IVM, a high-tech dental manufacturing company, was experiencing rapid growth and needed to expand their production capacity.
To this end they had three separate projects that all needed to be completed at the same time and within a 12-week time frame. To ensure a successful outcome, BD Engineering introduced a Lean Construction principle called Pull Planning to IVM’s project management team (Client, Architect, and General Contractor). This principle helped the owner, design teams and contractor to quickly identify any pinch points in the projects’ schedule and identified ways to streamline the process. Based upon that Pull Planning session it was discovered that key pieces of equipment would need to be ordered prior to the finalization of the design documents to maintain the design and construction schedule. Highlights of this process included:
- Identifying client expectations and proposed outcomes.
- Developing the conditions of satisfaction and milestones
to work within IVM’s construction timeframe requirement
of 12 weeks for design. - The Pull Plan was broken down into weekly increments. Then
each discipline began to determine work items that were required
to be completed at the end of each of the 12 weeks. - Once the Pull Plan was completed, we were able to determine that
the 12-week design schedule could be met.
