LEAN CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURES (LCP®)
LEAN Challenges
Construction Industry - LEAN renewal
The crisis for change summarised above for FORD and the Japanese car industry above was echoed by Sir John Egan in his report on the construction industry, Rethinking Construction (1998). It was to advise the Deputy Prime Minister from the clients' perspective on the opportunities to improve the efficiency and quality of delivery of UK construction, to reinforce the impetus for change and to make the industry more responsive to customer needs. It was commissioned by the Deputy Prime Minister to assess the efficiency of the UK construction industry.
EGAN gives the industry 4 out of 10 for skin deep approach - 10 years after report. The report, whilst acknowledging that some parts were world class, concluded that most of the industry was failing to perform satisfactorily, particularly in terms of cost, quality and time.
LEAN Challenges Facing the Construction Industry |
|
Strengths & Opportunity |
Weakness & Constraints |
The industry thrives on managing constant change at project level. |
The workforce and staff tend to be itinerant. Groups of Co-Workers seldom stay together for long periods. |
In high Risk activities there is a history of focus on planning and review. |
The use of supply chain materials and services is often varied, regional and short term, rather than regional and long term focused. |
Standardisation also has an important role to play in improving the design stage of construction. The average car contains about 3,000 components. |
A house, by comparison, has about 40,000. There is a useful way of dealing more efficiently with the complexity of construction is to make greater use of standardised components. |
Exchange of design information throughout the construction |
Redesign should take place on computer, not on the construction |
An essential ingredient in the delivery of radical performance improvements in other industries has been the creation of long term relationships or alliances throughout the supply chain |
Short term relationships from Client based procurement strategy. |
Selection of partners Should not be about lowest price, but ultimately about best overall value for money |
Competitive tendering has a tendency to focus on lowest price. Partnering implies selection on the basis of attitude to team working, ability to innovate and to offer efficient solutions. |
Clients need to take a lead in providing the LEAN change environment |
Client leadership |
Alliances offer the co-operation and continuity needed to enable the team to learn and take a stake in improving the product |
Advertorial and claims orientated attitude |
New Technology |
Specification, Implementation and acceptance of New Technology |
A "crisis for change" exists in order to maintain a sustainable construction Industry |
People Issues, Innovation, and Sustainable Construction |
Funding and workload FLOW |
Funding and workload FLOW |
OGC: common causes of project failure |
APM: component of project governance |
|---|---|
Lack of clear links between the project and the organisation's key strategic priorities, including agreed measures of success |
1. Portfolio direction 2. Project sponsorship |
Lack of clear senior management and the higher level ownership and leadership |
2. Project sponsorship |
Lack of effective engagement with stakeholders |
2. Project sponsorship 3. Project management |
Lack of skills and proven approach to project management and risk management |
3. Project management |
Lack of understanding of, and contact with, the supply industry at senior levels in the organisation |
3. Project management |
Too little attention to breaking development and implementation into manageable steps |
3. Project management 4. Disclosure and reporting |
Evaluation of proposals driven by initial price rather than long-term value of money (especially securing business benefits) |
2. Project sponsorship |
Lack of understanding of and contract with supply industry at senior levels in the organisation |
3. Project management 4. Disclosure and reporting |
Lack if effective project team integration between clients, the supplier and the supply chain |
3. Project management |
Construction Myths and Legends
Construction is about the bloke on the shovel - always will be. Fads come and go - the management are stupid if they think we are like the car industry - no idea. That's a factory, same stuff day in day out - we are different, always changing, unexpected things happen - thats why we are so different.