one hour each day. That may sound like a hard commitment to make, but those who invested the time in past years have reaped useful rewards. I ask that participants log the problems and improvements, and share them with me at the end of the month.

This is a free service, but participants must sign up by Aug 27, 2010. The first week of the Muda walk will start on August 30th. To register, just email your request

Lean Applied by a Lawyer

This blog is from a lawyer who practices Lean. (That may sound like a conflict of interest!) What he says can apply to any type of work, especially office and professional work. You might share it with your lawyer, bonding company and CPAs.

4 P’s of Lean

There are four “P” of Lean, they are:

• Principles – those concepts that form the foundation of Lean. These include: having a shared vision of true north, going to Gemba, involving people, focusing on value and driving out waste, experimentation (PDCA), quality right the first time, etc.
  
• People – the people who do the work, make Lean useful. These include employees, partners, suppliers and customers. You don’t do Lean to the people - you do it with them.
  
• Processes – all work is a process. Lean looks at processes as value streams – the sequence of steps that transform input into value added output. Work only improves as processes are changed so that value flows and waste is eliminated.
  
• Problem Solving – barriers and constraints keep processes and people from delivering value. Before effective countermeasures can be put in place, there needs to be a clear definition of the problem “gap” and its root cause(s).

The Last Planner System *

Basic concepts of the LPS

Effective planning is done when we are closer in the schedule to actually doing the work. We can plan in more detail and be accurate. The master plan with 10,000 detailed tasks can be modeled by planning software, but that doesn’t make it accurate or useful.

Collaborate with the people who do the work. Phase planning is more accurate because it is done with the trades who will perform the tasks. Look-ahead and weekly work plans work best when reviewed with the trades involved in the job.

Review and remove constraints as a team. Projects will not go 100% as planned, that’s real life. Constraints happen. What makes the difference between most projects and Lean projects is how the project team learns from barriers and constraints and finds ways to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Make reliable promises. The weekly work plan is a commitment plan. A foreman (Last Planner) can only make a commitment if he/she can say “no” when a task is not ready to be done. One should never promise what one does not reasonably feel can be delivered. Forcing a promise does not produce effective results.

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

Learning Opportunities

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

July 14, 2010 – Introduction to Lean – Full Day - Pasadena, CA – sponsor: LCI- LA Chapter, Registration details

August 2, 2010 – Lean Works in HVAC Service – Webinar – Sponsor SMACNA

Sept 30, 2010 – Lean Construction – It can work for you - Phoenix, AZ, Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy Mayeux at 480.966.0377

Oct. 11, 2010 - Lean Principles Based on Kaizen Blitz - at the Industrial Contractors Forum of the SMACNA 2010 National Convention, Phoenix AZ.

Oct. 21, 2010 – Gaining Customer Loyalty by Design - Phoenix, AZ, Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy Mayeux at 480.966.0377

Oct. 29, 2010 – Lean in Construction and Lean applied to Service at PHCC National Convention, Las Vegas.

Other Lean Events

June 29, 2010 - Managing Lean Design LCI – Waltham, MA, Sponsor: LCI New England LCI Chapter – Registration details

June 29, 2010 - Lean Construction: The Cutting Edge in the Industry (Part 1 of 3), - Woodbridge, VA, sponsor LCI NCR Chapter partnered with Quantico/Belvoir Regional Business Alliance. Registration details

June 30, 2010 - Integrated Project Delivery: Organization and Teaming, Houston, TX – sponsored LCI Houston Chapter, Registration details

July 13, 2010 - Lean Construction: The Cutting Edge in the Industry (Part 2 of 3), - Woodbridge, VA, sponsor LCI NCR Chapter partnered with Quantico/Belvoir Regional Business Alliance, Second in a series of three - registration covers all 3 events! Registration details

July 14, 2010 - A Full-Day LCI Chapter Overview of Lean Construction, Pasadena, CA, Sponsor: LCI and LCI LA Area Chapter, Registration details

July 14, 2010 A Half-Day LCI Chapter Overview of Lean Construction, Fairfield, CA, Sponsor: LCI and LCI NorCal Chapter, Registration details

July 20, 2010 - Integrated Project Delivery, Fairfax, VA, Sponsor: LCI NCR Chapter in cooperation with DBIA Mid-Atlantic Region. Registration details

July 20, 2010 - Lean Construction: The Cutting Edge in the Industry (Part 3 of 3), - Woodbridge, VA, sponsor LCI NCR Chapter partnered with Quantico/Belvoir Regional Business Alliance. Third in a series of three - registration covers all 3 events! Registration details

Sept. 21, 2010 - Parade of Trades applied to all construction and Lean in Engineering Design. Sponsor: LCI – AZ Chapter. Tempe AZ. - Event and registration details coming soon.

Week of October 18, 2010 - LCI Annual Congress - Boulder, CO, Check on calendar

A Quick Thought

We will not put into our establishment anything that is useless. - 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

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