Real Life Lean 022

Happy Monday lean construction family and welcome to another edition of Real Life Lean. This newsletter is intended to give construction professionals worldwide 4 quick and easy resources to grow and continue on your lean journey.

Today's Summary:

• Lean Article - My Misconception of Lean By Kevin Carey

• Lean Podcast - Time Management Is Bullshido

• Lean Event - The Lean Construction in the Field Conference

• Real Life Lean - Where are my keys?

Lean Article

In the article below by Kevin Carey, he shares a bit about his lean journey and the misconceptions he had along the way. He discusses how lean tools and procedures were forced on him and he was not told or shown the value behind them. I think this is an interesting approach and one that so many companies fall into - forcing lean. If your people don’t know why they are doing something, they’re a lot less likely to continue doing it.

Takeaway: My main takeaway from this article is don’t force lean. People need to see lean working and understand the benefits of these new tools and procedures.

Lean Podcast

Time management. Seems to be a business buzzword, and Adam argues that it's a whole bunch of BULLSHIDO! So if time management is bullshido, how do we effectively use the time that we have? In the podcast below, Adam Hoots shares some really simple and effective ways to get the most out of your time here on earth.

Takeaway: One of my favorite portions of this podcast is when Adam talks about time blocking not just your work day, but your personal life as well. This is something that I needed to hear and I worked on this past weekend. I'm very interested to see how my productivity increases and how I can squeeze even more joy out of my life.

Lean Event

Direct from the website “The Lean Construction Blog is hosting a virtual conference on September 13-14, 2023. This is a Lean practitioner-led event and will showcase some of the best practices of applying Lean Construction in the field. This conference is designed to help people working in the construction site including superintendents, project managers, project engineers, and field crew learn Lean practices so that they can improve: the efficiency, effectiveness, and safety of their projects.”

Takeaway: I have attended this event the last two years and have taken something new with me each time. It is wonderful to connect with fellow industry professionals and you get to hear stories from so many fascinating people. I will be presenting on Day 2 on how to build a culture that encourages continuous improvement.

Real Life Lean - Lean practices in the real world

Let’s get real here in the Real Life Lean Newsletter. This week was an exciting week for me as I embarked on a new journey. I left my position as a construction superintendent and have jumped into a role as a Senior GMP Construction Coordinator with Kanopy Group. This week has been great and I am getting acclimated in my new role. However, I am having a hard time pulling a lean event from this week, so here I am, Saturday night, reflecting on the past week.

My week started with 8 hours of site training on Monday and I was really able to get into the project starting Tuesday. I spend the week observing how the project was functioning and taking notes of areas I think I can help the team improve on. I see a big opportunity to implement more facets of the last planner system, but find a bit of hesitation in doing so because of how new I am to the project team. The article shared in the above section resonates with me, as I don’t want to force something to a the team.

So, as we look into the coming week, I am strategizing how to best get the team on board. Looks like it may be time to implement some lessons from The Lean Builder and start building this team up. Onward and upward we go!

Have a Real Life Lean story you think would be a great feature in an upcoming newsletter? Send me an email at [email protected].