LEAN construction delivery is the solution to the AECOO sector’s track record of poor productivity. While LEAN processes have been deployed just as successfully as in the manufacturing, software, and other areas, penetration has been anemic. Less than 5% of the AECOO currently uses LEAN construction, and even fewer do so optimally.
LEAN, whose first successful implementation is credited to Henry Ford and the automobile industry, provides several benefits. Perhaps the most important benefit of LEAN however is its ability to limit variation.
The AECOO industry suffers from an inability to control variation. Certainly there are multiple variances from project to project, including but not limited to, labor skill requirements, capabilities, and availability, location/site issues, weather, construction means and methods, material/equipment costs and availability, regulations, and procurement processes. Nonetheless, the AECOO’s woes are not due to project dissimilarities, but rather, in how participants have historically planned for and reacted to them.
LEAN Construction Delivery Methods provide …
- The ability to leverage the skills and resources of teams with varying competencies and requirements. Teams under Varying Site, Regulatory and Weather Conditions,
- Tools to optimize knowledge, information, and prior experiences.
- Flexibility to adapt to changing needs and conditions with minimal risk,
- Procurement systems based upon Best Value
- Shared risk/reward
- Financial Transparency
- Common Data Environment
- Access to current, defensible, and actionable information