Leaving Green Footprints® is the sustainability mission at McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. As the national Director of Lean Construction for McCarthy, I often work with projects pursuing sustainability goals like LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification across the United States. Many of our project leadership teams are certified […]
When Lean and LEED go Hand in Hand READ MORE
Teams utilizing Scrum most often double their output in the first couple of Sprints because they become more efficient and effective. Equally impressive is that they sustain their gains and that they continue improving their teamwork and work product. As a result, they optimize customer value. So, why would design
What Every Lean Project Team Should Know About Scrum READ MORE
What does Takt Planning & Scheduling have to do with Covid-19? Takt is a German word that refers to the rhythm or the beat of the music. Takt Planning & Scheduling is a method to structure work around a set pace and could, therefore, be one of the most important
How to Keep Your Workers and Bottom Line Healthy READ MORE
Create a Space to Play In part 3 of my series How to Empower Your Lean Project Team for Success, I am going to share why it is crucial for Lean project success to get all team members on the same page and create a space to play. Please check
How to Empower Your Lean Project Team for Success (Part 3) READ MORE
Where Attention Goes, Energy Flows In my previous post Sharing is Caring – How to Empower Lean Project Teams (Part 1), I wrote about how to overcome the traditional ways of competing agendas in project teams and how we create change by giving people new experiences and embracing their imperfections
How to Empower Your Lean Project Team for Success (Part 2) READ MORE
How HGA Optimizes Productivity Leveraging Lean Practices Sometimes in a service organization, productivity can be like a rollercoaster. There are times when everyone is working on billable projects, and there are times when people have slack periods in the office and bridge unproductive time with tasks that are not billable.
How HGA Optimizes Productivity Leveraging Lean Practices READ MORE
In my previous post What IKEA and Pull Planning in Design Have in Common I shared three strategies to make your pull plan in design a success. Check it out before you keep reading this one. Whatever is happening on a standard project and depending on the length of the
Getting Smart with Pull Planning in Design READ MORE
The Beauty Lies in Simplicity I previously wrote about how a Northern California Hospital leveraged Co-location and Lean Principles for design success. Anyone who has worked on projects of this size will agree that once the construction has started, change requests can quickly add up to dozens. Often enough, change
Change Document Requests in Lean IPD READ MORE
How to Empower Your Lean Project Team for Success (Part 1) Sharing is Caring Imagine you are planning a vacation in Italy in a few months. Do you go to a travel agent to have your trip mapped out meticulously beforehand? Do you plan every step of your time abroad?
How to Empower Lean Project Teams for Success (Part 1) READ MORE
If you are like most people, you bought flat-pack furniture from IKEA at some point in your life. You return home, unpack the pieces and start wondering how on earth this is all going to come together. Luckily, IKEA gives you a picture of the final piece that comes with
What Pull Planning in Design and IKEA Have in Common READ MORE
It’s no secret that large-scale building projects have become more and more complex over the years with numerous design disciplines and contractors involved. As a consequence, the need for collaboration and teamwork has increased substantially. More and more teams realize the value of Lean Construction and Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)
Leveraging Co-Location and Lean Principles for Design Success READ MORE
Complex capital projects across all industries, from health care, oil, gas, mining, manufacturing and power generation all have at least one thing in common. According to research performed by the Construction Industry Institute, they have a high probability of finishing late and over budget. It seems that the larger and
Building Complex Capital Projects with Lean Integrated Project Delivery READ MORE
The most successful IPD teams can answer 3 questions: Why are we building? How are we building? What are we building? Less successful teams eventually figure out what they are building and they may have spent some time determining how—but they never clearly understand why. After 10 years of structuring
We are often asked whether negotiating an IPD agreement takes longer than negotiating a traditional agreement, such as a construction manager at risk contract. The answer is probably “yes”, although that answer is incomplete.[1] A better answer, would be that negotiating and crafting the IPD agreement is an important step
Negotiation is the First Collaborative Act READ MORE
Tri-Party vs Multi-Party IPD contracts. The tri –party agreement is certainly a step in the right direction by combining the 3 most influential parties in a building project, the Architect (A), CM/GC (C) and Owner. This can certainly help align the major stakeholder interests to one goal and dramatically reduce
When it Comes to Signing Contracts – The More Signatures the Better! READ MORE