A CITB lean
construction pilot has delivered £12.7m in savings across five partner
companies, as well as developing a range of lean resources available free for
industry.
With some
infrastructure margins as low as 0.7%, compared to manufacturing margins of
12%, improving productivity in construction is a key priority for CITB and for
the industry.
The Lean
Construction Development Pathways project saw more than 300 workers from five
project partners and subcontractors learning how to implement lean construction
techniques across live residential, infrastructure and highways developments
throughout England.
Savings were made by
working more efficiently and collaboratively in more than 40 different
improvement projects on construction sites, including the following.
An anticipated
nine-month project delay caused by an archaeological survey was reduced by more
than three weeks by labourers carrying out low-level tasks usually conducted by
archaeologists, freeing up their time to focus on the survey instead.
A lengthy process
involved in regular commercial reporting was streamlined, with more quantity
surveyors collaborating on the workload to reduce delays and the potential for
human error.
Fewer medical
appointments were missed, reducing waste costs, after the booking process was
reformed, while evidence collected for inspection test plans was uploaded
electronically onsite, instead of having to be written on paper forms and
scanned later on.
Other improvements
in productivity saw environmental and materials waste reductions; use of
automated payments; fewer defects in the use of paint; better inventory
management; closer collaboration between design and site teams; and handover
delays cut.
The pilot was led by
the not-for-profit educational charity the Lean Construction Institute,
beginning in 2017 and completing in mid-2019. The principal project lead was
Mace, with partners BAM Nuttall; Costain; Galliford Try; and Skanska, along with subcontractors Balfour Beatty; Morgan Sindall; MWH; Lucas; Essex Services Group; Harrison Jorge;
Lintott; MJ Church; K Rouse and IDT.
It was conducted
through using lean solutions to solve real work-based issues, as well as
workshops, coaching sessions, and online learning modules. Thirty-five
facilitators have also been trained to take lean techniques into their
companies.
Steve Radley, CITB
Policy Director, said: “With margins under pressure and wage costs rising, it’s
vital that we exploit and highlight the gains that lean practices can bring to
construction through driving up productivity and reducing waste.”
Brian Swain,
Director and Trustee of Lean Construction Institute UK, said “The UK
construction industry is fast approaching a tipping point for lean after 20
years of slow, steady lean engagement throughout the industry. This tipping
point will see rapid, visible growth in lean construction as the diversity of
practitioners join together as a definable and impressive force of high
performance, stability, development and profits.
"It will feel
like a revolution, while in fact having been a slow evolution, which is now
reaching critical mass. The rapid taking up of lean will be driven by clients
as they realise that competitive, adversarial relationships do not work, but
lean collaboration works very well indeed. The leadership tipping point will be
seen in large government infrastructure projects where long-term,
continuous-improvement, lean relationships will emerge as an embedded answer to
construction productivity, safety, user and customer satisfaction.”
