ENEWS | 04.26.2013

INTEGRATING LEAN AT GLY

ENEWS | 04.26.2013

INTEGRATING LEAN AT GLY

INTEGRATING LEAN – INTO OUR OPERATIONS

We are implementing practices that enhance the way we do business — during the planning process, on the jobsite and throughout our internal operations.To that end, we’re providing Lean education and training across all of our departments — from accounting to project management — and incorporating Lean practices on all of our projects.

ENEWS | 04.26.2013

INTEGRATING LEAN AT GLY

It starts with looking at every step in every process, seeing where it fits and measuring its effectiveness. Evaluating our operations through a Lean focus gives renewed energy and purpose to the way we do business.The focus is on driving efficiencies that eliminate waste of time, materials and human energy; conserve our use of resources; and make sense for our clients. This is an inherently sustainable, efficient and responsible way to approach our work.

INTO YOUR PROJECTS How do our Lean practices help you? Read our stories about recent projects and overall training initiatives to see how we’re answering that question. Top of the list is achieving Target Value Design for our clients, which simply means that design meets the budget. That’s a good start to a series of targeted behaviors that add value throughout — and deliver time and cost savings that support quality execution. We’re tracking results — and the numbers tell a success story.

ENEWS | 04.26.2013

INTEGRATING LEAN AT GLY

SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS ARE THE PROOF

ENEWS | 04.26.2013

INTEGRATING LEAN AT GLY

MISSION: DELIVER LEAN HEALTHCARE After using early integrated project planning to increase efficiency for years, GLY began to consciously align our approach with Lean principles in 2011. Today we’re building a growing resume of projects using Lean process, and measuring impact based on these criteria: schedule, cost and quality. We began with a series of Neighborhood Medical Clinics for University of Washington, using Early As-Builting and Revit 3D modeling for accuracy, flow-mapping, just-in-time deliveries, materials on wheels, prefabrication and Pull Planning with subcontractors to support schedule efficiency and accountability. Then we measured results, debriefed with participating colleagues, subcontractors and clients, and captured lessons learned for the next job.

EVERYTHING CAME TOGETHER ON GROUP HEALTH PUYALLUP MEDICAL CENTER. Teaming with CollinsWoerman and the client in a fully integrated design and building process, we maximized Lean delivery. We designed the project as a team, collocated on a BIM model, built and tested cardboard mockups in a large warehouse, conducted phased Pull Planning sessions with our subcontractors, and used extensive prefabrication of MEP and other systems for rapid installation on site. The project was successfully delivered in December. In addition to being the first LEED for Healthcare [LEED-HC] project in the country to achieve Gold certification, it has won awards for both innovative process and exceptional quality.

ENEWS | 04.26.2013

INTEGRATING LEAN AT GLY

MOVE THE NEEDLE ON ALL GLY PROJECTS Lean is not just for healthcare anymore. On the SPACELABS tenant improvement, Superintendent Todd Parker took his Pull Planning expertise from GHC Puyallup a step further by implementing the Last Planner System, where the last person to perform the actual work [typically a subcontractor] is responsible for weekly adjusts to the schedule based on real-time performance. Having everyone in the room optimizes the whole process: subcontractors take the lead to efficiently sequence their own scope, participate with others to reduce their impact on other teams and become accountable for decision making. With the ‘Last Planner’ making the appropriate adjustments, GLY can easily monitor changes and manage the impact of schedule improvements or delays.

On our 500 FAIRVIEW Life Sciences project just underway in South Lake Union, GLY involved the design team for the first time in Pull Planning scheduling, to align design and preconstruction milestones. Architecture, engineering and construction teams from ZGF, CPL, PAE and GLY felt good about setting milestones, driving out issues and building a collaborative, solution-driven team from the start.

ENEWS | 04.26.2013

INTEGRATING LEAN AT GLY

PEOPLE MAKE IT WORK

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Photos, clockwise from top left. Yard Dispatcher Gary Flaskerud monitors Puget Sound truck movements with fleet tracking software. Truck Driver Chip Burgess checks a message on tracking GPS unit. Administrator Stephanie Rasmusson checks Kanban cards for inventory status. Administrator’s Lean Task Force meets monthly to move initiatives forward.

ENEWS | 04.26.2013

INTEGRATING LEAN AT GLY

To implement Lean authentically, people must have the information and tools they need to succeed, and be motivated to make it work.

We began by

joining with local Lean organizations to learn what others are doing, and investigated like-minded electrical and mechanical businesses who had experienced full-on engagement into Lean process. Last winter, healthcare specialists and Lean champions Jim Elliott and Todd Karr traveled to California for six intensive Palo Alto Medication Foundation [PAMF] Lean sessions designed to “teach the teachers.” One exercise involved shadowing doctors seeing patients, and revealed that organizing access, human and equipment resources resulted in more quality time with patients. The organizational efficiencies they observed can be adapted to most service industries, including ours, leaving more time and energy for what really matters. Using these skills, Jim and Todd are leading our own Lean efforts to focus on what matters.

PASSING IT ON. We’re taking lessons learned from these sources and our own Lean projects to train teams throughout our organization. We’re using outside resources, like AGC Lean training online, and in return, are helping AGC create new Lean curriculum for our industry. Our most important teachers are the teams themselves, who learn, implement, then pass knowledge along. For example, project teams new to Lean scheduling observe experienced teams conducting Pull Planning scheduling sessions with subcontractors before implementing on their next projects. As further motivation, job descriptions and core competencies are being updated to include mastery of Lean process.

KANBAN AT THE YARD + IN THE OFFICE. Out at our tool and equipment yard, Lean is an operational force to be reckoned with. The Yard team has analyzed work flow and fine-tuned with standardized tool and equipment protocols. A new Master Plan emphasizes efficient use of physical space, and guides reorganization of site stations to incorporate a new stormwater retention system that captures and recycles run-off and water used to wash slurry pans, trucks and equipment. Here again, efficiency and sustainability work hand-in-hand.

ENEWS | 04.26.2013

INTEGRATING LEAN AT GLY

KAN' BAN – Japanese kan [“visual”] and ban [“card” or “board”] translate to a

process of workspace organization

relying on visual signals to control inventory.

with

Has also become synonymous

no waste, improved quality,

just-in-time

production and Lean ‘on demand’ scheduling.

Equal attention is given to logistics. Fleet Outlook GPS tracking software allows real-time communication between yard operators and delivery drivers via text messaging, and GPS mapping finds the best routes and tracks times, mileage, stops and even idling. To eliminate excessive pollution, the device is programmed to automatically turn off a truck idling for more than 15 minutes. In addition, a policy to eliminate wasteful, lastminute ordering of tools and equipment by the jobsites sets parameters, trains the field staff in compliance and rewards Pre-Task Planning. Similarly, our Administrator’s Lean Task Force is proactively implementing improvements in our office operations. Work processes focus on entering data only once, supplies are ordered from local companies that share our sustainability goals, and stock is organized, labeled and subject to a Kanban card-pulling system that creates an efficient, demand-driven system. Administrator Stephanie Rasmusson claims the system has reduced both replenishment times as well as storage space. Every small step brings enhanced simplicity and order — and that’s the beauty of Lean.