by David Collins, EIT

When it came to choosing my area of study for college, the choice seemed very difficult because I was being asked to pick what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Some classes in high school gave me an idea of what I wanted to do. I ultimately chose Civil Engineering because of the broad scope of what I could do with that education. I knew I enjoyed seeing things get built and I wanted to be a part of that.

What made all the difference for me when it came to preparing for a career were my Cooperative Education experiences. I believe that a year of immersive learning in your chosen field should be required no matter what field you are in. My Co-Op experience showed me what day-to-day life in my career would look like and really let me evaluate whether or not that was something I wanted to do. A Co-Op also gives the opportunity to “audition” for a full time position with a company that you like. An eight month audition is a great chance to make a good impression.

During my third-year of school at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) I was required to start my first Co-Op that would last eight months. The Co-Op application process was a long one for me because I wanted to find the right opportunity. I knew I wanted to try the construction side of the industry instead of the design side, mainly because the idea of being in an office on a construction site seemed a lot more fun to me. Welliver offered me a position as a project engineer/intern on a large renovation project. Once my Co-Op term ended I continued to work part-time for Welliver while resuming my studies in school. Welliver once again offered me an opportunity as a full-time intern for eight months. My project manager involved me in more tasks than a short summer internship would have allowed. I learned how to coordinate with subcontractors, work with architects to solve challenges on the jobsite, manage the RFI and submittal process, as well as meet with owners and facilitate walkthroughs.

Having a second full time internship offered even more opportunities when Welliver hired me to work on the RIT MAGIC Spell Studios project right on RIT’s campus. I was involved with subcontractor buyout, managing the change order process, LEED documentation, project scheduling, and owner coordination. An important part of a successful Co-Op experience is working with a company that gives you the opportunity to learn more and succeed. For me, Welliver did a great job at this. When I would start to get comfortable with what I was doing, my project manager would recognize that and get me involved with more challenging tasks. Sometimes the situation would require me to reach out and ask my project manager for more work to do, which is a good skill to learn because it shows initiative and a willingness to get more involved.

At graduation I already had two and a half years of valuable experience in the construction industry, making me a qualified candidate to hiring companies. I was not being considered an “entry-level” employee coming out of college. My co-op experiences were highly valued by employers, because for them it meant less time required training a new employee.

When making the decision where I should work as a full-time employee, Welliver just made sense. The time on Co-Op had allowed me to build many relationships within the company that made me feel comfortable and a member of the overall team. Welliver felt like a place where my skills were valued and everywhere else I looked I did not get that same level of value. The opportunities I received on Co-Op to learn and grow as an employee were also a major factor, because I knew those opportunities would continue into my full-time status.

By the time I graduated and started to settle in to my full time position at Welliver, I was well prepared from those Co-Op experiences to be an Assistant Project Manager. I can confidently say that Cooperative Education has helped prepare me for a career in construction.

A recent graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, David joined the Welliver team in 2016 as a Co-Op employee. He has experienced first-hand what it takes to successfully transition a co-op internship into full-time employment. Currently an assistant project manager with Welliver, he applies his skills on several construction projects for clients in the higher education market including Rochester Institute of Technology, University of Rochester, and Cornell University.

By: Jason Edsall, CM-LEAN

Lean Construction is a bottom up approach which results in collaborative team commitment, a production planning system, management of workflow, and building reliability. We take a proactive stance to make work happen by removing constraints ahead of time as much as possible. The end result of the production planning system is to achieve a daily detail of the project and resource allocation to complete tasks reliably, efficiently, and effectively. The following compares a Lean approach to traditional project management for project planning:

 

 

Baseline Schedule

Lean – GC develops a summary level schedule with key milestones.
Traditional – GC develops a detailed schedule with minimal trade input for use throughout the duration of the job.

Trade Coordination

Lean – All trades work together to develop the sequence of activities working backwards from each milestone. Activities are planned to a detail of one week duration. This is considered a “Pull Plan”.
Traditional – Superintendent dictates when work is to be done based on baseline schedule with minimal regard to work constraints and pre-requisites.

Look Ahead Planning

Lean – All trades collaborate to detail “make ready” plans for activities in the upcoming six weeks, based on the Pull Plan. Constraints and pre-requisites are recorded and tracked for resolution prior to work occurring.
Traditional – Superintendent dictates when work is to be done based on baseline schedule with minimal regard to work constraints and pre-requisites. Any impacts result in recovery schedules.

Weekly Work Plans

Lean – All trades work in conjunction to detail daily activity sequences for an upcoming week with commitments by all to follow the plan.
Traditional – GC issues a two-week snippet from the master schedule which has often been impacted and pushes for recovery.

Daily Huddle

Lean – All trades gather each day for a brief review of activities to occur and state deliveries. Any new-found constraints are identified for action.
Traditional – Daily meetings rarely occur.

Measurement

Lean – Accuracy of commitments made by trades is reviewed at the weekly work plan meetings. Percentage of planned work which was completed is recorded for each trade.
Traditional – Progress is recorded on a monthly basis during updates of the master schedule.

A Lean Construction approach emphasizes the reduction of waste. The various types of waste in construction are categorized as follows with an example of means to reduce.

Defects/Rework – resources are wasted when corrections need to be made.
Action: Emphasize quality control and coordination to prevent conflicts.

Waiting – Workers waiting for work or work waiting for workers.
Action: Strive for a continuous production system and elimination of bottlenecks.

Transportation of Goods – Continued handling of goods is a waste of resources.
Action: Goods should be received in batches based on the rate of usage. Any large quantity deliveries should be held at a remote area.

Motion – Workers moving excessively or unnecessarily to perform tasks is a waste of resources.
Action: Stage items at the closest proximity to the work as possible or utilize mobile systems to allow items to move with the work.

Inventory – Excess inventory can impede work or cause additional handling. A depleted inventory can cause workers to wait.
Action: Maintain a balance of inventory and institute triggers to identify when replenishment is needed before completely depleted.

Overproduction – An excess amount of work in an unfinished state can increase potential for damage/rework and may not be coordinated and also cause rework.
Action: Maintain a continuous workflow with small batch hand-offs between trades. All work in a sequence progresses at the rate of the slowest producer.

Unnecessary Steps – Efforts which do not contribute to the progression of a system are wasted efforts.
Action: Reduce and eliminate actions which do not add or provide value.

Underutilized Talents – Workers with a high level of skillsets which are assigned to basic tasks are considered a wasted resource.
Action: Understand the potential of all workers and utilize crews with common skillsets appropriate for the work.

By following these practices, the variation in work observed on traditional projects will be reduced and result in a consistent output with continuous coordinated workflow. The superintendent and foreman will interact differently whereas the foreman will assume a higher level of ownership in planning the work and responsibility to honor commitments made. Trades will work together to produce work in a fashion that is predictable and reliable.

 

An accountable and highly dedicated construction professional, Jason has been an on-site project manager for many high profile projects. AGC CM-LEAN Certified, Jason has worked in the construction industry for more than two decades and brings significant experience and expertise in Lean Construction, scheduling, field engineering, commissioning, and management leadership on projects representing diverse market sectors.

By: Nick Robertson, PMP, CM-LEAN

The construction industry is constantly evolving to become more efficient, hurdle barriers, and conform to increasingly stringent safety and code regulations. Over the course of the next 3 to 5 years and potentially beyond, the industry will need to adapt again. This time the lack of qualified manpower will become a primary obstacle. As the market begins to pick up steam, we are seeing an increase in construction in our local market. However, the amount of high school graduates who are choosing to go into the trades is decreasing while the average age of the trades worker is increasing. Over the past 3 years we have seen manpower become a limiting factor for projects, and it is only getting worse. Unless innovative solutions are implemented into the construction progress this is going to drive cost and schedule in a negative direction for owners.

Contractors who will be successful over the coming years will be those able to adapt to this challenge by utilizing concepts like LEAN Construction planning, modularization, diversifying their subcontractor base, and using technology to eliminate waste from the process. These practices allow contractors to utilize efficiencies in manufacturing, reduce the impact of weather, identify and eliminate waste, draw labor from less saturated markets, and “do more with less”. This will translate to lower costs for owners as well as allow project schedules to be expedited despite the labor shortages.

One key to the implementation of these processes is that they are most effective in the IPD (Integrated Project Delivery) method of construction. Hiring a Construction Manager in advance of design allows building experts to help facilitate a design with these practices in mind. Far too often an owner is not able to maximize savings because when the builder is hired the design limits their ability to remove waste and use some of these best practices. The most successful projects will be those when owners, builders, and design teams come together to maximize the efficiencies and deliver high quality projects using these innovative solutions.

Nick is a project executive who oversees multi-million dollar projects and project teams. His attention is on developing relationships with owners and subcontractors, conflict resolution, and staffing to ensure overall project success. Nick enjoys taking on the most complex and challenging projects regardless of market sector. His clients represent a diverse range including commercial/residential, higher education, development, and industrial.

By: Dale Partridge, Director of Safety

Quite often the construction company is faced with changes in policy or procedure for a variety of different reasons. There are many things that affect the way that a change is implemented. When faced with these changes, it is very important to balance communication to your employees while satisfying the legal side of the business.

Employees are tasked with learning and knowing rules, regulations, company policies, proper tool handling, plus a variety of other items that need to be committed to memory. When current policy is changed or new policies are implemented, it is critical to communicate in a manner that is most easily interpreted and understood.

The first hurdle of interpreting this change is in how we put it into a readable format. If left to the legal department, the written change may be challenging for the average person to interpret and understand. This type of process could cripple the intent of the change right from the beginning. Remember, the purpose is to give employees the proper training and tools to complete their jobs safely. If we hand them a legal document and ask them to comply we are setting ourselves and them up for failure. There is a balance to meeting the needs of the legal department and effectively putting a change in writing that can be understood by all employees.

Lastly we need to consider the delivery to the affected employees. It is key for the delivery method to be done by appropriate personnel. No matter which method you use for delivery, you should ensure that it is done by the appropriate person(s). This could be a third party or perhaps a person who is respected and seen in the field a majority of the time. Good delivery can mean the difference between falling on deaf ears or involving the employees and having them believe that the changes are for their safest interests.

In conclusion, one can see that a change is just not a pen stroke on a piece of paper. Balancing all aspects of a change starts at the very beginning and continues all the way through implementation. We need to think carefully about all aspects of a change so that we can keep our companies, and most importantly our employees, safe and healthy. Understanding and communication are key to a productive, healthy, and safe workforce that allows us all to benefit.

A veteran professional, Dale is a subject matter expert on the topic of safety with a diverse background in compliance and quality control. Paired with an extensive list of OSHA training and certifications, he is responsible for the overall status and facilitation of the company’s safety training programs, as well as safety compliance, tracking, reporting, documentation, and oversight of all on-site safety managers. Dale creates an environment of personal accountability, and plays an integral role in maintaining Welliver’s position as a leader in workplace safety.