LEAN CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM
Our Lean Construction Program at American Paving trains our tradesmen in Lean principles and empowers them to identify and solve issues that affect their productivity. Lean Construction strives to affect a cultural change within the tradesmen to instill ownership in productivity performance at the individual level.
What is Lean Construction?
Lean Construction was originated with Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma and is the application of tools and principles designed to improve work flow and processes directly related to construction project delivery. Lean focuses on increasing value for customers using concepts that eliminate non-value-adding steps (or waste) from a process. Lean Construction does NOT reduce quality, take shortcuts or jeopardize safety. We always consider the SAFEST way to do the job, but Lean Construction helps us consider the SMARTEST way to do the job while creating a culture that empowers our skilled tradesmen to express their ideas and know they are valued and appreciated.
Why Is It Important?
At American Paving, we implemented Lean Construction to aid workers to work more efficiently and more productively, leading to less frustration for clients, project leadership and our tradesmen. Our goal is to empower those doing the work, through Lean Construction training, to make their own jobs less frustrating and more efficient for the benefit of the entire project. Data shows that construction productivity has declined in the past decade—Lean Construction is our way of closing the productivity gap between the construction industry and other industries.
Key Lean Construction Strategies:
- Lean trainers conduct craft Lean Construction sessions covering several topics including Overview, 5S, Waste, 5-Why, and Pull-System.
- Lean trainers request feedback following crew training regarding improvements at their workface.
- Lean trainers and trainees walk down work areas to reinforce lean principles, identify lean opportunities, share lean improvements, and identify additional opportunities for improvement.
- The Lean trainer collects all Lean Construction opportunities and presents the findings to Project and Company Management.
- The Project & Company Management then chooses the Lean Construction opportunities for implementation and assigns an implementation owner for each.
