A Case Study in Lean Construction: Rosendin Electric

The successful adoption of lean into Rosendin’s company culture and implementation into operations appears to stem from two primary sources. First, the similarity of lean principles with Rosendin’s core values creates a natural alignment. The alignment allows the use of lean methods and techniques to be easily grounded in the way Rosendin does business, treats people, and makes money. Many elements are needed to sustain that success, but the grounding of the principles in Rosendin’s core values provides the guidance for all the company personnel to adopt the behaviors. The second key to success lies in Rosendin’s unbundling of the often-complex methods and techniques to simple and easily understood concepts. These two main strategies, along with the standardization of work processes, result in the successful implementation of lean initiatives and principles. Rosendin put high emphasis on training, mentoring and team building within their crews, in conformity with the lean principle of “respect for people” and continuous improvement. The latter is an important aspect of their lean journey, considering lean implementation as an “ongoing” process that requires buy-in and attention from all employees rather than considering it as a one-time adoption. This aspect was highlighted by different personnel, demonstrating that the continuous improvement culture is embedded in their mindset. Standardization and prefabrication are other important avenues of their lean implementation, which they combine with visual management. Although working on projects where the schedule has frequent changes was noted as a challenge for scaling up their prefabrication procedure, Rosendin seeks to prefabricate or kit as much as possible in their shop facility.