The construction industry tends to be the recipient of much criticism in the public and the press. It’s nothing new; lack of productivity, too many safety issues, behind schedule and over budget. These are all common refrains and many in the industry have grown so accustomed to them that the criticism seems to be falling on deaf ears these days.
If you are in the industry, or connected in any way, you have heard it: there haven’t been any gains in productivity in decades, our safety record is among the worst of all industries, and projects are constantly over budget and behind schedule. We read articles about it that often offer much criticism but no solutions, or they offer complex or even whimsical solutions that often show a real lack of understanding of the industry.
I listen to the criticism, I read about the issues, and I see them in the field. I also see the industry adopting many “modern” solutions to help improve. This ranges from Lean methodology to the adoption of digital workflows. Most are great solutions, and I have helped clients adopt many of these solutions over the years. I talk about them in my courses on LinkedIn Learning. I write about them in posts and articles. And I lecture about them to in-person groups at training sessions and conferences.
In doing so, I have come to realize that we are often committing the ultimate misstep while trying to improve. One of my colleagues, Shyvee Shi posted a quote on LinkedIn that applies here. I wrote it on the wall of my studio, and I look at it all the time, trying my best to implement the wisdom it aims to impart:
“Commit to the outcome, not the solution.”
It’s simple, elegant, impossible to argue with; and yet almost universally ignored when we are trying our best to improve. Think about it:
We aim to cut waste, so we adopt Lean. After all, lean is about cutting waste. We hire so called Lean Coaches who jump in to teach us the process, and all of a sudden we are all in on Lean, spending our days learning the process.
We know that paper drawings (blueprints for some of us) are an absolute problem. We know the drawings change too rapidly to communicate the correct details to the field in a timely and efficient manner. So we adopt digital drawings. We go all in on a solution like Procore that promises to fix all of our problems and streamline all of our processes. We then spend our days learning how to best fit this solution into our workflow.
We are bombarded by “Safety First” messages so often that we have started aimlessly repeating the mantra in almost every field meeting. So we seek out solutions to our safety problems. We adopt safety systems and set about changing the way the company does almost everything in order to implement the new solution that has been adopted.
Wait – What Was the Desired Outcome Again?
What was the desired outcome? That’s simple, right? Improve everything!
Is that realistic? Can we truly improve everything, all at once? Can any of these solutions really do that? If you ask the right person, they will probably tell you yes. Ask a Lean cheerleader and they will tell you that proper implementation of Lean methodology will absolutely solve all your problems – its inherent to the process itself. Ask a digital workflow champion and they will tell you absolutely. Streamline communications, work from a single set of shared drawings, simplify processes like RFI’s (Requests for Information) and we will stay on time and under budget. Ask a safety manager and they will tell you the same. Make people feel as safe as possible and they will be productive and focus on quality.
While all of these things may be true, are we really focusing on the outcome here? What was the outcome again? Improve everything? Everything?
I think it's time for a different approach. That approach needs to refocus our attention. That approach needs to start with a goal. An outcome on which we can truly focus. That can be easier said than done. We do really have many areas that need improvement: safety, quality, productivity – all equally critical to the survival of the industry. So, I propose focusing on an outcome that affects all of these things.
We need to eliminate re-work!
Elimination of re-work is an actual outcome on which we can focus our efforts, and it is one of the single biggest challenges we have in the construction industry. It affects safety on multiple levels. Quite simply, when we do things twice, it doubles our exposure to safety issues. Many times its actually worse than that, because the complex systems and solutions that were in place the first time the work was done are no longer there the second time around. Productivity? I think it goes without saying that you can’t really claim to be productive when you are redoing something. Quality through re-work, although inherent in craft production, just isn’t efficient and it obviously effects our costs and our schedule while putting us at risk for further delays due to potential material procurement issues.
Elimination of rework is a real outcome on which we can focus our attention. Its measurable, and success will have a positive outcome on safety, quality, and productivity. It also involves the evaluation of multiple processes, many of which will require changes to arrive at the desired outcome. The point here is to focus on the outcome – elimination of re-work.
If we focus and commit to that outcome, it gives us a measurable goal. The challenge will be to stay focused on that outcome, and not the may solutions that will need to be adopted and/or changed along the way.