Construction projects are complex. There are several factors that contribute to its movements like a herd of turtles—minor inefficiencies, strict deadlines, and timeframes add up quickly to high cost and wastage.
This is where lean construction can help you survive and thrive. With lean construction principles, you will experience a reduction in waste and an increment in project value.In this guide, we’ll be sharing five lean construction benefits that your organization can leverage efficiently. Ensure that every principle you implement depends on your specific situation.
1. Improves Planning and Scheduling
Inadequate scheduling is one of the significant reasons why construction experts see productivity loss on the site. That productivity failure takes the form of scheduling workers before their position is required or scheduling them in crowded areas, resulting in inefficiency. Lean construction techniques are about improving your practices. With power planning and scheduling, you can reduce disputes and enhance efficiency. This lean construction advantage comes from planning schedules backward to meet timelines, permitting stakeholders to conform and manage potential issues more effectively.
2. Improved Protection with Fewer Risks
Do you know what’s the most valuable resource in construction? Your team! For decades, the industry has constantly been working to improve worker safety and decrease risks on job sites—helping construction firms comprehend that safe workplaces are promising. Backing these efforts is a potent lean construction benefit, highlighting communication and collaboration to build a safer environment with fewer risks for workers as well as companies. Lean construction planning strategies facilitate teams to monitor their improvement and determine potential risks so they can handle them quickly while involving key stakeholders to sidestep lasting adverse effects on the project.
3. Better Control Over Costs
By now, you might've understood how crucial collaboration is in lean construction. With solid collaboration, construction companies can leverage cost savings and improve productivity seamlessly. To be specific, a McKinsey study has found that improved collaboration can boost productivity by 8 to 9%, downsizing overall costs by 6 to 7%. This cost-saving technique brought us to the third lean construction advantage: more power and an increased bottom line. Lean processes help lower downtime and identify inefficiencies in construction processes.
4. Happy Employees, Happy Clients!
Another lean construction advantage is employee engagement, leading to projects and enriched engagement of stakeholders at all levels. With a lean strategy, everyone entangled in a project communicates and works from the beginning, resulting in a better understanding of their job. Lean construction enables construction experts to deliver their projects within the set time and budget, enhancing the satisfaction of everyone working on the project, from subcontractors to customers. Happy employees and clients affect a construction company's long-term success.
5. Get Quality Results
A contractor is a person who builds exceptional properties. But to achieve that, collaboration, coordination, and communication are at the crux of every project. This will ensure that you get the best possible results from implemented processes and materials.
Lean construction concentrates on those three Cs: control, belief, and responsibility throughout each project phase. When contractors, teams, and clients work together, they bring innovation and significance that aligns with the project's objectives.
This lean construction advantage means minor rework and battle, resulting in more efficient production and higher quality outcomes.
3 Steps to Leverage these Lean Construction Benefits
Moving to lean construction methods can be time-consuming and can be challenging to drag off. However, if you manage to take these three steps into account, you can begin leveraging those five lean construction advantages almost instantly:
Place a premium on collaboration and clarityTo reap the maximum benefits of lean construction, everything begins with providing everyone engaged in a project with an understanding of their roles and duties. This means handling worries about scheduling, communication, planning, etc., and guaranteeing that every worker and stakeholder is relaxed using your organization's collaboration tools. Maintaining transparency means engaging with your subcontractors regarding how they'll benefit from lean construction techniques. Engage them in the planning strategy earlier to ensure they understand their role in the project and get them onboarded with your team's construction management software.
Revamp your planning and scheduling procedures
To get the most benefit from lean construction, utilize the pull planning method to optimize schedules and streamlining your workflow. Also, regularly evaluate the project's advancement and milestones to ensure everything remains on track. Check-in with clients, contractors, and stakeholders regularly. Also, note where you can make modifications and create effective strategies to achieve them. Keep the lines of communication open and take the time to consult on lean construction best approaches with everyone engaged.
Implement the right lean construction principles for your business
As the project progresses and teams begin achieving milestones, develop your principles for operation. Reevaluate these standards with your team and set transparent expectations. It's also a sound practice to quantify the lean construction advantages and results, creating a case for ongoing investment into lean methodologies.
Bottom Line
In a nutshell, a lean construction approach is an ideal methodology for construction companies globally. It will help them survive in a highly competitive market and stay consistent in an agile market.