“Lean” construction?

by Clair Urbain

Interviewing Ted Angelo of Grunau Co. about the company’s efforts to incorporate lean manufacturing concepts into its construction business revealed a good news/bad news dilemma.

The good news is that the Grunau Co. is relatively close to the Milwaukee School of Engineering, which works closely with a variety of manufacturers that are thriving because they have adopted lean manufacturing philosophies. The bad news is that construction isn’t about building the same thing, or nearly the same thing, over and over; it’s about completing a series of tasks that evolve as the building takes shape.

Another piece of bad news: Angelo couldn’t easily find peers in construction involved or interested in lean construction techniques, which makes Grunau a bit of a pioneer in this area.

Naysayer may scoff at the idea of bringing lean manufacturing concepts to jobsites, but it makes quite a bit of sense. In many respects, large residential builders already incorporate lean concepts in standardization of tools and materials and specialization of jobs.

Lean construction is a simple concept of dealing with waste. Is it wasted time? Wasted motion? Wasted materials? Identifying the sources of waste is the first and very important step in eliminating it.

Walking into the Grunau tool room is a bit like walking into your local hardware store. It’s clean and bright. Aisles of tools and supplies are stacked neatly with items and the aisles are marked and shelf contents are plainly detailed. It’s truly a tool room where there is a place for everything and everything is kept in its place.

Walking onto a Grunau jobsite and seeing banks of tool cabinets neatly organized by trade and consistently labeled by part is impressive. Each supply box is stocked by a distributor with common items needed by the trades. No one on the jobsite has to monitor bin levels ­– it’s part of the agreement with the distributor to keep supplies on hand. At the end of the job, the distributor takes the boxes, including what’s left inside them. Because they own the inventory until it’s used, Grunau is not sorting through a myriad for fittings and fasteners at job’s end.

What’s most impressive is how Angelo uses his office as a laboratory to test lean concepts. Every surface, shelf, draw, and file is labeled to identify where items should be. Some contain operating procedures; such as the label on the digital camera that reminds the user to charge the unit before putting it back in the drawer.

However, no label is permanent. A part of lean manufacturing is continuous improvement. One year after the tool crib project, the lean team attacked it again and addressed new issues that appeared. Results: even greater tool room efficiency.

I have been through continuous improvement training and have participated on “lean teams” to improve processes. In every job job, there are tasks that can be made simpler, leaner and better. It’s just a matter of identifying them and  developing a team to address them. Look outside the organization for ideas (if needed; implement them and then stick to the process.

If you or your company has some interesting way to streamline a job, let me know. It can be on the jobsite or in the accounting department; in the tool room or in the fab shop. We’d love to share your ideas with our readers.

Published in the March 2005 issue of Contractor Tools and Supplies magazine.

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