2019Case17KirbyGroupEngineering

66 L EAN C ONSTRUCTION I RELAND A NNUAL B OOK OF C ASES 2019 • Reduction in waste (material, time, manpower, rework). • Improvement in productivity. • Better understanding of the production issues and process variation. • Empowerment of employees in achieving the desired quality. • Awareness of the importance of the quality throughout the organisation. Through the creation and approval of a standard, it can be considered mistake proofing (known as “poka- yoke”). A poka-yoke is any mechanism in any process that helps a construction worker to avoid (“yokeru”) mistakes (“poka”). Its purpose is to eliminate product and material defects by preventing, correcting, or drawing attention to human errors as they occur. It is a case of taking over repetitive tasks or actions that depend on vigilance or memory, and it can free workers’ time and minds to pursue more value-added activities. In addition, it reduces variability in processes and installation methods, as employed, during to varying trade crews working on site and across the project. LEAN INITIATIVE IMPROVEMENTS & IMPACT The improvements seen since 2012 with the introduction of QA Benchmarking, FOKs, and Mock-Ups are highlighted by the growth of Kirby Group within the construction industry. It has resulted in a much more competitive service with a high reputation of delivering quality and on time. Thus adding value for our clients and stakeholders, though consistency and standardised work. This new process was initially rolled out on a number of high priority projects, but has now become more and more client driven as they have seen the value in this process. Kirby management have also increased the scale of this process to now reach as many new projects as possible within the M&E scope of works. Defect (snag) elimination has become a major focus within Kirby operations and our approach to quality management (as shown in the previous Kirby Case Study in 2018). Through the application of QA Benchmarking/FOK/Mock- Ups, this complements additional defect reduction (or effective elimination) on a construction project, though a systematic approach to minimising rework activities arising. Thus given further time and cost savings back to the client, to the elimination of duplicate activities or rectification. The concept of implementing an improved and automated defect management, i.e. ‘snagging’, process was proven through the following tangible benefits: • A cost saving of 45.16% was made per processing of one snag. • The number of snags per € 1Million project value was significantly reduced, predominantly due to removal of duplication. • Improved snag categorisation – proper allocation of categories that allowed effective action, with “Other” category snags decreasing from 33% to 9%. (This proves the concept that the improved and automated Snagging Process brings significant savings to the business, as well as competitive advantage.) Figure 5. Site First of Kind (FOK) Visual Management Board In Use Visual management boards were created within the site office to highlight this new process and where the team could go to check the QA Benchmarks. All new site staff were instructed to these new processes as part of their induction. This helped, and, continues to help, bring about a further behavioural change with site staff on the benefits of Lean and their future involvement in additional Lean improvements as part of our continuous improvement strategy. Benefits of visual management: • It gives a chance to an operator (trades person/engineer) to see and correct a mistake before it becomes a big problem. • It gives a chance to an individual to see and correct standards if there is any deviation from set standards or Figure 4. Site First of Kind (FOK) Example (signed off )