fbpx

How Lean Manufacturing Concepts Ensure Education Builds Arrive Sooner and Better

Lean manufacturing is a concept that was introduced into the automotive sector in the post-war years. It quickly spread into other manufacturing industries as it proved its worth through better productivity and quality.

Construction has lagged behind. This was probably due to the combined effects of a traditionally-minded and craft-based industry, and a process that was hard to automate and standardise. Productivity and quality improvements that other sectors enjoyed were harder to achieve.

But construction is changing at a rapid pace. Lean principles are much more applicable to Modern Methods of Construction (MMC). In a sector like education where accelerated and on-time delivery are so crucial the change is transformational.

‘Lean’ Principles

The lean principles are frequently translated as: sort, set in order, sweep, standardise and sustain.

Sort essentially means stripping everything out of the process that isn’t needed. It’s more feasible to manage this aspect of lean when structures are created in a controlled manufacturing environment.

Set in order is all about structured workflows and the efficient movement of people and materials.

Sweep refers to tidy workplaces. In a construction context this also relates directly to how we eliminate and manage waste, and how we maintain safe work sites. In a live educational setting these are major priorities.

Standardise has, until recently, been one of the biggest hurdles. Until the advent of MMC construction projects were largely a series of one-offs. We can now standardise products and processes to make lean principles deliverable.

Sustain demands that improvements are maintained. Again, a more automated and industrialised construction process makes this goal achievable.

Just In Time (JIT)

The concept of delivering components only when they are needed is another aspect of lean manufacturing that can be applied to construction. Adopting MMC and assembling educational buildings from a kit of parts allows deliveries to be carefully timed, not only to fit around the school day but also to minimise the quantity of materials stored onsite.

The education sector has ambitious plans to expand capacity to meet demand. Project delivery based on lean principles will be essential to achieve efficiency and avoid protracted quality issues that can be so disruptive in educational settings.

Osborne has pioneered offsite methods for educational building programmes for many years. Within our overall customer and quality focus we see the future as one where lean principles drive transformed expectations over costs, timing and quality.

For more information about how Osborne applies offsite and lean methods to education building programmes contact Mike Peskin ([email protected]).

Find out more about how Osborne deliver Education projects on time and faster by visiting our free resource centre.

ACCESS OUR FREE RESOURCE CENTRE

X