2019Case2GRAHAM

18 L EAN C ONSTRUCTION I RELAND A NNUAL B OOK OF C ASES 2019 • Access to the work area was single traffic only which meant other activities working nearby delayed material delivery. • Gangs were not working together, the MEWP operator un- wrapped plastic around soil nails and placed the nails in the basket himself. This sometimes took as long as 10-minutes to load whilst the drilling rig was idle waiting. LEAN INITIATIVE IMPROVEMENTS & IMPACT Improve – An improvement workshop was held and a number of improvement ideas were suggested, including: • GRAHAM could assist loading out material at the end of each shift by staying later so the sub-contractor was prepped in the morning. • Other less critical activities were stopped and moved to other sections of the site to remove delays during material deliveries. • The washing out of grout plant at break times was stopped and moved to only lunch and end of shift. • Telehandler driver assisted with loading MEWP and placed nails closer to working area so less carrying by hand. The improvements were implemented and tracked using a continuation of data collection recording planned versus actual output rates. This enabled the team to understand and control the effects of the improvements. Control – From di rect observat ions fol lowing implementation of improvements, there were two nights where the grout plant broke down due to not being washed out correctly which resulted in the gang only installing 10 nails in 2 days. The drilling could have been completed much quicker. The findings, once the improvements were implemented and reviewed, were an improvement from 23 nail installations per day during week one to an average of 34 installations per day in weeks 2-4. Figure 5 illustrates the gradual increase in improvement, with the maximum number achieved being 50 soil nails per day. The average was 34 per day, which meant that this programme provided a significant improvement. Figure 5. Soil Nailing Progress Tracker Benefits from Lean Deployment The deployment of Lean on the project resulted in many benefits, including improved engagement and collaboration amongst the team. This enabled smoother and more efficient working towards an aligned goal which was to beat the existing programme. The benefits from deployment of Lean included: • There were zero incidents during this project. • The client was delighted with the programme improvements. • The Lean initiative contributed to winning the CIHT Northwest Project of the Year Award – a great achievement and recognition for the whole project team. • GRAHAM has benefitted reputationally with this success, thus contributing to winning more work. • The sub-contractor exceeded targets and was rewarded through financial incentives and now has a new best practice process to work towards on its next projects.