Lean & 5S' in Construction #14 Sep 2006

***************** Be a WASTE BUSTER
Over production of product is WASTE. We create waste when we produce more than the customer needs or than is needed at that time. In construction this often happens when we fabricate material too early. We do this so we can keep the shop workers busy. It happens when we stockpile material either in the warehouse or at the job site. Even estimating jobs that are not won is waste. If we print more blueprints or make more copies of a report than needed, it is overproduction and waste. Performing work ahead of schedule that interferes with other planned work is also waste. We can easily see the waste of overproduction when the job is over and there are many materials left over. We must spend more time and resources handling this excess material. Even if the vendor credits us with the returns there is still waste including all the paperwork in our and the supplier’s offices. Be a waste buster and don’t over order or do work before it is needed. Better planning by the field in ordering will also reduce waste. The Last Planner System can help field supervision learn how to effectively plan the work. How much costs are hidden in this one waste?

***************** Fly Lady hits the spot
If you haven’t heard about ‘Fly Lady’ you may be missing a great opportunity to organize your home and personal life. Fly Lady (see www.FlyLady.net) provides daily reminders, lists, coaching and advice for individuals to clean up the messes in their homes and to declutter their lives. She has over 200,000 Internet subscribers who receive daily email reminders of how to improve and declutter. Many of her ideas are right in track with Lean tools and techniques. Consider how she describes a hot spot

Attack a Hot Spot. Fly Lady says “A Hot Spot is an area, when left unattended will gradually take over. My favorite analogy is of a hot spot in a forest fire, if left alone it will eventually get out of hand and burn up the whole forest. This is what happens in our homes. If left unattended, the hot spot will grow and take over the whole room as well as making the house look awful. When you walk into a room, the hot spot is the first thing you see. Your eyes are locked on it. Over the years my hot spot has migrated. As a child it was a chair in my bedroom. I would pile it to the ceiling. Right now I have two hot spots in my home: the dining room table and the bed in the extra bedroom. The dining room table is a staging area. We put the unopened mail there, as well as any thing that needs to go to the basement. Some times you cannot see the top of the table. This is the first thing I see when I walk into the kitchen. Granted, the pile has only been there since last night, but if I don't deal with it first thing in the morning, it will collect many more items by evening. CLUTTER ATTRACTS CLUTTER. The bed in the extra bedroom is just the same. I use it as a place to put things that don't have a home. Do you have areas like this that continue to grow if left alone? Does the rest of the family see this as a place to put things when they do not want to put them where they belong? It is our job to NIP this in the bud. Get rid of that pile, find the surface underneath, and stop the Hot Spot from becoming a raging Clutter inferno!”
We have hot spots at work as well. These exist in the office, especially in the site trailers, in the yards and we have mini hot spots in the gang boxes. As she says Clutter attracts clutter and in construction, Boy! Do we have clutter! Use the 5S’s to attack clutter and cool these hot spots off. Tools she suggest to help attack hot spots are:
Do a 5 minute Room Rescue. Spend just 5 minutes a day clearing a path in your worst room or hot spot area. Just 5 minutes a day for the next 27 days and you will have a place where you can be proud to take anyone.
Use the 27 Fling Boogie to help you declutter your hot spot. Do this assignment as fast as you can. Take a garbage bag or box and walk through your trailer, shop, yard or office and throw away 27 items. Do not stop until you have collected all 27 items. Once you have 27 items – dump them and move onto your more pressing tasks. If in the end you have any you just can’t throw away, decide the place it should go, put it there and label or mark it so you and everyone else knows where it goes. Try this with your desk or on your truck. Why 27? I don’t really know but by limiting it and focusing your time, try to can get a lot done in a short time. We are all too busy and often overwhelmed to take on the whole world. Any one of us can find 27 items to get rid of. It feels good to make some progress.
Fly Lady focuses mostly on home applications but her ideas apply at work too.
Source: www.FlyLady.net)

**************** Three Key Ingredients to Sustain Lean
According to The Hon Company’s VP and General Manager Todd Murphy, the three key requirements to sustain a vibrant Lean effort are:
o The sensibility or the ability to see processes that need to be improved
o The passion or desire to improve them, and
o The tenacity or the will power to do the hard work needed to improve the processes

Todd should know as his plant was selected as a winner of IndustryWeek’s 2005 Best Plants for its Lean success. This includes that they have reduced their costs by $7 million in one year and increased profitability by 27%. They also reduced their warranty costs by 32% to 0.22% of sales. Todd says that every employee had been trained in Lean techniques and has opportunities to improve the processes they work on. Since their employees share in the profits they also have a passion to improve their operations and bottom line.

Source: The Hon Co.: IW Best Plants Profile 2005, Oct. 01, 2005

**************** Last Planner System * – The Look-ahead Plan
The purposes of the Look-ahead planning process are to:
• Shape workflow sequence and rate
• Match workload and capacity of the crews
• Magnify master schedule activities into work packages and operations
• Develop detailed methods for executing work
• Perform a constraints analysis to make the work ready to be done. (Turn Should Do tasks in to Can Do tasks.
• Maintain a backlog of ready work

Each week, the 6-week look-ahead process will look one week further into the future and if all are ready, its first week will roll over to become the Weekly Work Plan. The look-ahead process yields a Look-ahead Plan by selecting, sequencing, and sizing work we think ‘can be’ done. It uses current status information and forecasts about anticipated availability of resources to develop the detailed tasks of the plan. Look-ahead activities that do not meet the quality criteria of the Last Planner System will have to be made ready. (Note that some companies use a 4-week look-ahead horizon.)

The Look-ahead Plan is a breakout of the detailed/phase schedule. The schedule activities are magnified into more detail when creating the Look-ahead Plan. Magnifying activities means expressing tasks in greater detail. Both the Look-ahead and the Weekly Work Plan increasingly magnify tasks to be performed, taking into account actual circumstances. The Look-ahead and the Weekly Work Plan cover shorter time spans into the immediate future while reflecting greater confidence that work will be executable.

Each activity listed on a Look-ahead Plan needs to be screened through the constraints analysis process. As soon as an activity is listed, it is checked against the standard list of constraints and any unique constraints. Planners should not proceed to list additional activities until the constraints are noted, or the planners are assured no constraints exist. When constraints have been identified, the planning team agrees on an appropriate action plan to remove the constraint, and that plan is summarized in the comments section of the Look-ahead Plan.

The superintendent/PM working with the foremen develops the Look-ahead Plan. Together they perform the constraints analysis by looking at each magnified work task or assignment and determining what constraints are keeping it from being ready to be done. For example, for installing 100' of ducting through a plant, the constraints could include:
Safety – Pre-task plan and receiving supervisory approval
Contract / C.O.s - Original Contract or approved change orders, insurance certificates on file
Design - Contract drawings, engineering drawings
Submittals - Submitted & approved shop drawings
Requests for Information (R.F.I.) - Submitted & answered
Materials – Fabricated and on-site, or have confirmed delivery dates
Labor - Available & Qualified Manpower
Equipment - On-site or Reserved
Prerequisite Work - Tasks that must be completed prior to activity
Space - Available storage and working areas

Some tasks are within our control meaning we can take the action necessary to have the task ready to be performed. Other tasks or work assignments are not in our control so we will need to make a request of others. PM's are often able to address many of the constraints by themselves. Other constraints require the help of team members and people outside the project. It is important to obtain promises each time one goes to another person for help in removing a constraint. Requests must be clear who is being asked to take action, what outcome is wanted, and by when. It is important to be direct and persistent about getting these promises. When someone fails to remove a constraint, the work will not be ready and the project can't proceed as planned. We need closure from the person we are making the request to so that we have confidence that the task will meet our needs. If we do not have the confidence in their commitment, we will need to follow-up to ensure the task is ready to be performed when we are ready.
We don't want to schedule work that has unresolved constraints. The goal is to schedule work that should, can, and will be done.
From the Lean Construction Institute, here are the top five ways to get reliable promises from others:
1. Stay involved with people who make promises to you.
2. Offer help in meeting the promises.
3. Be open to renegotiating conditions of the promise.
4. Let your performers know at the first opportunity when your requirements change, especially when you no longer need them to perform the task.
5. Show your appreciation for their effort and always thank them for producing the result

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

**************** Learning Opportunities
You may be interested in attending one of these training seminars:
• Sept. 28 – Planning That Really Works – The Last Planner System – Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy at contact Cathy at pipetrust@qwest.net
• Sept. 14-15 - Introduction to Lean Construction - Albuquerque, NM. register online at http://www.mollyguard.com/event/31948559
• Oct. 9 – Measuring Customer Loyalty – SMACNA National Convention – Phoenix AZ – Sponsor: SMACNA
• Nov. 7 – 10 - The LCI Annual Meeting
o Nov. 7 -"A Brief Introduction to Lean Construction"
o Nov. 8 – 9 - Lean Project Best Practices.
o Nov. 10 – A day of reflection and discussion. Registration at http://www.leanconstruction.org.
• Nov. 30 - Designing and Achieving World-Class Performance in Construction– Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: PIPE & 469 JAC, contact Cathy at pipetrust@qwest.net
• Nov. 30 – Dec. 1 - A Lean Design Forum meeting - Berkeley, California. For more information please contact ghowell@leanconstruction.org.
• Dec. 6 – Lean Construction is not a Fad Diet – Phoenix, AZ – Sponsor: Arizona Builders Association
• Feb. 13, 2007 - Lean Construction is not a Fad Diet - Chicago, IL, Sponsor: Chicago CFMA chapter

***************** A Quick Thought
“Like it or not, competition will take care of those who cannot change.”
Kiyoshi Suzaki, The New Manufacturing Challenge
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.
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