About Kinetic Construction (KCL)
Founded in 1984, Kinetic Construction Ltd. (KCL) is a leading construction company across British Columbia. From its humble beginnings out of a single residence in Victoria, the company today employs more than 200 people across its three locations, including Victoria, Vancouver, and Courtney. Over this period, the company has executed numerous landmark projects and continues to demonstrate the values of relationship, passion, and continuous improvement.
Lean – a culture that promotes trust
For Kinetic, Lean is a deeply embedded philosophy, a culture that is an infinite part of our project delivery. Kinetic’s leadership fosters a Lean mindset, which enables the project teams to collaborate, build reliable schedules, be accountable, innovate to optimize resources and focus on generating value for the client.
Lean Implementation – Last Planner System® (LPS)
As a part of the corporative initiative, for the last three years, Kinetic has been deploying the Last Planner System®, using the Construction Accelerator/ Touchplan combination on a series of multi-million-dollar projects. Some of the realized benefits are as follows:
- Increased schedule reliability
- Early identification and resolution of constraints
- Increased flow and fewer surprises
- Enhanced trust and team accountability
As a result of these benefits, the use of the “1-2 punch” of Touchplan and Construction Accelerator increased from 1 project to 20 projects in the subsequent two years.
Our Learning – it starts with fostering relationships
One of the significant concerns of adopting Lean and implementing its supporting tools, techniques, and processes is the adoption by the project teams and trade partners.
“This process of implementing LPS® successfully on the projects results from establishing and fostering relationships. The relationship is nurtured from the executive level to the team in the field, including the trades. Our approach was to take time to develop solid relationships and support the teams with robust training and implementation, which brought more clarity about the initiative and use of LPS® to the team members.”
The challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic presented an opportunity to make construction process improvements and use LPS® in a virtual mode and on the jobsite. Implementation started with Lean and LPS® training utilizing Construction Accelerator videos to get all project team members on board with the concept of LPS and with technology because of a collaborative, transparent, and safe process.
The Value of Small Group Learning
Kinetic Construction developed a robust training program for leadership, field staff, and trades. Kinetic Academy’s LPS® training modules and Construction Accelerator videos created a “small group learning” environment – six to eight people in Video Action Teams – that would allow them to learn both the theoretical and practical sides of lean foundations and LPS®.
Training + Implementation = Results
Since utilizing Kinetic’s LPS® program with the Construction Accelerator/ Touchplan combination, Kinetic has seen some outstanding results, making the company’s projects more seamless. Some projects finished three months ahead of schedule utilizing LPS® despite, in one case, rotating through three superintendents. The utilization of Touchplan delivered stability and an all-time project schedule visibility as the training and onboarding continued for the team members.
Meetings are now more efficient, especially the weekly constraint meeting, which brings all the team members together and helps to bridge the gap between the field and the office.
KCL continued, “When we switched to Touchplan, it allowed the project team to collaborate without having the restriction to be on site. If you are not feeling well, you can still hop on video via Touchplan. This was a byproduct of the personal relationships we formed from the beginning with the teams.”
The LPS® process that Kinetic has created, combined with the more efficient and improved trust among the project team members, along with using Touchplan, has helped to reinforce the Lean principle of transparency by making the project schedule visible to the team at all times.
Continued Refinement
The teams working with Kinetic love working on Kinetic projects because of the LPS® process put in place. The trust and relationships established through the belief “go slow to go fast” allows the team to learn at a comfortable pace. The process of LPS® deployment with Touchplan and CA has helped Kinetic strengthen relationships with trade partners, clients, consultants, and the internal team.
“Implementing and fostering a new mindset always comes with wrinkles as some don’t want to give up information as they are giving up control,” said KCL. “However, when everybody is involved and honest in meetings, it becomes an amazing experience where the whole team shares information on what is important and what is missing. That is a result of the relationships we formed in the beginning. Everyone is now pulling together.”
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