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Building a Lean Culture into an Organization

Profile image of Pratap VasipalliPratap Vasipalli

2018, IGLC Conference, Chennai, India

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Abstract

The Indian construction industry is in need for a change; a change that can help its people and organizations discard the conventional project management approach of 'Command and control'; a change that can create better collaboration between project teams and reduce blame games. Lean construction and the Last Planner System™ is a potent and proven solution that offers the change. This paper suggests/proposes an approach for an organizational lean transformation. The approach is based on real life experience of the authors working with both Owner and Contractor organizations. The approach is based on building experience in lean tools at the site level that can be scaled across projects as a bottoms-up model. This is complemented with a top down approach that builds awareness, empathy, and knowledge at the leadership level. Together, the goal is to build capability and confidence in the organization to adopt and adapt lean into the organization. This paper explains in detail about the program and evolution of it from Indian experience. The authors will share their experience and their learning making the change in organizations. They will share the successes and the limitations of the approach.

Figures (3)
LPo was design and Howell, 1997). week’s (rolling Look ahead Plan constraints or make ready processes for each of the activities. With that a weekly wo s created whi monitoring and contro itments are measured to calc ngs and taking corrective acti achieved production during the week (successes) is tied back to the phase schedule an plan i comm learmmi ch a list of co maste an alignment between p r schedule to ed to Improve work!low reliability by continuously aligning what wi be done on projects with what should be done through collaborative planning (Balla From the phase schedule, the site team was to identify the fif ling is done on the commitments. Adherence or Sait (qp) ) major activities. Then they were to identify th oe mmitments (WILL do) from the last planners. Dai m ulate percent plan complete (PPC) and failures lead t ons using VSM or other intervention technig a0qo00~K ensure that contractual milestones are not being missed. In this sense, anning and execution from top to bottom and bottom to top was created. Production was emphasized over productivity and cycle time was measured as the K PI rather than reve nue (or cost) for the organization. he Lean training program at each site would start with a lean and LPS awareness shop for the site team with top management in attendance. Over the next week or the lean consultant had to observe the AS-IS planning process and the site conditions, to come up with a roadmap for rolling out the project specific LPS. Thereafter, a introduction workshop with simulation games and a working planning session would be conducted by the lean consultants to help the last planners and the whole site team to rstand the LPS methodology.
LPo was design and Howell, 1997). week’s (rolling Look ahead Plan constraints or make ready processes for each of the activities. With that a weekly wo s created whi monitoring and contro itments are measured to calc ngs and taking corrective acti achieved production during the week (successes) is tied back to the phase schedule an plan i comm learmmi ch a list of co maste an alignment between p r schedule to ed to Improve work!low reliability by continuously aligning what wi be done on projects with what should be done through collaborative planning (Balla From the phase schedule, the site team was to identify the fif ling is done on the commitments. Adherence or Sait (qp) ) major activities. Then they were to identify th oe mmitments (WILL do) from the last planners. Dai m ulate percent plan complete (PPC) and failures lead t ons using VSM or other intervention technig a0qo00~K ensure that contractual milestones are not being missed. In this sense, anning and execution from top to bottom and bottom to top was created. Production was emphasized over productivity and cycle time was measured as the K PI rather than reve nue (or cost) for the organization. he Lean training program at each site would start with a lean and LPS awareness shop for the site team with top management in attendance. Over the next week or the lean consultant had to observe the AS-IS planning process and the site conditions, to come up with a roadmap for rolling out the project specific LPS. Thereafter, a introduction workshop with simulation games and a working planning session would be conducted by the lean consultants to help the last planners and the whole site team to rstand the LPS methodology.
The program got much needed impetus from the second site where, when the site team was able to bring the slab cycle down from 12/13 days to a consistent 8 days’ time as shown in the figure 2. And after the third site, the three-month implementation plan was standardized and became a standard operating procedure. The idea was to mainly teach the LPS and VSM techniques to the sites, but in the process also create excitement within the teams by drawing on their problem-solving abilities and creating commitment and ownership within the teams to improve productivity and throughput. This also had the desired effect of helping sites and site planning and management take better ownership and adopt the lean processes and to learn and control the project using LPS.
The program got much needed impetus from the second site where, when the site team was able to bring the slab cycle down from 12/13 days to a consistent 8 days’ time as shown in the figure 2. And after the third site, the three-month implementation plan was standardized and became a standard operating procedure. The idea was to mainly teach the LPS and VSM techniques to the sites, but in the process also create excitement within the teams by drawing on their problem-solving abilities and creating commitment and ownership within the teams to improve productivity and throughput. This also had the desired effect of helping sites and site planning and management take better ownership and adopt the lean processes and to learn and control the project using LPS.
allay ols Udo OU Ul ldY MIUICdwULs LO VIONMICII GVULUGIUG Udoou Ull LOdu IMULUGLWLo, That leaves the information technology solutions used to manage the project information. In this new environment, technology should be the enabler for the transformation of an organization into a lean organization. It has to work in this new environment of proactive information exchange, open collaboration across business functions, and measure KPIs and metrics driven by lean metrics. In short, it has to complement the lean process. This would justify the adoption of tools including 3D modelling, integration of disparate information sources like finance and auditing (ERP) systems, scheduling systems, document management systems, and building information modelling (BIM) authoring tools. The technology and process together will complement to make an approach for integrated project controls driven with on a base built on lean culture making the whole organizational strategy a holistic one. The authors feel that further work is required to measure the effectiveness of the transformation through organization qualitative and quantitative K Pls. Indicative ideas are metrics like employee satisfaction, business profitability, resilience to changing market dynamics etc. And a lean transformation maturity model that can be measurable should be arrived at.
allay ols Udo OU Ul ldY MIUICdwULs LO VIONMICII GVULUGIUG Udoou Ull LOdu IMULUGLWLo, That leaves the information technology solutions used to manage the project information. In this new environment, technology should be the enabler for the transformation of an organization into a lean organization. It has to work in this new environment of proactive information exchange, open collaboration across business functions, and measure KPIs and metrics driven by lean metrics. In short, it has to complement the lean process. This would justify the adoption of tools including 3D modelling, integration of disparate information sources like finance and auditing (ERP) systems, scheduling systems, document management systems, and building information modelling (BIM) authoring tools. The technology and process together will complement to make an approach for integrated project controls driven with on a base built on lean culture making the whole organizational strategy a holistic one. The authors feel that further work is required to measure the effectiveness of the transformation through organization qualitative and quantitative K Pls. Indicative ideas are metrics like employee satisfaction, business profitability, resilience to changing market dynamics etc. And a lean transformation maturity model that can be measurable should be arrived at.

Key takeaways

  • Besides teaching the team on lean, the program is aimed at a cultural change amongst the site team.
  • During the quarter, the lean consultant would work with individual teams on a weekly basis to ensure that each team was making progress on their proposal.
  • The approach is for both of the above to be done in tandemhave site teams learn the lean tools, LPS, VSM and build capability and capacity from the bottom up and in parallel, have top management drive initiatives for change and improvement after having realized the potential of lean and lean tools.
  • The authors here, based on their experience and benefits that customers have realized, propose a simple and practical approach for an organization to adopt in its journey to lean transformation.
  • Over time, this would build a culture of lean in the organization.

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  • Lean Construction
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