Lean Construction Ireland Annual Book of Cases 2021 59 Case 16 Headquartered in Kilkenny, with regional offices across Europe, Modubuild is an engineering, design, and construction company. Modubuild provide volumetric, turnkey modular construction, to Life Science &Data Storage customers across EMEA.The company employs 400 people. Operations are underpinned by Lean, using analytics, CI, and ISO to create a positive and collaborative environment for excellence. In recognition for its commitment to excellence, Modubuild was named in Deloitte’s Best Managed Companies for 2021, and in 2020 Large Pharma Project of the Year at the Pharma Industry Awards. In 2019, the company won Kilkenny employer of the year, and in 2021,MD, Kevin Brennan,was nominated for EY Entrepreneur of theYear. Change and continuous improvement (CI) can be difficult to achieve, particularly in fast-paced environments like Modubuild.This coupled with company growth can make implementation of tangible CI even more difficult to achieve. Modubuild has pivoted in recent years and is leading the way inTurnkey, Off-Site Manufacturing, and 3D Volumetric Construction.However, behind the scenes and through a successful CI campaign, Modubuild is endeavouring to improve and continue to improve its support system and processes to reflect both the company’s future growth plan but also the demands of today’s construction sector. As a fast-growth company, one of the issues was that systems and process became static. As the company grew, its SOPs remained the same and in many cases did not reflect the current state; and in other cases the SOPs were essentially a redundant document that was no longer followed. Recognising the issues and the need for CI, the team began to strip down operations to create a clear understanding of the issues. It was key that analysis was obtained of the then current state and that this was used to create an environment focused on collaborative and tangible change.The analysis needed to tell the story of the current state and highlight where the issues lay. It was prudent that data did the talking and not assumption.To achieve the required outcome, the company recruited DataAnalytics Lead, Alanas Jakonis, to drive the analytic stage of the investigation. The objective was to gather data and to graph operational performance of each department. We measured input, pinch points, failure points, communication and collaboration flow, dates, and more.A set of KPI dashboards were introduced, and the team sought to use the data to become unstuck, improve efficiency, increase collaboration, increase decision making, and improve the overall company business cycle. Company Overview MODUBUILD modubuild.net Overview & Background to the Lean Initiative James Blanchfield Author From the beginning, the team took a hybrid approach of both quantitative and qualitative data collection.To obtain a clear understanding, it was essential that the quantitative elements were underpinned by narrative that was accumulated directly from the users or inputters into the applicable process.To understand the numbers, it was imperative to understand the how and why behind them. To begin, the Operations & Analytics team focused their attention on Modubuild’s design department.This was a purposeful move as the design team had experienced significant increase in demand and personnel. Additionally, it had become apparent that the design process was an area where the company was beginning to get most stuck. Efficient and accurate design, happening in close collaboration with programming, is the first step to enable successful project procurement,mobilisation, and completion. Lean Initiative Undertaken – Lean Thinking, Tools, Techniques Figure 1. DesignWorkload Forecast
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