A Case Study in Lean Construction: KHS&S

KHS&S has been successful in their deployment of lean through a balance of ongoing, disciplined training in lean fundamentals and core methods for field operations, with the development of a lean culture that not only empowers but encourages all employees to strive for improvement and innovation. By defining key lean principles and methods in their Lean House and designing a training curriculum correlated to each of these concepts, they provide a platform to spread their lean culture to the entire organization. Under this mindset, their lean core values, including communication and collaboration, respect for people, continuous improvement, and leadership, are embedded in all their divisions and departments, from the field personnel and project management to IT and Payroll. They employ a thoughtful array of lean methods in their organization by combining them into daily routines and ongoing training. They have embedded several practical concepts, such as material mapping and color-coded weekly work plans, into daily huddle routines to empower employees to look for waste in their activities. This results in transparent procedures for their tasks, better communication of the plans, and empowerment of the workforce. Numerous examples of these techniques were observed in their office, job site, and production shop facility. They do not limit lean methods and concepts to their construction processes; rather, the training and lean concepts are merged with the daily activities of various departments, such as IT. In addition to these strategies, KHS&S is seeking innovative methods to extend the use of lean outside of job site constraints through efforts such as prefabrication and modularization. By adopting creative solutions, they continuously seek improvements in their activities, resulting in time and cost savings and a reduction in the workforce.