At State Electric, lean construction is as much a philosophy and culture as it is a set of principles in our integrated project delivery (IPD) approach. Through a collaborative, integrated, and relationship orientated effort, everyone involved in the planning, design, and construction, of any given project, works to minimize waste to provide unparalleled value to our clients. We’ve established our lean workflows through value stream mapping, to streamline our operation and optimize efficiency. Our objective on every job is to create the proper lean design and delivery of services that meet the client’s needs. All areas of our operation are repeatedly reviewed and acted upon to achieve continuous improvement.
Our IPD approach allows us to maximize value and project efficiencies while minimizing waste. One way we do this is by getting our project teams from departments across the company to work collaboratively to maximize each team member’s expertise. From their past experience and performance, they start with the end goals of the project and effectively plan and schedule by working back to the start date. Our team consists of our preconstruction department (estimating and design), supply chain department (procurement, prefabrication, and logistics), project management team, and highly experienced electricians, linemen, and technicians. Integrating all of these departments/teams helps to ensure a high level of expertise in all areas of project delivery. With strong communication, collaboration, and integrated processes, we can eliminate waste and accelerate project schedules for unparalleled client satisfaction.
State Electric has pioneered an unmatched commitment in the electrical industry to lean construction principles across our fully integrated operation. With the application of these principles, we can continuously eliminate waste across the value stream.
“Company-wide we have adopted the ideology of optimizing the whole, which is at the root of lean construction and includes continuous improvement, removal of waste, generation of value, and a focus on process and flow. In parallel with our optimizing the whole objective, State Electric continuously applies our integrated project delivery (IPD) approach to allow our project teams to work in conjunction with one another to maximize value and minimize waste for our clients.”
To maximize value and project efficiencies while minimizing waste, State Electric applies our integrated project delivery (IPD) approach. We understand the importance of maximizing our intercompany relationships to fully integrate construction operations. With early involvement in our client’s preconstruction phase, we can effectively plan and deliver a lean project. State Electric’s cross-functional team’s experience and integration, allows us to execute the most complex and challenging electrical construction projects with superior productivity and efficiency.
We place a heavy focus on eliminating waste in the budgeting phase of all electrical construction projects. Early involvement allows us to identify value from the client’s point of view and mitigate any unforeseen issues. This helps set the tone for our project team to take their lean construction approach in delivering a project on time and on budget. Our Estimating Department’s breadth of experience allows them to identify the components of the project that can be value engineered to minimize costs and waste.
Our Design Department is comprised of experienced virtual design & construction (VDC) coordinators, with a proven track record of executing major electrical construction projects in Boston as general foremen and foremen. This provides tremendous value to our clients because we can apply our knowledge and expertise to save time on a project. Our entire project team is involved in the design, from initial coordination to layout, through the completion of as-builts. Also, by having an integrated operation we can utilize the Trimble Total Station’s capabilities to expedite our layout and installation time with increased accuracy and productivity.
State Electric has developed strategic partnerships with our vendors, manufacturers, and suppliers, over the last 33 years, to promote shared savings that provide tremendous value to our clients. We leverage our relationships to foster an efficient demand-driven supply network. Through our centralized Procurement Department, working in conjunction with our project teams, we effectively plan and sequence timely job-site deliveries to minimize the amount of downtime. Through value stream mapping, we take pride in our ability to successfully create reliable workflows through effective scheduling and pull planning.
State Electric’s approach to lean assembly is centered around prefabrication. However, we also concentrate our efforts to ensure projects are applying lean construction techniques at the site as well. Through a commitment to continuous improvement, extensive resources have been invested in our prefabrication operation to provide our clients speed to market, increased project efficiencies, high quality, and minimal site congestion and footprint. Determining our lean construction strategy begins with early involvement from our project team to identify what components can benefit from being prefabricated. This allows our supply chain manager to plan ahead and get the project’s schedule accelerated as early as possible. When it’s more efficient to assemble components on-site, we pre-kit the items needed and deliver them to the project just-in-time (JIT) by utilizing a high-level sequencing method that minimizes waste and leads to more productivity from our crews during assembly.
Our Supply Chain Facility serves as the conduit of our operation, allowing product, supplies, and equipment to efficiently and safely flow to job-sites. Through effective communication, planning, and teamwork from our project teams, Procurement Department, and supply chain business partners, the delivery processes and sequencing can be optimized. We consistently utilize just-in-time (JIT) delivery to streamline our product management which increases efficiencies while decreasing costs, waste, and required staging footprint. By analyzing data and previous delivery methods, we continuously improve by implementing effective processes that remove redundancies.