June 6, 2024

I’m thrilled about the chance to make a meaningful contribution to the AEC industry through LCI’s education and certification programs. In this role, I look forward not only to supporting industry leaders in cultivating and advancing their Lean behaviors and tools but also to advancing my own journey in Lean practices. I’m excited to be a part of an organization so committed to making a tangible impact through continuous improvement.

At my last job, I had the opportunity to participate in their Lean Champions program. Through that, I was provided with a solid foundation in Lean behaviors and practical application. While I consider myself to be in the early stages of my Lean journey, I’m committed to continually practicing and implementing Lean principles both professionally and personally. To others on their Lean journey, I encourage you to:

a) Start with the basics! Realize that successful Lean implementation requires a fundamental shift in behavior and mindset, not just the adoption of tools.

b) Practice. Practice. Practice. Incorporate Lean practices into your daily routines, both at work and in your personal life.

c) Embrace Failure. Understand that failure is an inevitable part of the learning process. Use failures as opportunities for reflection and improvement.

In my spare time I enjoy hanging out with friends and family, including my dog, Charlie, and my cat, Finn. I also enjoy staying active, my latest obsession being pickleball. When relaxing at home, I also enjoy reading a new book or learning a new recipe.

We’re thrilled to have Mattie on board and can’t wait to see the positive impact she will have on our education and certification programs. Join us in welcoming Mattie to LCI.

As a common occurrence in any industry, change is always difficult! And in consulting where a team is working to provide a deliverable for a client on a tight schedule, trying something new is challenging! We have always attempted to begin with the why—what will Lean practices help us accomplish in a better way and how will that make the work better for our team. At SSOE, this meant identifying Lean Principles that aligned with our Core Values and then focusing on a few Lean methods to use on our projects. We worked with teams in our Complex Projects group to implement these methods initially and this has now grown to requests from others to learn more. Finding an approach that emphasized the pull rather than the push was more successful for us.

I’d like to answer that with a few examples of Lean practices that we have used over several different projects—to show the various applications. First, we had a large battery project that had owner/construction/design team members around the world. This group used a virtual big room very successfully through Teams—several groups were set up with the appropriate members from all stakeholders and they then used Teams as both an instant communication channel as well as a collaboration tool. This allowed the team to stay coordinated even while at vast distances. Second, a semiconductor project has been working on the design of repetitive elements for off-site manufacturing. This group has successfully applied Kanban as a Work-in-Progress tool to maintain the requested construction prioritization. This team has now successfully completed designs for several projects and continues to refine and use this methodology. Finally, two other large projects for the automotive sector have applied pull planning practices to understand the overall project schedule as well as the design phase schedule. With many different buildings as part of these programs, this again has helped the team be able to focus on each element for successful completion.

These are a few examples of applying Lean practices in our design efforts—we’ve seen better implementation by including Lean practices as part of our Operations processes and then assisting project managers to apply what will benefit their project.

Our primary focus in our Lean implementation centered on the tenets of Respect for People and Continuous Improvement. These elements centered our work on cultivating a trusting organization and established a solid foundation on which we continue to build. Initially, we focused on a few key Lean methods as we worked to embed these processes: Defining Value and Visual Planning. Our projects now define Conditions of Satisfaction as part of a project kickoff in order to gain stakeholder alignment on the overall project goals. This then enables the project team to make decisions based on the CoS.

Visual planning has also aligned the stakeholders on the key milestones as well as the specific commitments and deliverables required. As the project develops and perhaps sees scope change, the team can more easily determine overall impacts and needed adjustments. We included a company-wide training session in Reliable Promising to help our employees understand a key component of visual planning.

Starting with these two methods has shown the benefit of overall team alignment and has allowed for better coordinated and collaborative efforts. As we’ve progressed, we continue to add Lean processes such as Choosing by Advantages and Set-based Design in specific applications as we see the value of these processes in our internal and project decision-making.

We have not established metrics for our use of Lean practices; we’ve been more focused on embedding the practices in our overall way of performing work. My measure of success has been the quantity of projects that are implementing Lean practices and the team members’ desire to continue with these practices as they move to a different project. We recently reviewed our results since our 2020 Strategic Plan included the development of a Lean Operating Strategy and were very pleased to find continued practice of methods that were the start as well as the introduction of several new methods—interest is continuing to grow!

We also have shifted from a core team leading the effort to a Community of Practice model that has engaged many employees. The interest expressed by individuals applying to be part of the CoP Steering Committee was overwhelming and great evidence of the growing culture.

Early in SSOE’s Lean journey, the leadership team participated in a Study Action Team that allowed all team members to build awareness. This helped to begin the work on the foundation that started in earnest with the Lean Operating Strategy as an element of our strategic plan. Support at the leadership level is critical, particularly as you are attempting to build practice.

We’ve found success by focusing on a few Lean practices initially and providing background and education resources for people to learn more as they begin the practice. Our Lean Sharepoint site includes webinars, articles, books, and company resources to help people on their journey. Adding more practices over time as we have applications and people make requests has given us an opportunity to embed Lean practices in our everyday work—and has led to ongoing organic growth among our employees.