Lean to be 'GREEN' | lean-lab

Lean to be 'GREEN' | lean-lab: "

Lean to be 'GREEN'
October 20, 2016
Kathleen Lausman

Traditional design and construction practices are wasteful and fall short on value to the Owner. 

Avoidable wastes equate to 50-65% of a traditional project cost while another 25-35% is unavoidable waste inherent in processes that are required to support design and construction such as accounting. By contrast, the actual value produced in a traditional design and construction project is a mere 10%.

Figure 2: Waste in Building Industry

In short, creating waste is not a sustainable practice.

The good news is the building industry is improving through Lean Project Delivery principles and methods. Lean Project Delivery is based on the Toyota system used in manufacturing.

While Lean Project Delivery has been in practice in the US and a number of European countries for the past two decades, it is a relatively new practice in Canada that is showing impressive results toward sustainability - increasing value through waste reduction or elimination.

Lean design and construction methodology works to minimize the waste of materials and labour efforts resulting in the generation of greater value. The most effective ways to satisfy Owner requirements define value.

“Norman is Broken. There is a better way,” says Dennis Cuku, owner and visionary for the Mosaic Centre.

Projects like the Mosaic Center in Edmonton, Alberta have achieved high sustainability targets in both the processes of project delivery and the resultant facility performance through the Lean Project Delivery approach. The five main Lean principles applied on this project: indentify value; map the value stream; create flow; establish pull; and seek perfection. Lean methodologies reduced waste, increased value and delivered a 'net zero' energy facility three months ahead of schedule and 3% under budget!

The Mosaic Centre is the first triple bottom line commercial building incorporating three dimensions of an organization’s performance: social, environmental and financial.

[Review details of this Lean Integrated Project Delivery at www.themosaiccentre.ca.]

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