An increasing number of construction companies are adopting lean principles. The success of this approach served as a catalyst for various industries that design and manufacture to embrace it. Today, American construction firms consider it a way to compete against lower-cost countries. 

Lean principles aim to improve manufacturing efficiency and minimize non-value-added components. It’s a straightforward and appealing methodology for an industry where safety, budgets, and timeframes are critical. When implemented properly, lean concepts can improve efficiency, increase productivity, reduce cycle times, and lower the cost of any construction project. 

Construction companies should have a holistic perspective of lean concepts and how they can complement design-build practices. In this blog post, we help you understand the significance of lean principles and how to implement them in a construction project..

Origin of Lean Principles

Lean principles started in the automobile industry, particularly from Toyota’s management and manufacturing practice after the Second World War. The Japanese automobile company wanted to improve its manufacturing operations and maximize value to its consumers. Hence, the Toyota production system principles were born.

Nowadays, various industries use lean concepts to achieve efficiency and drive value. There are companies that implement this approach in combination with tools, such as the Integrated Project Delivery, the Last Planner System, and the 5S System. 

In the construction industry, lean principles are utilized with the Design-Build Done Right concept developed by the Design-Build Institute of America. This tool explains design-build essentials for better outcomes of construction projects. It integrates engineers, architects, general contractors, and essential trade partners’ resources at the proposal development stage. 

Key Design-Build Lean Principles

It’s time to talk about the lean principles you should adopt for your construction. We have five concepts to discuss here: value, value stream, flow, pull planning, and innovation/perfection. 

Principle 1: Value

The client has certain wants and needs for the outcome of a construction project. The value of a project lies deep under these specifications. The design-build team should recognize these values and understand the client’s perspective in order to create and deliver these desired values. 

A level of trust must be established between the client and the design-build team early in the project's planning stage. The request for proposal should specify the client’s definition of value, and the parties involved should structure it to make the most of the budget. 

The design-build team should meet the requirements and specifications, the timeframe for manufacturing and delivery, and the price point. 

Principle 2: Value Stream

Once the design-build team recognizes and understands the client’s definition of value, they should identify the steps necessary to deliver that value. This approach is referred to as value-stream mapping. 

The Design-Build Done Right Way system tackles three crucial processes: problem-solving, information management, and physical transformation. 

• Problem-Solving: This task establishes an integrated design-build team by addressing concept, design, engineering, and production. 

• Information Management: Building Information Modeling is an excellent tool that utilizes electronic object-oriented information for collaboration, sharing of information, and monitoring project costs in construction. This approach should go along with the Critical Path Method to identify necessary tasks and schedule flexibilities for project completion. 

• Physical Transformation: Identifying the movement of equipment, materials, and facility turnover within the supply chain. 

Principle 3: Flow

The principle of flow in a construction project means minimizing or eliminating waste. Following this concept enables a smooth flow of activities. This will then lead the design-build team to achieve its target schedule. 

There are different types of waste that lean construction principles aim to eliminate. Here’s the list. 

• Waiting - This situation occurs when the required previous task hasn’t been completed, or the necessary materials are yet to be delivered. 

• Defect - It refers to a task that’s done poorly or incorrectly, resulting in changes and adjustments that negatively impact the schedule. 

• Excess Inventory - This refers to available materials that are not yet needed, which require storage and can degrade over time. 

• Underutilized Talent - A situation where workers are assigned to the wrong tasks and activities. 

• Motion - This refers to a far distance between workers, materials, and tools, resulting in unnecessary movement and waste of time. 

Principle 4: Pull Planning

Pull planning is a process that enables input from each member of the design-build team. It helps identify tasks to save time, money, and resources. This process also aims to reduce or eliminate miscommunication among collaborators within the team and key trade partners. 

Principle 5: Perfection Innovation

Each collaborator in a construction project should aim for perfection. This requires providing quick feedback so that changes and adjustments can be implemented in less time and create a consistent workflow for the success of the project. 

Final Thoughts

Adopting lean principles can significantly help construction projects. This approach is popular nowadays because it improves efficiency and minimizes waste in any design-build process. It also helps to reduce cycle times and lower construction costs.