Browse Lean Construction

Lean is a management approach, and a culture, that emphasizes collaboration, reliability of scheduling and delivery of the most value - from the client’s perspective - while consuming the fewest resources. Beginning with pre-construction and continuing nonstop throughout  all phases of a project, Lean principles drive the efficient delivery of our services.

Lean culture also emphasizes re-imagining and eliminating waste in all forms and creating predictable, reliable workflows. On projects that develop and maintain a Lean culture of continuous improvement, our project teams have experienced improvements in design team and trade contractor relationships, communication, scope definition, coordination, cost and schedule performance.

Some fundamental principles of Lean are:

• Define value from the customer's perspective
• Understand the value stream of all steps in the process used to create the end product
• Reduce waste
• Ensure a smooth flow of value added activities
• Prefabricate and modularize building systems
• Utilize collaborative pull scheduling to provide each internal and external customer what they want, when they request it
• Seek perfection by committing to continual improvement in all areas of the process

Turner implements lean thinking to communicate clear definition of the owner’s needs, including scope and hand-off criteria of all trade specialists, and rigorous management of hand-offs between trade specialists. Based on a Master Schedule with key milestones, stakeholders develop the specific plan for each phase in a collaborative scheduling workshop. The object is to keep the team working on well defined deliverables at a reliable and predictable pace and to eliminate re-work and waiting.

Turner also uses 3D and 4D modeling as Lean tools; to model owner’s process flows and discover conflicts in design documents, shop drawings, and coordination drawings. We also model site logistics issues and the sequence of construction looking for ways to improve the flow of work by all parties.

For a case study of Three White Flint North, please click here.
For a case study of Nationwide Children's Hospital, please click here