Lean Business Management for Builders

At any construction site, spending time searching for tools is part of the daily grind. But those minutes can add up. Dennis Sowards, president of Quality Support Services, Inc. has made a career of teaching business owners how to save money by preventing unfruitful tool hunts along with other wasteful work habits.

Sowards provides consulting, coaching and training on a philosophy known as “lean.” His clients come from various industries, all hoping to save money by creating process efficiencies. Lean entails creating value for the customer by eliminating any wasteful activities or materials. Most companies embrace some element of the philosophy, though the construction industry has been slower to incorporate it.

“When you try to explain the concept to business owners, their eyes glaze over,” says Sowards. But they pay attention when he explains how to save money by reducing waste. Considered a Lean Expert by the American Society for Quality (ASQ), an organization that certifies people in the practice, Sowards says small businesses don’t have to dive into any commitments. They can wet their toes by addressing the most glaring lean offenses on their own.

There are several common areas where waste can be reduced. Identifying these in your business is the first step in incorporating lean principles:

1. Defects are anything that doesn’t work, whether an error in installation or orders that do not meet the required code.
2. Over-production of goods: For builders, this ranges from stockpiling material in the warehouse to estimating inappropriate jobs.
3. Transportation: Unnecessarily loading or moving materials.
4. Waiting: “The big one in construction is keeping your crew waiting,” Sowards says. “That’s expensive.”
5. Over-processing: This can mean anything from duplicate entries on forms to generating unnecessary reports and estimates.
6. Motion: Searching for anything—tools, drawings, contracts, pens—is a time drain.
7. Inventory: Unused tools or spare parts and anything else that clutters the workplace.

According to Sowards, productivity can be easily improved. “Workers can easily save five minutes an hour. That’s about eight percent improvement in productivity,” he says. Once all sources of waste have been identified, lean followers take steps for creating a leaner environment known as the five S’s.

1. Sort: First, sort through all tools, equipment and other materials in order to remove anything you don’t currently need from your office, truck and job site. This way, the tools you use every day will always be easy to find.
2. Simplify: All necessary materials should be kept in an easily accessible and visually marked location. Sowards recommends color coding. If workers don’t spend time searching for materials, time is saved over the long run.
3. Shine: A clean site instills a sense of pride and makes people aware of other problems. When installing a floor, for example, remove saw dust and debris at the end of each day so that you can inspect the completed project.
4. Standardize: Processes put in place should be standard for all jobs and apply to all employees. For example, if five builders work for the same company, each employee should be able to find harnesses in the same place.
5. Sustain: Create a daily checklist to track the above steps after leaving the construction site and ensure that lean principles are being practiced every day.

“They’re like tools that both an auto mechanic and a construction site can use,” says Wayne Paupst, Chair, Lean Enterprise Division, ASQ. A persistent issue related to waste, like frequent customer complaints about lead time, could signal a need to consider training.

Sowards recommends doing your homework before enrolling in any lean courses. One way is to observe a place that has implemented it already. He once took members of a construction company to observe the helicopter manufacturing floor at Boeing, which incorporates lean practices. Take advantage of existing contacts to see lean principles in action—a contractor who buys heavy equipment might ask to observe operations at a Caterpillar plant, another lean follower.

Many experts are available to work as independent consultants, while books, suppliers and local ASQ chapters are other helpful resources.