2018Case19GRAHAM

67 L EAN C ONSTRUCTION I RELAND A NNUAL B OOK OF C ASES 2018 Case 19 – GRAHAM GRAHAM works on building, civil engineering, and fit-out projects for both public and private sector clients across Ireland and the UK, and is current ly on more than 100 si tes. GRAHAM has offices in Hillsborough, Belfast, Dublin, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Dumfr ies , Edinburgh, Durham, Manchester, Leeds , Bi rmingham, Cambridge, St Albans, London, and Br i stol . Our core markets remain strong given the UK Government's infrastructure spend and a strong pipeline of opportunity in building, inter ior f i t-out , and faci l i t ies management. We currently employ more than 2,000 people across the GRAHAM businesses. C O M P A N Y W E B S I T E OVERVIEW OF THE LEAN INITIATIVE GRAHAM has been on i ts Lean journey for 18 months and has focused Lean deployment within two isolated areas of the business: Civils Highways and Buildings. This case study details the f indings and shared common themes across these two bus iness functions, drawing on two distinct projects and detai l ing the lessons learned, the benefits, and the next steps for the business. LEAN INITIATIVE UNDERTAKEN – LEAN THINKING, TOOLS, TECHNIQUES www.graham.co.uk AUTHORS Katie Jones GRAHAM understood that it needed to be bold and challenge current practices through working more closely with its suppliers to continuously improve. Gaining competitive advantage in such a fiercely competitive industry is a challenge in itself. As in other industries, customers are expecting more for less, and certainly greater reliability in delivering projects on time and on budget. Despite Lean Deployment happening in two totally segregated areas of the GRAHAM company, the common objective remains the same: to deliver the best possible value project to the Client in the shortest possible time, at the best possible cost, whilst ensuring the highest standards of safety, quality, excellent relationships, and efficiency at all levels. Project 1: Civil Engineering Business – Collaborative Programme Planning The “Operations Directorate East Lot 2” forms part of Highways England’s Roads Investment Projects (RIP schemes) whereby work is allocated to GRAHAM through framework. Success of the first package of works secures future packages of works through the framework for GRAHAM. The GBP£19M package of works included a variety of 72 smaller schemes, including major bridge repairs, resurfacing works, and a number of small vehicle restraint systems, signage, and site clearance, all to be delivered within 6 months. The geographical location of the works spans over 72 miles. The original programme meant that our teams would have to put out traffic management, causing disruption to the travelling public on a particular stretch of road – for example to do a small amount of resurfacing and then three months later to come back to the same area to conduct a different type of work. GRAHAM recognised an opportunity to reduce over- production and rework by making the location of each scheme visual within our visual management room and using collaborative planning to reprogram the whole package of works. This allowed the team to re-sequence works in a similar geographical location to make larger schemes, thus reducing time and cost and providing subcontractors with continuation of works within larger sections of traffic management and make the commercial side much more efficient. A planning workshop was held, which was inclusive of the Client, design, and construction teams, to set up the collaborative planning board. As a team we mapped the process that all 72 schemes would go through. BACKGROUND TO THE LEAN INITIATIVE The case study explores a range of Lean approaches across two projects, in particular the adoption of Collaborative Planning and Last Planner® System (LPS) (note that these terms are used interchangeably and are intended to mean the same thing). Project 1: Civil Engineering Business – Collaborative Programme Planning GRAHAM Civils Highways had only 6 months to deliver 72 schemes worth GBP£19M across Highways England’s strategic network. It was imperative that the whole project team worked collaboratively to deliver the scheme. The Project Leadership team, which had successful ly used collaborative planning on other projects, fully supported and implemented col laborat ive programme planning and production control approaches to drive the programme. This project draws on the successes and lessons learned. Project 2: Building Business – Lean Integrated Project Delivery and Last Planner® System GRAHAM Buildings is building a new warehouse, laboratory, and atrium connected to an existing office building on an existing enclosed manufacturing site. The Client is a large global manufacturing company and the USD$50M project is due for completion in 2021.The Client introduced Lean Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) to the project in Jan 2018. COMPANY OVERVIEW Anders Timms