2019Case7Sisk

32 L EAN C ONSTRUCTION I RELAND A NNUAL B OOK OF C ASES 2019 planned from the outset, and others were established or developed “opportunistically”. Understand what Value Means to Our Customer During the procurement and pre-construction phase of the project, the Sisk team invested significant time in defining, understanding, and communicating precisely what “value” meant to our client. We carried out numerous visits to existing facilities both in operation and under construction. We also engaged with the existing client supply chain to understand exact ly how the previous projects were constructed, what challenges were encountered, and what worked best. We also gained an understanding of the level of detail and expected quality of the finished lodges. We in turn were able to convey these standards to the entire supply chain so as that the entire team had full alignment when the project moved to the construction stage. This initial phase of the project proved invaluable. One of the most beneficial outcomes was the relationships that developed as we transitioned from a “client -contractor” relationship into a “single delivery team”. We were very conscious during this procurement phase to ensure that we selected contractors that would buy into our vision of success and actively partake in this “one team” approach. Figure 2. Customer Defined Value Constructability Enhancement Following the site visits to similar projects which had been delivered for the same customer, we undertook a series of workshops both internally and with our design and supply chain par tners in order to streaml ine the actual construction process compared with previous projects. The team continually challenged and tweaked the design, detailing and construction sequence to find the optimum solution both from an installation sequence perspective and finished product quality. During this phase we worked with the supply chain to develop the best sequences both for an individual lodge and for the entire project. All parties bought into the process and were prepared to make some sacrifices for the greater good of the project – in order for the project to succeed, the team had to acknowledge that we were all dependent on each other and would ei ther succeed or fai l together. We al so acknowledged that for each contractor to be efficient we needed to ensure that outputs were equalised across all trades each day. We could not have a scenario where there was a need for peaks and troughs in the labour requirement. Establish Pull and Flow We actively engaged our subcontractors to set out the optimum construction process from their point of view, and devised a work sequence and mater ial s breakdown to minimise the extent of material handling and wastage on site. The aim of this exercise was to l imi t the steps in the construct ion process allowing us to fully define exactly what task should be carr ied out by each tradesperson every t ime they entered a work zone. This in turn allowed us to define exactly what materials were required to carry out each step. With this information, we were in a position to develop a robust construction programme that set out to equalise the outputs across all trades to ensure there was continuity of work for each trade in a production line type process. We set the required output at three lodges per day – this meant that every step in the construction process must complete three units every day, from timber frame roof trusses to silicone sealing in bathrooms, every trade must complete three per day. By adopting this approach, every trades person was guaranteed that the trade both in front and behind them were producing the same quantity and therefore they were guaranteed a productive day’s work every day. Pursuing Perfection With the large workforce on site and the numerous customer stakeholders, we needed to develop a procedure to consistently deliver a product to the required quality standard. Rework resulting from inconsistent installation and defects was seen as a major risk to the project due to the high volume of small construction units – one unchecked mistake in every lodge would result in 450 mistakes. To mitigate against this risk, we agreed with all parties at the outset to construct 4 units to various stages in the construction process, this allowed us to agree with all stakeholders exactly what detailing and quality was required at all stages of the process, not just the finished product. Each task in the construction process was carried out by a dedicated work crew who knew exactly what standard was required of them – this also allowed us to identify and eliminate any residual defects due to damage to installed works. Activity Sampling As each crew was accountable for each element of the works, we had complete transparency on exactly what outputs were being achieved daily and exactly what task every person was carrying out. Activity sampling and productivity tracking enabled us to improve efficiency at every step in the construction process. We quickly identified a number of areas where we were expending excessive effort to achieve our required outputs. Obviously over the scale of a project like this, we could not afford to expend this additional effort and so we had to devise a means to identify where exactly the issues were and minimise them. We began to employ a method of activity sampling, or direct observation, to try to understand where the issues lay. This involved monitoring works ongoing for predefined periods of time over the course of a day or week. From this monitoring we Figure 3. Pre-Assembled Stove