The Supply Chain Sustainability School’s Lean and Operational Efficiency Group was established this year to drive the School’s offering around Lean thinking and operational efficiency. Led in Partnership with Lean Construction International, it represents a collaboration of clients, housebuilders, main contractors and materials and service suppliers working together to improve productivity and quality through the adoption of Lean principles and support the development of a better skilled workforce.
There is a clear correlation between high performing processes and teams having a significant impact on sustainability goals, enabling us to meet challenges faced by organisations throughout the built environment sector, including reaching sustainability targets to reduce waste and carbon, and improving the wellbeing of staff.
This group wants to drive more organisations and individuals to implement Lean ways of working to help them address these challenges. This is across all functional areas and we intend in 2022 to run workshops for specific areas such as accounts or HR.
This year, the key outcomes driven by this group have been:
- Development of the Introduction to Lean Construction Learning Pathway
- Updating the School’s offering of Lean resources in our resource library
- Securing access for organisations to utilise their CITB levy to pay for Lean Foundations skills training
- Raising awareness of Lean in the built environment and the business benefits of implementing Lean practices, and how the School can support organisations to do so
- Supporting the National Highways RDP and the Lower Thames Crossing programme
- Development of a programme of Lean virtual training for School members, including Lunch n Learns and workshops
The group will continue to work together to shape the Lean and Operational Efficiency topic on the School with the next meeting on 26th January 2022. If you would like to be involved in the group, giving you the opportunity to collaborate with other Partners on Lean, or if you’re a member who’d like to find out more, please get in touch with Sophie.