The Transferral of Lean from Manufacturing to Construction: a case study

Lean Construction worked for CivilPlus resulting in a transformation at Townsville-based business that was proof that Lean Manufacturing principles do not just help manufacturers – they can assist construction companies, too.

After completing a range of Lean Manufacturing programs, the civil construction company went on to successfully introduce 5S housekeeping in its workshops and onsite trailers.

Even before it was introduced to Lean Manufacturing (or Lean Construction) principles, CivilPlus was close to world class standard.

Director Scott Ironside and co-director Richard Lamb, both of whom are Townsville born and bred, established CivilPlus in 2004. “We have gone from three employees to 45 in nine years,” Ironside said. The company operates from two 400m2 workshops in the Townsville suburb of Garbutt and has six trailers that go to project sites.

CivilPlus provides civil and marine infrastructure services, such as pipeline installation; pavement, dam and bridge works; and marine construction, including pontoons and wharfs. The company’s projects are valued from $20,000 to $10 million, and most clients are within a 400km radius of Townsville.

CivilPlus was first introduced to Lean Manufacturing through the Queensland Nickel Supply Chain Project, which was developed in 2010 to help Yabulu Refinery operator Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd increase its supply chain’s responsiveness and capabilities.

Twenty manufacturers, including CivilPlus, participated in various stages of the project, which identified the main inhibitors to supply chain performance and how to overcome them.

“We landed a couple of big jobs while we took part in the supply chain project, so it was worthwhile working with QMI Solutions,” Ironside said. The company had just relocated its premises, so it was a good opportunity to make improvements.

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Linking Indigenous businesses with major projects

Queensland Indigenous businesses are set to get a bigger slice of the major projects pie
through the recently launched online business directory – Black Business Finder
(www.bbf.org.au).

Black Business Finder (BBF), launched yesterday by Minister for Education, Training and
Employment the Hon. John-Paul Langbroek, is an online database of Indigenous businesses
which will be used by major projects operators to source suppliers.

Industry Capability Network (ICN) Queensland, a division of QMI Solutions, was commissioned
by the Queensland Government to develop the BBF database and link to ICN's listing of major
projects Australia-wide - through an online tool called ICN Gateway (www.icn.org.au).

The Queensland Government provided more than $200,000 for the development of BBF which
already has 130 businesses registered.

QMI Solutions CEO, David Harrison, said the BBF is a valuable resource for major project
owners to source Indigenous businesses to provide goods and services for major projects in
Queensland.

“The benefits of Black Business Finder are two-fold – it introduces efficiencies for project
owners in terms of locating and engaging local Indigenous businesses; and it serves to
strengthen Indigenous businesses through increasing their exposure to major project work.

Queensland Minister for Education, Training and Employment the Hon. John-Paul Langbroek MP launches Black Business Finder with Indigenous business owners Dylan Sarra and Suzanne Thompson.

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Be part of the Third Industrial Revolution

Much has been said about the Third Industrial Revolution, part of which predicts the emergence of Additive Manufacturing and 3D printing as an enabling technology for anyone wanting to be involved in manufacturing. The introduction of such revolutionary technology makes the industry more accessible and customisable than ever.

See our previous post on the Maker Movement for more information.

Global manufacturing rankings over the past 30 years

A great infographic on the movement (or lack thereof) of global manufacturing rankings over the past thirty years.

I know the point of a blog is to offer insights and opinions to readers to digest and discuss, but in this post I'd just like to let a graphic speak for itself, which I've sourced from a great report from the McKinsey Global Institute called "Manufacturing the future: The next era of global growth and innovation". The Report provides a wealth of information on the big global players in manufacturing and how their market share in various sectors has grown or eroded over the past 30 years.

Everyone likes a list with country rankings and below is a graphic from the Report outlining the global rankings of developing economies over the past 30 years. 

For me, a couple of things stood out to me from the 1980-2010 rankings:

US - static

Germany - slight decline

Japan - slight rise and fall

UK - moderate decline

France - moderate decline

Italy - overall static

China - substantial increase

Brazil - moderate increase (but what's with the hiccup in 2000?)

Spain - moderate-significant decline

Canada - recent moderate decline

Australia, Netherlands, Argentina, Turkey, Taiwan - only brief appearances

India - substantial increase

South Korea obviously has made a substantial increase in ranking between 1990-2010, but look at the emergence of Russia and Indonesia in 2010. It will be interesting to see if they have longevity over the next thirty years. I'll come back then and let you know.

White Paper: Capability drivers for Queensland manufacturing

While the impact of the GFC for Australia manufacturers was less severe than first thought, the industry experienced an overall decline as a contribution to Australia’s GDP between 2005-06 and 2009-10 was 0.8%, falling from 9.5% to 8.7%.

The issue of manufacturing competitiveness has reached a seminal turning point for the industry in terms of its ability to remain competitive. Professor Goran Roos, former Thinker in Residence for the South Australian Government and current Chairman of the Advanced Manufacturing Council in Adelaide, in his 2011 Manufacturing into the Future Report, asserts the GFC changed the competitive environment for Australian manufacturing from a low-cost competitive environment to a high-cost one.

As a result, manufacturers need to realign themselves with some of key sources for competitive advantage in this new environment. Roos contends that these come from:

• innovation which is not limited to technology but also includes design and organisational innovation
• repositioning to leverage opportunities in renewable and alternative energy technologies
• unique opportunities to access resource projects and the global supply chain

This White Paper focuses on the third opportunity proposed by Roos – the ability of manufacturers (suppliers) to increase their capability so they are able to better compete for access to resource-related projects. The suppliers examined for this paper are based in Queensland, Australia.

Click here to access the White Paper.