MBA

Bussiness opperations and process management

Alireza Pakgohar
Table of Contents
Introduction........................................................................................................................ 3
LEAN management and its challenges.....................................................................10
LEAN in construction............................................................................................................ 10
LEAN within Barratt Developments................................................................................. 11
Benefits and challenges........................................................................................................ 13
Strengths and Weaknesses................................................................................................. 14
Quality and performance..................................................................................................... 15
Conclusion................................................................................................................................ 16
Task four: Reflection..................................................................................................... 16
Appendix............................................................................................................................ 18
Appendix one.......................................................................................................................... 18
Appendix two.......................................................................................................................... 19
Reference........................................................................................................................... 21

Lean Management
This task looks at LEAN management; LEAN is about doing more with less,
creating value and eliminating wastes. A LEAN approach focuses on learning
from problems with managers becoming learning coaches helping others identify
problems whilst focusing on continuous improvement. The general usage for the
term LEAN stemmed from the publication of ‘The machine that changed the
world’, a book that focused on the processes, concepts and systems implemented
by the Toyota team. The LEAN process derived from observing practices at
Toyota and implementing improvement processes that focused on value creation
and removal of non-value added activities (Jones, 2014).

Lean began in the Japanese automotive industry and has since had successful
implementation within Japanese, American and European manufacturing
industries ("Lean Construction", 2004). LEAN thinking and practices lends itself
well to manufacturing due to it being routing driven and its repetitiveness albeit
its adoption has spread across almost every sector. A range of researchers and
industry experts have taken the LEAN philosophy and tailored it around a
specific organisation, Jones (2014) notes that the focus on value streams, value

2
creation and learning remain the same whilst the sequence steps varies for
different activities.

LEAN in construction

In the construction industry initial research began in the 1990s when Korskela
(1992) looked at why the construction sector should adopt the philosophy and
look at eliminating waste in the form of non-valued activities compared to the
industry focus of conversion steps through such models as the Critical path
model (CPM). Howell & Ballard, 1998 further detailed how LEAN could be
implemented in ‘Implementing LEAN Construction’ with LEAN additionally being
presented as; an industry must in the government paper ‘Rethink construction’
(Trade and Industry, 1998).

LEAN in construction can be categorised into three main principles, Lean project
delivery system (LPDS), Last planner system (LPS) and practical application of
LEAN construction principles.

 LPDS- looks at an integrated approach, analysing design and construction

to minimise waste at each level.

 LPS- looks at implementing a pull system to improve the workflow

 Practical application of LEAN construction principles- categorises LEAN

guidelines for implementation at basic level (appendix one)

(Erol, Dikmen & Birgonul, 2016)

Although there is ample research in to LEAN application within the construction

industry the adoption and results is evidently lower then other industries. Slow
adoption is evident in the comparable statistics stating that the construction
industry misspends 57% of production time compared to 12% of the
manufacturing industry (Aziz & Hafez, 2013). It is argued that the uniqueness,
complexity and high levels of uncertainty affect the uptake of LEAN within the
construction industry as a whole, (Erol, Dikmen & Birgonul, 2016).

The next section of this task specifically looks at Barratt Developments as an

organisation, operating as a high volume house builder within the construction
industry. Although highlighted that the construction industry as a whole is
different from manufacturing it is suggested that house building as a sector of
the construction industry provides a close analogy to the automobile production.
(Yu, Tweed, Al-Hussein & Nasseri, 2009)

LEAN within Barratt Developments

This section looks at LEAN implementation within Barratt Developments,

focusing on any current lean management whilst identifying benefits, challenges,

3
strengths and weakness applicable to LEAN adoption within the organisation.
This task draws on personal experience as a construction Site Manager and
discussions with senior managers within group procurement whilst supported
by a review of relatable academic literature.

Barratt developments are the nations largest house builder, building over 17,000
homes per year, operating nationally out of 27 divisions ("BDW, PLC", 2019). All
divisions work to the visions and principles set by Barratt PLC although there are
divisional variance in demand, build method and unit output largely affected by
divisional structure, labour resources, and supplier capabilities.

In recent years Barratt Developments have standardised the house type designs
whilst reducing the number of house types within the range. This process has
benefited each division in reducing standard build time whilst attracting
contractors due to simplified designs being easier to construct. The changes have
not affected sales numbers due to most changes being minimal and at no
detriment to the end customer. Barratt Development have proficiently put in
place many group deals with suppliers securing deals due to the ability to
forecast for coming years. There is a variance in labour throughout divisions,
whilst all divisions contract out all build stages some opt for large firms that
carry out large packages whilst others prefer using smaller contractors due to
ability to remain in control.

Barratt developments as an organisation have vast experience within the house-

building sector, through personal experience it is evident that the organisation
successfully overcome issues regularly however the issues are rarely recorded
and deconstructed to identify the root cause nor are the solutions efficiently
shared. Similarly discussions with a senior manager at group procurement
identified that although group deals are in place with suppliers the strategy to
implementing these deals is often cost driven rather than partnering with
suppliers were greater value could be added.

LEAN practitioner Professor Daniel Jones defined LEAN managements as "The

practice of using scientific methods to solve business problems in order to create
value", a method John Shook reflected to be a shift away from experts at HQ
being responsible for complicated systems to manage complexity in favour of
engaging everyone in the organisation to improve the process in where they
work. A process define by Toyota as ‘developing people before making products’
further broken down by Jones (2009) as “turning every employee into scientist,
using scientific methods to improve their own work and how they work with
their upstream and downstream colleagues”.

Whilst the organisation does practice methods that relate to LEAN they do not
directly incorporate or practice LEAN management. The efficiently in solving and
overcoming issues is lost due to a lack of recording and knowledge sharing
whilst many processes they adopt are more cost reduction focused as opposed to
value added. Barratt as an organisation use one main supplier for the supply and
installation of kitchens, in the package they incorporate a cost for visiting site
prior to the installation date to check the plot is both ready and to check the

4
 room is correctly built to the specified size stated on the working drawing. This
visit interrupts the flow process of the build both upstream and down stream
preventing any task being carried out until the measure and readiness is
confirmed. When Daniel Jones statement is applied to this example situation it is
evident that scientific methods to solve business problems are not effectively
being used. Although a method has been implemented to manage a reoccurring
problem adopting an efficient LEAN process to the tasks leading to the site
measure could eliminate the non-value adding activity, this could be done
through incorporating TQM stages during construction process. This
identification is demonstrated on the current and future process map in figure 4;
this form of process improvement could be replicated to all build stages to
improve efficiency. A further improvement could be gained by applying a full
value stream map although it is noted that difficulty can occur trying to apply
VSM in construction due to site activities not fully tracking process and the
number of task involved, although a feasible solution could be to divide entire
production into flow stages (Yu, Tweed, Al-Hussein & Nasseri, 2009).

Figure 1- process map

5
The benefits, challenges, strengths and weaknesses for LEAN management are
detailed below; the factors given are focused around implementation at site level
due to the ability to draw on personal experiences whilst being highlighted by
Rother and Shook (1998) as the area responsible for the productive value.

Benefits and challenges

LEAN presents the ability to reduce wastes; any saving on both cost and time is
beneficial to the organisation and the end customer. Adopting processes to
improve workflow can make a more engaged workforce; commonly the
workflow in the organisation can be un-continuous for contractors due to
demand being dictated by the sales rate and the targets set by senior managers.
The un-continuous workflow impacts the quality achieve as works is either
rushed to achieve deadlines or attention to detail missed as no incentive is in
place for contractors. Adopting an approach that can improve workflow either
through removing the needs for re-works by identifying the route cause of issues
or through implementing more efficient systems such as pull system to control
workflow would benefit the organisation. Barratt Developments strategy is to be
customer focused, and monitor customer satisfaction through surveys, efficiently
collecting this data would identify what customers see as value added, acting on
this by implementing improvement methods aligns LEAN implementation with
the organisation’s current strategy.

Whilst the benefits of LEAN management could aid the organisation in reducing
wastes that in turn would be cost and time beneficial to the organisation and
improve the experience and quality for customers there are challenges for its
implementation. Barratt use a range of contractors to carry out varying activities
whilst sourcing materials through different suppliers, furthermore many
contractors are on price for completing their task with no incentive to consider
the task following. To successfully adopt LEAN it is said that all parties have to be
committed, involved and work to overcome obstacles ("Constructing Excellence",
2019), This would require efficient training of what is required and the reason
why, taking a collaborative approach would require a greater re-structure of the
organisation processes.

Personal experience at site level has identified that a lack of data collection and
collaboration of sites, departments and divisions results in continual wastes.
Many site processes work to ‘standard details’ set by the organisation, often
these details are not followed because the details don’t work, this information is
often not relayed to allow the details to be improved, resulting in several
variance of the same activity as each site manager comes up with their own
solution to the issues. There is evidence that many within the organisation adopt
the mentality of ‘that’s how it has always been done’ this is echoed through
departments and trades alike. The approach of trades is to carryout work during
the build sequence then rectify defects later during “the snag”. The challenges at
site level would be getting individuals and departments to take responsibility for
their own task and question the method and reasons whilst implementing

6
changes to improve the process to make it more efficient. A recent experience of
trying to obtain data on the amount of extra ordered timber and timber wastage
on site identified that minimal data is collected, when questioned why not it was
explained that despite the allocated amount be calculated as sufficient due to the
consistent amount of sites that required more we just take the approach of
ordering whatever is requested, This results in inefficiency due to duplicate
orders, wastage, and additional transport. By applying a root cause analysis
(appendix 3) to this issue a further understanding of the issue can be gained to
allow for process improvement.

Strengths and Weaknesses

It is noted that Barratt Developments are the largest house builder nationwide, a
strength for the organisation in implementing LEAN is that they already have
established relationships with both supplier and contractor that could be
effectively developed to incorporate a partnership approach to that practiced by
LEAN management. The organisation has individuals in senior roles that adopt
processes and models and implement them throughout the organisation
therefore the structure is in place to allow for individuals to adopt the role of
LEAN coaches and effectively develop teams within divisions and the wider
organisation in the philosophy of LEAN management. Barratt development
practice innovations within the industry, a further vision of the organisation is to
be industry leaders therefore adopting LEAN management fits with the
organisations vision and utilises its strengths by being at the forefront of the
sector.

The weaknesses that are affecting the adoption of LEAN are evident in both
Barratt Developments and the whole house-building sector. The previous
identified lack of recording is reported throughout the sector (Yu, Tweed, Al-
Hussein & Nasseri, 2009), whilst the lack of collaboration and communication
between suppliers, organisations and departments is evident in the organisation
and noted by World Economic Forum, (2016) to be the reason for the slow
adoption of LEAN.

Quality and performance

Barratt Developments are focused on achieving quality for their customers; they
use a strong marketing campaign stating they are the only high volume house
builder to receive a 5 star rating by customers’ for 10 years. Barratt as an
organisation work to the relevant ISO 9001 standard for quality management
with an external organisation ‘Ocean Audit’ routinely auditing the organisation
to ensure the quality process they describe are correctly implemented
throughout the business. A review of the organisation and through applying a
Gap Analysis (appendix 2) it is evident that LEAN management could enhance
the quality and performance of the organisation.

LEAN management has been previously noted to present the opportunity for the
organisation to standardised the process and remove variances from site to site

7
whilst taking a scientific approach to get to the root cause of issues to remove re-
works. Customers often purchase homes based of viewing show homes at
different developments, personal experience as a manager has identified that any
variance in show homes result in inconsistency for the specification expected by
the customer. Furthermore the organisation market the company based on a five
star status, this credential sets a standard of expectation for customers, with
customers expecting their homes to out perform any of the other house builders.
Personal experience identifies that this status is often retained through
effectively and efficiently completing reworks for customers once they received
the homes, therefore an external failure cost has occurred that can be
detrimental to the organisation reputation.

Implementing LEAN management with mistake proofing systems (Poka yoke)

could benefit the organisation in improving quality; the concept of applying Poka
yoke is a behaviour changing constraint. Barratt Development as identified does
not fully adopt LEAN however recently there have been increasing issues of
external doors not being fitted correctly. The organisation designed a cavity
closure to be installed by bricklayers that indicated the installation point and
fixing points for joiners. This solution has significantly reduced the issues and
presented a quality improvement for customers, this is a process that could be
applied for the improvement of other activities.

Performance measurement within Barratt developments is similar to that of the

construction industry as a whole, Sarhan & Fox, 2013, express how the
construction industry prefer to measure performance in terms of time and cost
as opposed to process performance of cycle time and reworks. LEAN
management presents the opportunity to measure performance at different flow
stages of activities to give early warnings and identify barriers and potential
problems. Identification of these KPI could benefit the organisation as the
information can be collectively shared between all parties as part of a
collaborative approach to improvement.

Conclusion

This task has looked at the adoption of LEAN management practice within
Barratt Developments; it is evident that although some adoption is present the
organisation is not actively pursuing its implementation. The slow adoption of
LEAN has been identified throughout the industry as a whole however there is
signs of future implementation due to the increasing use of modular and timber
frame components within the industry. A Discussion with a senior manager
further confirmed this identification and stated that naturally the industry will
likely evolve to become more LEAN due to adopting more controllable build
techniques. Barratt Developments have until recently focused on traditional
building however the organisation has stated they will build 20% of the homes
using offsite technology.

8
There is evidence within the organisation that people will be resistant to change,
this again is echoed throughout the industry as Bashir, Suresh, Oloke, Proverbs &
Gameson, (2017) identify an old school mentality is preventing adoption.
Discussions with a senior mangers did identify that there are increasing
employees coming into the organisation that are willing to change, stating that
due to the fact no adoption of LEAN has happened as of yet the results would be
fantastic and evidential in wastes reduction once effectively implemented. The
World Economic Forum", 2016 support the benefits that could be seen in the
industry stating that a 1% rise in production cost in the construction could save
£1bn.

2772

Task four: Reflection

This module is the second module as part of my MBA, my reflection in the last
assignment looked at the transition this course is aiding from my current hands
on construction management role to the role of a senior manager that this degree
is tailored towards. The focus of this module was looking at business operations
and process management, the key models looked at improving an organisation
and tasks carried out within.

I believe I can successfully apply the models and understand the benefits they
can give, my learning in the module adopted a theorist and reflective learning
style as I engaged with the topic of which I had a very loose understanding of
before hand. When applying the models as part of the A3 poster it is clear to see
how the models can be tailored to suit a variety of organisational problems
similarly on the topic of LEAN management the various models and concepts
reviewed and researched where fully understood, whilst an insight into the
organisation identified a weakness at all levels in proficiently collecting data that
would improve the use of the models.

When I reflect both academically and in the work place I use the reflective cycle
from Gibbs, I applied this to the module and the set assignment and summarised
below:

This task provided further understanding of the topics involved in operations

and process management whilst reviewing the current approach of the
organisation in the implementation of LEAN. Whilst I rise to any challenge and
can competently research to gain an understanding I was initially uncomfortable
with the first task due to limited experience with the excel software, the second
and third task I felt more comfortable however once I identified there was
limited data available from the organisation I did find it difficult to accurately
apply models. I thought the overall success of the task was successful as although
sufficient data was not available a through understanding was achieved and the
experience has taught the importance of efficiently recording data, a skill that
will be adopted and developed going forward. My experience with the excel

9
software has identified that I need to improve on my understanding of the
software as a whole; this is an area I intend to address.

When I began this module I had a basic outline knowledge of various parts of
business operations and process management, I believe my knowledge in all
parts has been improve. During this task I focused on LEAN management and the
models that can be applied for organisational improvements, when I began my
thoughts of LEAN was it is something that is beneficial to some industries but not
to construction, after carrying out research and though relating models both to
my current job role and the organisation as a whole my thoughts have altered to
that not only is adoption beneficial, it is an organisation must, I personally agree
with the statement by Sedam, (2010) that the cultural change for LEAN adoption
is a must and it is now turn for the house building industry and not a moment too
soon.

Further research into LEAN adoption and the processes involved in identifying
problems through various concepts lead to a comparable in the analytical
approach of LEAN processes to the reflective work of Schö n, I found Schö ns
reflection in action and reflection on action applicable to gaining an
understanding of the implementation of LEAN processes as the refection looks at
getting to the bottom of what is happening. On future works both academically
and in the work place I intend to adopt Schons models as I look to focus on
getting the route cause in the process of organisational and personal
improvement.

616

10
Appendix

Appendix one

Appendix Two

11
Reference
(2019). Retrieved from
http://constructingexcellence.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/lean.pdf

(2019). Retrieved from

http://constructingexcellence.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/lean.pdf

Aziz, R., & Hafez, S. (2013). Applying lean thinking in construction and
performance improvement.

Bashir, A., Suresh, S., Oloke, D., Proverbs, D., & Gameson, R. (2019). Overcoming
the Challenges facing Lean Construction Practice in the UK Contracting
Organizations.

BDW, PLC. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.barrattdevelopments.co.uk/

Chopra, S. (2013). Supply chain management.

Constructing Excellence. (2019). Retrieved from

http://constructingexcellence.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/lean.pdf

12
Constructing Excellence. (2019). Retrieved from
http://constructingexcellence.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/lean.pdf

EROL, H., DIKMEN, I., & BIRGONUL, T. (2016). Measuring the impact of lean
construction practices on project duration and variability: A simulation-based
study on residential buildings. JOURNAL OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND
MANAGEMENT, 23(2), 241-251. doi: 10.3846/13923730.2015.1068846

Home. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.barrattdevelopments.co.uk/

Howell, G., & Ballard, G. (1998). Implementing Lean construction: understating

and action. Retrieved from
https://www.leanconstruction.org/media/library/id13/Implementing_Lean_Co
nstruction_Understanding_and_Action.pdf

Jones, D. (2009). The LEAN Manager. Retrieved from

http://www.leanuk.org/article-pages/articles/2009/september/03/the-lean-
manager-article.aspx

Jones, D. (2014). What is Lean? | Lean Definition | Lean Enterprise Academy.

Retrieved from http://www.leanuk.org/what-is-lean.aspx

Koskela, L. (1992). Application of The new production philosophy to construction.

Retrieved from http://www.leanconstruction.org/media/docs/Koskela-
TR72.pdf

Lean Construction. (2004). Retrieved from

http://constructingexcellence.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/lean.pdf

Offsite Construction in UK Housing Industry | Stewart Mine Timber Systems.

(2018). Retrieved from https://www.stewartmilnetimbersystems.com/media-
centre/blog/20170420-housing-white-paper-stewart-milne-timber-systems

Sarhan, S., & FOx, A. (2013). Performance Measurement in the UK Construction

Industry and its Role in Supporting the Application of Lean Construction Concepts.

13
Retrieved from
https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/AJCEB/article/view/3069

Sedam, S. (2010). Building Lean? Beyond Value Engineering. Retrieved from

https://www.probuilder.com/building-lean-beyond-value-engineering

Shen, Z., & Daskin, M. (2005). Trade-offs Between Customer Service and Cost in
Integrated Supply Chain Design. Manufacturing & Service Operations
Management, 7(3), 188-207. doi: 10.1287/msom.1050.0083

Song, G., & Sun, L. (2016). Evaluation of factors affecting strategic supply chain
network design. International Journal Of Logistics Research And Applications,
20(5), 405-425. doi: 10.1080/13675567.2016.1267125

Trade and Industry. (1998). The report of the government task force. London.

Unal, A., & Tasking, Z. (2018). Solvers: What are they and what role do they play
in supply chain optimization?. Retrieved from
https://icrontech.com/blog_item/solvers-what-are-they-and-what-role-do-they-
play-in-supply-chain-optimization/

Wallace, S. (1998). Decession making under uncertainty, is sensitivity analysis of

any use?. Retrieved from
http://web.b.ebscohost.com.hallam.idm.oclc.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?
vid=1&sid=9e41f1eb-1b46-4949-a6d4-f4f853bf9f81%40pdc-v-sessmgr02

World Economic Forum. (2016). Retrieved from

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Shaping_the_Future_of_Construction_full
_report__.pdf

Xuan Trang, N. (2016). Design an ideal supply chain strategy. Retrieved from
https://search-proquest-com.hallam.idm.oclc.org/docview/1778674546/
fulltextPDF/BA051C26D6684D81PQ/1?accountid=13827

14
Yu, H., Tweed, T., Al-Hussein, M., & Nasseri, R. (2009). Development of Lean
Model for House Construction Using Value Stream Mapping. Journal Of
Construction Engineering And Management, 135(8), 782-790. doi:
10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:8(782)

15