Lean Construction- The Goal For LA's Residential Contractors

Residential Construction In Los Angeles has been considered slow and late in adopting changes and integrating with new management models. It is not surprising that it accumulates a large number of problems, vices and anachronistic management models that, among so many effects, cause competitiveness indices to fall below the average economic contribution that other industries offer to the country’s growth.

If we analyze in a bifocal way, the Macro environment of the construction is entangled. Today a real estate developer who wants to invest in the acquisition of land, construction and subsequent marketing, knows that he will have to go through a veritable marathon of procedures and incomprehensible paperwork, with political overtones in order to obtain licenses, permits, etc., to build or to market the property.

Many developers today perceive this process as inevitable: “A necessary evil.”

Additionally, if we analyze it from the point of view of the construction microenvironment, the scenario remains complex: poor quality, unskilled labor, insecurity, cost overruns, unproductiveness, vices, etc., a typical reflection of a work that has not evolved.

But… What failed us along the way? What kind of decisions did we make or should we take? How did we get to this condition? If we could change something: what would it be? Something is very true in this story, we cannot change the past, but if we can create a better future, that is what today’s lesson is about.

Consilience, the beginning of change.

Edward Osborne Wilson, in his book Consilience: The unity of knowledge tells us about how different disciplines of universal knowledge can be integrated into a single idea, a kind of amalgam of theories and practices that, when made to coincide with the same objective brings us clarity, in a new thinking model, a disruptive, multidisciplinary vision, highly creative and full of new options.

Lean Construction represents that light, derived from the integration of various currents of thought.

In the first instance, a philosophy, whose origins go back to the highly efficient industrial production models of the Japanese company Toyota®, undoubtedly a global benchmark of practices of excellence, masterfully complemented by the integration of principles of development and human interaction: respect for people, collaboration and continuous improvement; Seemingly distant disciplines harmoniously integrated for the same purpose.

Over the years this philosophy has evolved, has been enriched with new ideas and has been a solid basis for the creation of Methodologies, which, based on the principles of standardization and continuous improvement, have allowed this thinking model to be internalized in the day-to-day life of many organizations and managerial styles.

The creation of a standard brings with it multiple benefits: controlling the variability of the operation, facilitating the integration of new members, providing structure for decision-making, etc., however, clear strategies must be followed to deploy this philosophy so that it eventually becomes an organizational culture.