Lean Principle - Understanding Lean Construciton

Lean is a body of knowledge dating back hundreds of years focused on sustainably growing an organization.

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During the last 20 years the construction industry has been rapidly adopting some of these tools to improve productivity.  

Field Productivity: What is Lean Construction? Maximize customer value while minimizing waste by leveraging people.

Major advancements were made by Henry Ford and during WWII with the Training Within Industry (TWI) program.  

Toyota made major contributions to the body of knowledge from 1948-1975

The term “lean” was only coined 30 years ago in 1988 by John Krafcik with Greg Howell and Glen Ballard starting to apply the concepts to construction around 1995.  


The core concept of lean is maximizing customer value by minimizing waste and leveraging people.  

The book Lean for Dummies elegantly defines value-add to the customer as having to meet 3 criteria:  

  1. The customer must be willing to pay for it.
  2. It must transform the raw materials (inputs) in some way.
  3. It must be done correctly the first time.

Learn to identify and eliminate your waste

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Lean Principle - Understanding Lean Construciton
Field labor is the often the biggest variable on a construction project - making it the biggest risk and opportunity....

Lean Principle - Understanding Lean Construciton
Field labor is the often the biggest variable on a construction project - making it the biggest risk and opportunity....

Project Delivery - Integrated Project Delivery
Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) can be the best method for a project if the culture and competencies of all parties, including the Project Owner, are all aligned.
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5S is a foundational concept for creating a productive work environment and continuous improvement. The 5S process is to productivity what eating a healthy breakfast and exercising is to your health - daily consistency will change your life.
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Construction is full of competitive personalities - more is always better. This is not always the case, and you must be careful when setting targets that your goals don't have unintended consequences. Percent Planned Complete (PPC) is a perfect example.