On a production line, lean is about reducing waste in its many manifestations: wasted time, wasted effort, wasted materials, etc. It’s about being open to input from the people on the front line who are experienced with doing the work. Lean means continually looking for ways to do the job better, more efficiently and more cost effectively. It’s about creating value for the customer.
It’s no different with project delivery. Integrated lean delivery is still about creating value for the client. It’s tempting, especially in tough economic times, to focus on getting reduced hourly rates and lower costs for raw materials or the think simply in terms of “value engineering”. The issues that make a real long-term difference are even more challenging: making sure that strategic goals are aligned across your entire program and that everyone is speaking the same language. You need to eliminate as much waste as possible throughout the full project cycle, starting at the highest level. As Greg Howell and Glenn Ballard note in Implementing Lean Construction: Understanding and Action, “Implementing lean thinking will lead to change in almost every aspect of project and company management.” Integrated lean delivery reduces touchpoints and opportunities for confusion and vests more responsibility in fewer places. At the project level, it can reduce waste by streamlining project communications, focusing accountability and ensuring that your goals are clear. It can add value from concept through commissioning through more accurate target costing, better constructability, more consistent standards and a risk-based approach. To get the most bang for your facilities program buck, consider lean integrated program management—which the Project Management Institute defines as “applying risk-based, waste-reducing, value-adding methods on a group of related projects through an integrated team to achieve superior benefits and best-in-class performance.” With a comprehensive view of your organization’s big picture, an integrated lean program delivery team can reduce waste by monitoring trends, drawing on lessons learned and maximizing, optimizing assignments for maximum effectiveness and offering greater flexibility to adjust resources. Consolidated reporting, leveraged buying and benchmarking are a few of the ways it can add value to your entire program long after today’s financial headlines are history.