A company’s journey to get to this point typically starts with an employee or two seeing lean principles in action on a project, witnessing efficiency gains and getting “bit by the bug,” Kristin Hill, director of education programs with LCI, told Construction Dive. They start to learn more about the system, bring those ideas to their projects and eventually take it further up the chain.
High-level buy-in is key to sealing the deal for a lean transition, she added. “Once leadership is on board, wanting to go in a lean direction and setting the vision for that happening, it starts to happen very quickly.”
Lean construction practices are often paired with tools like 5S, a method of organizing a workplace; A3 problem solving focused on continuous improvement; and the Last Planner system, a workflow of planning, making adjustments and sharing lessons learned throughout a project. The full suite of lean principles and tools can be overwhelming to construction professionals because of the change it brings to so many aspects of their work.