Lean Construction Case
1) About the CustomerThe Merowe hydroelectric plant is located in the North of Sudan, in the middle of the desert, by the banks of the River Nile.
2) Current Status
Delays caused by:
- Lack of synchronism between assembly-related areas due to:
○ Space limitations in the power house assembly areas,
○ Constant conflicts among the different areas over the assembly of several components and the use of equipment such as cranes,
○ Constant conflicts among the different areas over the assembly of several components and the use of equipment such as cranes,
- Difficulties in coordinating the job packages and in particular the interfaces between the different stakeholders, and
- Scope and time controls performed by means of a Master Plan’s milestones without sufficient details for the intermediate steps, are imminent and subject to very heavy fines.
In view of this scenario, the established objectives were as follows:
- Reduce Lead Time for the assembly of turbines and generators
- Improve the level of On-Time Delivery to avoid financial penalties (Colocar destacado!!!! pode ser sublinhado)
A) The first step was to change the way the project was being managed, especially at the operational level, by:
- Creating a structured way to manage the project with the implementation of day-to-day Lean Management concepts;
- Implementing visual controls that provided a huge impact on job control.
C) The entire improvement potential found in the VSM was then incorporated into the work schedule and used in the visual and operation management boards.
D) Immediately after the boards were implemented, it was necessary to change the frequency of communications in the work site. With work packages that took less than one day to complete, the weekly or half-monthly form of management used until then proved to be no longer adequate.
E) In addition, the workplace also underwent changes. Instead of being held in rooms, meetings began to take place in Gemba (the assembly area), where managers have an opportunity to look at the problems in the place where they are actually occurring and talk directly to the workers to jointly find solutions.
F) We began holding daily follow-up meetings focused on specific issues, as follows:
- Daily Meeting 1: Commissioning Team + Site Manager – 7:45 to 8:00.
- Daily Meeting 2: Customer – 8:00 to 8:45.
- Daily Meeting 3: Assembly Team – 9:00 to 9:30.
- Delayed milestones
- Lacking parts
- Lack of trained workers
- Assembly interfaces (turbine and generator) to ensure synchronism of activities in the assembly areas and avoid the need to wait for assembly space or gantry crane time.
- Quality and safety issues.
- Processes that are non-existent or impossible to perform.
- Lack of documents.
- Improvement opportunities.
- Status of ongoing actions.
5) Benefits and Results
Application of Lean tools: Value Stream Mapping (VSM), Visual Management, and Daily Lean Management.
1) These Lean tools had a positive effect on the speed and quality of the installation of the equipment (turbines and generators) in the power house because we achieved a very high level of synchronism in the use of space, gantry crane and specialized personnel.
2) The use of Lean tools helped causing a vigorous improvement in communications among the involved contractors, which in turn improved both the productivity and the quality of the processes due to increased preventive actions and less need for corrective actions.
3) The application of these Lean tools allowed site managers and workers to come in closer contact to discuss and solve problems and cooperate to achieve synchronism in implementing the corresponding actions.
6) As a Consequence
A) Equipment assembly time (Lead Time) fell on average by 38%.
B) The difference between planned (scheduled) time and actual (effective) work time fell from 30% to 5%, which indicates improved job planning and better predictability.
C) The risk of suffering penalties for delays in equipment delivery times established in contracts shrank dramatically, to almost zero.