The principles of Lean Construction – maximize value and minimize waste – are very familiar to Ruhlin. We use Lean practices on healthcare projects and in our daily construction activities as best practices for many years, including:
- Minimizing waste, time, and effort
- Eliminating re-work
- Improving safety
- Increasing productivity
- Reducing inventory of materials and tools
- Reducing costs
- Just-in-time construction
- Prefabrication
- Pull scheduling
Pull scheduling has been utilized by Ruhlin for some time. The scheduling of a project with the end date as the driver and working back towards a completion schedule is common for us. We also have been active in getting buy-in from the grassroots level of our subcontractor base prior to construction. We feel this allows the subcontractors to have ownership of their portion of the schedule and they are committed to meeting their stated objectives. After creation of the schedule, frequent evaluation will take place to monitor progress.