Page 16 - REI Corporate Newsletter_Q1 2018

The project team is consistently vigilant on expended (for material and craft man-hours); and the
LEAN
AND THE
DESIGN+BUILD
CONSTRUCT
By Bill Mazzetti, Senior VP of Engineering
LEAN is a lifestyle. It means
different things to the various
parties and phases in the design
and construction effort. The core
of LEAN is the elimination of
waste and the optimization of the
work. Pre-Construction (PreCon)
is the time of the project where
scope is not completely defined;
we are still conceiving,
designing, and setting the
job up. That does not
mean that PreCon
lacks opportunity for
LEAN gains.
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material and system waste due to oversizing, over
specifying, or incorrect design. This is viewed as
the low-hanging fruit. Some may cynically say that
contractors optimize solely for their cost benefit,
which is not true. LEAN is one of our most effective
ways to combat a lack of construction resources.
such as UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in San
Outside of an alternate form of delivery projects,
Francisco where the design and the construction
team share risk and reward, broaching that design
and construction barrier is tough.
The contracting tradition places the project designers
and the constructors in opposition. We are missing a
great opportunity to “Ultimate-LEAN” the work (LEAN
The Designers and Builders are not placed in a
that crosses ancient prejudices and boundaries).
position to LEAN the cost-of-work (COW) in most
projects. What is traditionally missed is the overlay
and synchronization of the installation to the design
in the design model. If you have been around for
longer than a cup of coffee on any job, you will hear,
“That’s the contractor’s responsibility,” or, “That’s the
field or engineer’s problem.” What everyone fails
to realize is that the overall cost of the project and
the schedule to deliver the project is everyone’s
problem.
As LEAN processes seek to eliminate waste,
Ultimate-LEAN should have the focus of lowering the
total cost of installation and speeding the delivery
of the work. To that end, we need to be bold rather
than tactical. Most forget that a shorter schedule
offers substantial savings in general condition costs
in the context of similar scopes of work. Assuming
that project acceleration will prudently use craft
labor overtime, we are now faced with providing the
most efficient installation that will lower the COW.
In reference, craft labor is one of the highest risks
any project team faces on a project. While fees,
contingency or FFE, might be the sizzle; the steak in
a project’s delivery is the COW.
There are two basic ways to positively affect
the COW: coordination and optimization of the
installation resulting in the lowest installed cost
proper sizing of systems in context to the lifespan
and use of the building. We are going to set the
system sizing for another day and focus on the COW.
We undertook a new process for fully integrating
constructibility into design on a recent project
ah-ha moment was our teams use of earliest
at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The
responsible time where we had the ability to make
a durable decision. Clients will often speak about
the last responsible moment for a decision to take
place. While useful for deliberations or to counter
disorganization, this can lead to compression of
trailing tasks or Un-LEAN default decision making.
the construction targets are not complete as of yet.
We recently finished the design at LAX, so some of
But, by flipping the script and integrating the field at
the beginning of design, here’s what happened:
• Design cost for the work was reduced by 32%.
• Branch circuit wiring was reduced by 8%.
• Prefabrication increased substantially over
minimum targets (this is still playing out but
we have found dozens of other opportunities
that we may not have seen if examined post
permit).
• Design essentially equals the expected
installation (providing a very sharp cost
estimate from the permit submittal).
• Coordination between trades and specialty
equipment was nearly perfect, eliminating
rework and errors.
• Design schedule for permit submittal was
beaten by 10 days.
The moral here is do not be afraid to get your builder
involved in the earlier stages with the designers. The
builders are not there to change the design, they are
there to make your design as efficient as possible.
Applying LEAN principals at the PreCon stage allows
for preloading of efficiencies into the project that will
not have to be wrought out during the installation
modeling and construction phase of the work.
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