ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Tina Andrews woke Tuesday to the lingering smell of smoke and the knowledge that settled on so many residents of Bay de Verde, N.L.: it wasn’t just a nightmare. Their sprawling fish plant, an economic engine for the pretty seaside town on Newfoundland’s eastern edge, really was a smouldering ruin after […]
Loblaw is planning to build dozens of new stores and renovate more than 100 others this year, creating thousands of retail and construction jobs. Loblaw says that overall, it will erect about 50 new stores and renovated 150 existing ones, including projects that started in January. Read more
Although it’s a tool, it’s also a new paradigm that fosters a collaborative process, he said Bob Hildenbrandt, chair of Institute for BIM in Canada (IBC). The industry can be resistant to change, he added, but invested in BIM is like investing in a computer in the past. It’s going to become a necessary component, […]
Marku Allison, the director of engagement and strategy at Chandos, walked the audience through the challenges of adopting lean construction methods to a project his team recently worked on. He said that construction tends to lump things into “done and “not done” categories, but there is more granularity to the process. Read more
Ken Melax, a Calgary-based engineer, said the ‘big room’ has the power to break down silos across a project. Cathy Hopkins, a continuous improvement specialist with NOvaTel Inc., said every implementation of a big room has its own unique characteristics, but there are certain consistencies. Read more
Paul Blaser, the principal architect of RBM Architecture, began by explaining how he was tasked to help revamp the entire Saskatchewan health care system using lean construction principles. He said while touring hospitals he spotted building inefficiencies that slowed doctors down as they did their rounds, which drove design decisions for his firm when renovating […]
Craig Webber, the principal of Group2 Architecture, elaborated on some of the tools used to enhance collaboration and communication between teams. He said that partner sessions commonly happen at the beginning of projects, but there is generally little follow up, which results in sliding back into traditional behaviours. Read more
There are three steps in selection in a lean project delivery model, said Kathleen Lausman, co-chair of LCI-C. The first step is to define project needs and goals, or in other words, establishing the conditions of satisfaction for all parties. Read more
Construction, said Bill Black, the president and CEO of Brxton, comes with a long heritage, but added that with that comes habits. “There’s an incredible room for improvement, on multiple levels,” Black said. But he cautioned that there is a danger in looking at the situation as “glass half empty” rather than looking at ways […]
Lean Construction (LC), a management philosophy, is known in the industry to enable organizations to achieve major improvement in terms of productivity and levels of innovation through more collaborative approaches. However, implementing LC is not an easy task for organizations and often requires fundamental changes at both – the strategic and operational level. Read more