People-Centered Lean Efforts

By Joanie Lyons and Meagan Brown, Process Improvement Interns

September 19, 2017 

Background

Sixty-three years ago, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) employees started working in the headquarters building on E. Arkansas Avenue. Built in 1955, the building was originally designed for Denver Public Schools, meaning it wasn't retrofitted for a state agency. From short toilets intended for elementary school students to minimal workspace for new employees to fading linoleum tile, the building features eventually prompted discussions about creating a new headquarters.

The state had provided CDOT funding for a new building to fit staff from headquarters and another Denver-area CDOT building. Contractors bid on the project and in 2015, J.E. Dunn Construction and RNL Design were awarded the contract. The teams entered new territory by using a Lean and continuous improvement-centered model for managing the new project.

Upon implementing new strategies into the project, three team members—Chad Headlee and Mike Hamlin of J.E. Dunn, and Carl Hole of RNL—presented these processes at the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA) Region West Conference in May 2017, and to the Lean Construction Institute on Sept. 15, 2017, to help other contractors learn from their wins.

In the presentations, the three focused on the Lean tools they used to keep their team informed, coordinated and within budget. "We needed to believe in the tool," Headlee said.

These are a few of the tools that were invaluable in the implementation of the project:

Communication Hierarchy

"One thing that I thought was amazing is that CDOT wanted to communicate all of this with their entire staff and get feedback," Headlee said. "As far as a design-build team, we were really freaked out by that."

The team was concerned about the clarity and timeliness of feedback. To ensure robust communication and timely decision-making, the team designed a communication hierarchy through which they communicated design milestones to the regional advisory group, who also shared feedback gathered from employees. That information would then flow up to the design team. They continue to meet with CDOT executives monthly to maintain that flow of communication.

Big Room Concept

The team incorporated collaboration into the process by gathering stakeholders' feedback through focused meetings. Each meeting marked progress, ultimately addressing and resolving problems as they arose. The "Big Room" concept gathered into one room all contributors for a four-hour transparent, collaborative meeting.

"People started to appreciate the time that they were actually saving [due to the meetings]. You could see the enthusiasm ramp up," said Hole, who credited collaboration and planning with the meeting's success.

Daily Stand-ups

Hamline said daily standups have been the most valuable Lean tool for everyday operations. "Everyone knows what everyone else is doing that day," he said. These meetings reiterate and ensure safe practices through clearly communicated daily tasks, necessary support and discussions to collaboratively make the space most efficiently.

Last Planner® in Design/Last Planner® in Construction

For Headlee, the most valuable tool was the Last Planner® system, which addresses a project's scheduling by visually outlining milestones in terms of monthly, weekly and daily goals. The team maps this process using colored sticky notes and identifies the flow of activities based on the downstream work (aka, pull planning). Pull planning gets the right people in the same room to align teams.

Small Wins Cards and Operational Excellence Awards

The team used employee recognition to engage front-line workers in Lean processes. Small wins, according to the team, are simple improvements you can immediately implement. "Small Wins Cards" celebrated the improvements that employees implemented.

They also presented employees with an Operational Excellence Award each week. "We take that [award] and send it up as high as it I can get (if it's the president or where ever it is)," Hamline said. "We send it as high as it can go to let them know that our guys are kickin' butt and doing a good job."

Continuous Improvement

The project team held reflection meetings (aka, Plus Deltas) to ensure continuous improvement. Meetings offered an open dialogue about what worked and what didn't. The team held this meeting after presenting at the conference to solicit feedback for improvement.

Fun

Although it's not a Lean tool, fun was essential to building trust and camaraderie for successful collaboration. Hamline, Hole, and Headlee say light-heartedness and numerous accomplishments made Thursday meetings fun. They would sometimes hold lunchtime reflection meetings or after-work happy hours and, at one point, inspired team building by donating to the Food Bank of the Rockies. "Everyone from RNL's side who worked on the project was pretty jazzed about the process, and all the feedback I'm getting from them is that it's the best project that they've worked on," Hole said.

CDOT employees will be able to experience the results of using these Lean tools come in April 2018.