MABP16 Emison Woody Eprint

By Thomas W. Emison + Kyle Woody

PRODUCTIVITY INNOVATION EFFICIENCY

in the Life of a

LEANCONT RACT OR

DAYA

Copyright © 2016 by the Construction

Financial Management Association

(CFMA). All rights reserved. This article

first appeared in CFMA Building Profits

(a member-only benefit) and is reprinted

with permission.

By Thomas W. Emison + Kyle Woody

PRODUCTIVITY INNOVATION EFFICIENCY

in the Life of a

LEANCONT RACT OR

DAYA LEAN CONSTRUCTION HAS GAINED MOMENTUM

TO THE POINT AT WHICH IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO IGNORE.

At its core, lean construction is more than an initiative, tool, or technique. It’s a culture change – a management

system built first on respect for people and then on continuous improvement – to strengthen the relationship between the

workforce and management, not just a company’s bottom line.

However, most organizations are distracted by the tools and are left with actively disengaged workforces –

a price companies and their clients must pay. For lean construction to be truly effective, a company’s management must be given the opportunity to understand its role in the process of cultural change and appreciate how difficult this journey can be for its employees. Existing management behaviors and understandings must be unlearned to make room for new ones. Unfortunately, much of this learning can only be acquired with action, in the heat of real work, while projects are in progress – when it’s terribly inconvenient.

What’s the payoff? Done well, lean construction could result in a highly engaged workforce that is improving everything, everyday – especially your customers’ experiences.

A deep dive on how and why your company should begin a lean journey is beyond the scope of this article. Rather, our goal is to help you realize how lean construction can impact a contrac-tor’s employees through a day in the life of a Lean Champion.

CFMA Building Profits March/April 2016

5:00 am

Kyle Woody, Kraus-Anderson Construction’s Lean Champion, is awake. In several hours, more than a dozen project stake-holders will gather for a collaborative work structuring session that Chad Rempe, a PM with more than 20 years of experience, will facilitate.

You might think that Kyle is focused on that, but he isn’t. If he and Chad aren’t ready by now, it’s too late. Instead, Kyle’s focus is on being present in the early morning moments with his kids: waking them up, getting them moving, taking time to enjoy breakfast with them, and asking questions to get them thinking. Kyle doesn’t just sprinkle lean thinking seeds at work; he plants them everywhere he goes. As he learned many years ago, Lean Champions live that mentality 24/7.

8:45 am

It’s rally time! Kyle welcomes the group members as they filter into a large conference room. Many of these participants are taking their first crack at lean construction. They’re all experts in their own construction-related functional areas, but novices at lean construction.

Some participants are skeptical, some are excited, and others are trying to hide their nervousness. Kyle is focused on Chad; while he is hiding it well, he is the most nervous person in the room.

Kyle reassures Chad that he is there to support him, and at the end of the day this will be a valuable experience for everyone on the project – especially Chad. Kyle considers everyone his customer, and this morning, Chad is his most important customer.

9:00 am

The session kicks off, and right away things aren’t going as planned. A few key stakeholders are running late. Chad quickly gestures to Kyle that he doesn’t know what to do; Kyle is frustrated too. So much work went into ensuring the right people would be on time and prepared for this conversation.

Kyle hops in as an impromptu facilitator and gets the group and conversation flowing while Chad works on determining the arrival of the missing participants.

9:15 am

At last, the remaining members have joined the group. This delay consumed the entire time buffer that was built into the agenda, so every minute is crucial.

Now it is Chad’s time to shine. He begins describing the mile-stone to the participants. Several questions are asked and Chad answers them confidently. The pull plan is developed from the milestone, and as the team works backwards, the network of commitments begins to emerge.

10:15 am

The planning team is frustrated; they are unable to get this par-ticular construction schedule to work. The project is the rede-velopment of an entire block in downtown Minneapolis, MN.

Chad encourages the team to bubble-up the project schedule constraints – and after a brief hesitation, they start emerging.

FIVE “BIG IDEAS” OF LEAN CONSTRUCTION:

1) Collaborate, really Collaborate

2) optimize the Whole

3) tightly Couple learning With aCtion

4) projeCts as a netWork of Commitments

5) inCreased relatedness

CONSTRAINTS – An item or requirement that will prevent an activity from starting, advancing, or being completed. Constraints are the most productive place to focus improvement efforts.

MILESTONE – An important interim goal that needs to be met in order to complete the project on time.

PLUS/DELTA – Discussion during a meeting, project, or event that is used to evaluate the session or activ-ity. Two questions are asked and discussed: What worked or produced value during the activity? What could we do differently/better next time to improve the process or outcome?

PULL PLAN – A planning system that schedules work based on understanding the level of readiness of downstream activities.

Key lean terminology

LEANa day in the Life of a

CONTRACTOR

March/April 2016 CFMA Building Profits

Several key issues are beyond the control of the group. Without a few of these constraints removed, it’s clear that the timeline won’t be reliable.

Chad steps up and commits to the team that he will remove these constraints. With these commitments, the mood of ambition is back on track and the pull planning continues.

When a team works from a target completion date (like a milestone) backward, tasks are logically defined and sequenced. Chad’s commitment to help remove the con-straints reengages the group back into the process.

11:15 am

The meeting plus/delta review is the final question for the participants to answer: What did they like? What would they change? Overall, the feedback is very positive, but everyone agrees that the project is like “a train on a collision course with its own schedule.”

Kyle asks the team, “How do you feel knowing this train is on a collision course?”

“I’m glad to know it now while we still have time to move the tracks,” says Chad. Another person adds, “It’s not going to collide; I know that we’ll get this figured out and we will be on time, on budget, and so on. But, today, we still have a lot of constraints to remove before we can confidently say we’ll all avoid the delays.”

12:00 pm

Kyle and Chad are at lunch down the street. They had planned this conversation to dig deeper and reflect on the morning – to celebrate what went well and learn from what went wrong. Kyle asks Chad what his key takeaways were. Chad talks about how much he learned from his team and how much better he feels about his project now. “But I thought it was a train wreck?” Kyle asks.

“They’re almost all train wrecks,” Chad says, “only this time I can see it coming; train wrecks are easy to avoid when you can see them coming.”

Kyle uses the positive mood to challenge Chad with a few more ideas. He wants Chad to respond confidently not with answers, but rather with questions like Can you explain your logic to me? or Is there another way we could approach this?

He also wants Chad to pay more attention to the quiet team members who weren’t highly engaged. He reminds Chad that they’re trying to develop people who can work on a project, not just in a project – proactive and engaged participants.

Kyle stops there; he doesn’t want to overwhelm this industry veteran. While Chad may not remember all that Kyle has said, he will remember how Kyle made him feel.

Chad adds, “You know, when we started working on lean construction last month, I wondered what I could learn at my age. Well, I am still learning. This was good today. Now, we have to stay on this and be consistent if we are going to get the project schedule on track. We will deliver, but can we do it lean? I would really like to and I will need more coaching.”

1:00 pm

Kyle heads to a different jobsite in the afternoon to start another project team on its lean journey. These team mem-bers have zero experience with lean; they only know they’re attending a workshop to learn how to do more with less. Needless to say, they aren’t excited about learning how to be more efficient or productive; they are already working very hard.

1:30 pm

Kyle kicks off the Villego® workshop – a simulation of a project using LEGO® blocks that helps teams experience the Last Planner® System. Kyle is sure that some of them can’t believe they are going to play with LEGO® blocks, but he knows pretty soon they’ll be having so much fun they won’t want the workshop to end.


CONTRACTOR

Exhibit 1: Construction Planning Metrics

Construction time 35 .42 5 . 24

Productivity (elements/minute) 2 .86 1 8 . 89

Subcontractors on site 23 1 4 1

Delivery points 0 0

Safety penalties 10 2

Penalties reuse of material 1 7 0

Waste (in studs) 1 2 0

Profit & loss ($654 ,000) $ 103 ,200

metric Round 1 Round 2


It’s the beginning of round one and they’re going to plan and execute a project the traditional way.

3:00 pm

Round one is finished. It took them more than 35 frustrat-ing minutes to build the structure, and everyone is glad it’s over. Exhibit 1 on the previous page shows the metrics they recorded such as the time it took, the number of quality and safety issues, and the financial performance. Exhibit 2 on the next page shows their overall satisfaction levels.

Kyle asks, “While this was just a game, can you connect the experience to real life in construction?”

The group has a great dialogue about how similar this exer-cise was to a real project, and a lot of frustrations are vented.

Kyle then asks, “When you’ve been frustrated by your proj-ect experiences, what have you done differently as a reaction to make the next experience better?” The responses are mostly variations of the same message:

“Not much.”

“I do what I do – and I do it well; it’s how I was trained.”

“I just work harder.”

3:30 pm

Time for round two. Kyle briefly introduces the team to the Last Planner® System. Before starting, the team is asked to reflect on round one and what they would like to change about it. Kyle scribbles the ideas on a flip chart as the group throws them out.

“It’d be nice if we could have colored drawings that matched the LEGO® colors.”

“No problem,” Kyle responds. “Here you go.”

The team is amazed. “Wow, this will be so much easier! Imagine if we could have had them in round one!”

“You could have,” Kyle responds. “But no one asked for them.” Looks of disbelief appear on everyone’s faces. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” one of participants moans.

“In round two, let’s start with being more aware of what we’re assuming, and how detrimental those assumptions can be,” Kyle says.

5:00 pm

The second round wraps up very differently – the team built the structure in less than six minutes, with no waste, and at a profit (as shown in Exhibit 1). But even more remarkable is that everyone had so much fun doing it that they want to do a third round!

Kyle has seen this happen before, and he uses it as an opportunity to point out how much fun it is to make improve-ments. He asks, “Why is it we often assume improving our work means we’ll have less fun?” This ignites a terrific con-versation among the team about habits and natural biases against change.


CONTRACTOR

Having the right culture in place is imperative for a company to truly realize all the benefits of lean con-struction. Before embarking on a lean construction journey, your company must define its why. Just like any major culture change, support for lean construc-tion must start at the top. If the CEO can’t articulate why, then the employees won’t know either.

While greater efficiency is an outcome, it shouldn’t be the only reason to begin a lean journey. For example, at Kraus-Anderson Construction, our whys include client satisfaction; customer engagement; partner success; employee mood and enthusiasm; creating new knowl-edge, skills, products, and service; leadership; a greater sense of purpose; efficiency; and profit margins.

The goal for the teams should also be determined. For example, we try to assemble teams that are highly engaged, quality-focused, passionate about learning, a positive influence in our community, mindful and safety-first with all decisions, profitable, respectful of everyone, genuinely concerned about sustainability and built-in quality, and focused on creating value for our clients.

Another key to a successful lean journey is to have a Lean Champion with a people-first leadership style. A Lean Champion must: inspire leadership, build consensus, be comfortable with ambiguity, be action-focused, think strategically, and be highly respected and trusted throughout the organization.

Importance of A cultural foundation & Selecting A Lean Champion

March/April 2016 CFMA Building Profits

Kyle focuses the team to observe the satisfaction chart responses. (See Exhibit 2.) “What does this mean?” he asks the group. One participant says, “We weren’t engaged in round one, and in round two we ended the project highly engaged.”

“What do you think a team does when they are not engaged as they observe waste?” Kyle asks.

“They get more frustrated,” one participant offers, “but they won’t change anything; they just try to work harder.”

“Have any of you experienced that on a project?” Kyle asks. Heads immediately start nodding up and down, almost in unison.

“And what about our highly-engaged team in round two? What did they do when they found waste?” Kyle asks.


CONTRACTOR

Exhibit 3: efficiency of construction processes in the industry “Over half (55%) of contractors who are not familiar with any lean practices find the construction industry either efficient or highly efficient, while 62% of lean practitioners recognize that the industry is inefficient.” www.leanconstruction.org/media/docs/Lean_Construction_SMR_2013.pdf

LEAN PRACTITIONERS NON-PRACTITIONERS

62%

19%

19% 55%26%

14%

5%

■ Inefficient/Highly Inefficient■ Neutral■ Efficient/Highly Efficient■ Not Sure

Source: McGraw-Hill Construction, 2013

LEAN PRACTITIONERS NON-PRACTITIONERS

62%

19%

19% 55%26%

14%

5%

■ Inefficient/Highly Inefficient■ Neutral■ Efficient/Highly Efficient■ Not Sure

How

satis

fied

were

you

in yo

urRO

LE?

How satisfied were you with theCOLLABORATION?

How satisfied were you with thePROCESS?

How

satis

fied

were

you

with

the

RES

ULT

S?

ROLE COLLABORATION ROLE COLLABORATION

ROLE COLLABORATION ROLE COLLABORATION

RESULTS PROCESS RESULTS PROCESS

RESULTS PROCESS RESULTS PROCESS

Exhibit 2: Construction planning team: member satisfactory responses


“We worked together to eliminate it. We were sort of relent-less,” a participant responds.

Kyle shows a couple of charts from a 2013 McGraw-Hill Construction SmartMarket Report on lean construction. (See Exhibit 3 on the previous page.)

Even though the team members don’t yet identify them-selves as practitioners, most of them feel that the Lean Practitioners chart most accurately reflects the industry. Kyle elaborates that the point of the chart is to show that those who are not aware of what lean thinking offers are likewise usually not aware there is a problem.

Kyle emphasizes to the team that today was all about aware-ness. The most rewarding work comes after a commitment to solve the problem – when the status quo is no longer acceptable.

Kyle closes the workshop by asking the team to come to the next meeting with responses to the following questions: “Who is paying for all the waste in our projects and systems? What is it costing them?”

Conclusion

At the end of the day, lean construction should not only maximize value and minimize waste for your company, but it should also inspire and engage its employees and help them realize how fun improvement can be. n

THOMAS W. EMISON is Vice President of Strategy & Innovation at Kraus-Anderson Construction Company in Minneapolis, MN.

He has helped research, develop, document, implement, communicate, and implement more than 200 strategic business plans and marketing plans in his more than 25 years of serving the U.S. construction industry.

Tom is longtime author for CFMA Building Profits and a regular speaker at CFMA events nationally, regionally, and locally.

Phone: 612-335-2761 E-Mail: [email protected]

Website: www.krausanderson.com

KYLE WOODY is Lean Champion at Kraus-Anderson Construction Company in Minneapolis, MN.

He is responsible for the development of the company’s lean culture, which emphasizes mentality and the cultural commitments that create the capacity to not just make projects more profitable, but also more enjoyable.

In his 17-year career, Kyle has lead more than 3.5 mil-lion square feet of new construction. He is a graduate of the University of Houston.

Phone: 612-336-6439 E-Mail: [email protected]

Twitter Handle: @K_AWoody

BMA Inc. www.maskell.com

Lean Accounting Summit www.leanaccountingsummit.com

Lean Construction Institute www.leanconstruction.org

Lean Project Consulting www.leanproject.com

“The Lean Construction Revolution: Eliminating Waste, Improving Value” – Robert J. Sniegowski, November/December 2013 CFMA Building Profits www.cfma.org/bponline

This Is Lean: Lean Construction Institute Special Edition – Niklas Modig & Pär Åhlström www.thisislean.com

Transforming Design and Construction: A Framework for Change – William R. Seed www.leanconstruction.org/book

Villego® Simulation www.villego.com

Additional Resources


CONTRACTOR

MABP16 Emison Woody Eprint

Documents

Transcript of MABP16 Emison Woody Eprint