Waste not, want not: Why Lean and BIM are needed in construction

By Cindy Chan

When in the middle of a project, nothing is more frustrating than unexpected bumps in the road. However, Lean and Building Information Modeling (BIM) are principles and ideas that aim to reduce the amount of wasted time and energy in the construction industry.

According to leanipd.com, Lean Integrated Project Delivery “combines lean management principles with a collaborative aligned team and contract structure to improve the outcome of construction projects.” Lean itself is the process of eliminating waste from the manufacturing process.

“Lean first came into play as a method from the manufacturing industry to increase efficiency and decrease waste,” Keir Lewis, owner of Lewis Sheet Metal, says. According to Lewis, the eight wastes in manufacturing are overproduction, over-processing, excess inventory, defects, transportation, wasted motion, waiting time and unused employee genius. However, the two that occur most in construction are wasted motion and waiting time.

“When you look at a construction job site, you would find the average construction worker is doing the work they’re supposed to be accomplishing 37 per cent of the time,” Lewis says. “The rest of the time is not necessarily purposely wasting time, but they are spending that time looking for the things they need to do their job — the power tool, the key to the job box, etc. There’s a lot of walking and wandering and trying to assemble all those things needed for a construction worker to just do their job. Our focus is to try to get rid of that so the productive work can flow.”

“The construction industry is an incredibly wasteful one in general,” Gavin Chamberlain, owner and operator of Heritage Masonry Limited, says. “Lean, to me, is all about efficiency.”

For Chamberlain, he and his team often employ the pull planning method, one of the principles of Lean, in their work. Pull planning involves working from a target completion date backwards. This way, tasks are already predetermined, defined and sequenced.

“We would find out when the project would need to be completed by, then figure out how many weeks it will take to be completed, where the materials will come from and so on,” Chamberlain explains.

Heritage Masonry also uses Lean by keeping an organized yard. Every piece of equipment is assigned a proper place, so when someone needs to use a tool, they need to sign it out by recording their name, date and the job site to which they are taking the tool. Afterwards, the tool needs to be returned in its original location as recorded.

“We also have an ordering system that requires all materials that are required for the whole project need to be delivered and on site before the project starts,” Chamberlain adds.

Chamberlain attended the Vancouver Island Construction Association (VICA) Lean Bootcamp workshop in the late fall of 2018. Chamberlain recalls one exercise in which he and the other participants built a house out of building blocks.

Lean first came into play as a method from the manufacturing industry to increase efficiency and decrease waste “We did it with the same level of organization as a general job site might have. We had deadlines and penalty clauses for errors. We did a horrible job!” he says. “Then we learned all these processes and did the same exercise with the proper scheduling and organization. I think we were 75 per cent better and quicker.” The next VICA Lean Project Delivery Bootcamp is taking place May 14, 2019.

BIM is another method of reducing wasted time and materials. Lewis says BIM involves drawing everything in a 3D virtual environment before building and installing.

“It’s something that’s near and dear to me as a ventilation contractor, because the product that I have to install in a building is large and cumbersome,” Lewis says, adding Lewis Sheet Metal is the only sheet metal company on Vancouver Island that uses BIM.

“BIM is helping us plan better,” Lewis adds. “There’s a lot of co-ordination involved. ‘This is how big the duct is. There’s no way to make it any flatter. How will we twist it around that beam and still have your ceiling height?’ We have many conversations like that.”

On several recent projects, Lewis says he and his team installed hangars in the building before concrete was poured. They placed little nailed-down inserts before pouring concrete, and they used their 3D model to locate them.

“We have a robotic total station that translates a point file that comes from the model. Those points are then located in real space on the deck. Once it’s been given its gridline, it extrapolates every point on the deck — very quickly,” Lewis explains. “Once the initial setup is done, it quickly goes from point to point. You just keep hitting ‘next’ and it gives you the next one. The advantage of it is that you reserve your spot. Other trades are able to see where we plan to be before we pour the concrete.”

BIM is still not widely used and accepted by most of the construction industry, but Lewis has fully embraced the concept.

“I love the idea of figuring out all the issues with a job earlier,” he says. “There are always co-ordination issues with every job before we actually go to build. There is nothing more satisfying than preplanning and pre-coordinating a job so well that the installation just flows, with no mistakes, and no interruptions. That’s what I’m passionate about. That’s what’s driven me to go about it this way.”

VICA 41