When HCC was constructing the two-tier Bogibeel Bridge鈥攖he country鈥檚 longest rail-cum-road bridge鈥攑lacing the 125-m long fully-welded steel spans, each weighing 1,700 tonne, on the pillars embedded in the riverbed was a challenge. 鈥淥n-site engineers had two choices for a more practical and economical method, either lifting the spans with floating cranes or erecting them with a launching truss,鈥� shares Amit Uplenchwar, CEO, HCC E&C. 鈥淎fter weighing the pros and cons, the team came up with a third solution of pulling the steel trusses with a set of jacks and winches on the pillars. This eliminated the need to enter the river. Besides, it also ensured safer working conditions, precluded the mobilisation of a giant setup on either side of the river and accelerated the project鈥檚 pace. The strategy proved testament to the global practice of Lean construction, which is changing the way projects are executed from design to construction.鈥�
Shapoorji Pallonji Engineering & Construction has implemented Lean for an IT park spread over 40 acre with a built-up area of 3.5 m sq ft. It required coordination among 46 contractors having more than 2,000 workers at a time. 鈥淭he project was struggling with coordination issues within and among teams, and wastage of material and labour at the same time,鈥� says SC Dixit, Executive Director, Shapoorji Pallonji Engineering & Construction. 鈥淭he implementation of Lean tools such as Last Planner System (LPS) helped in coordination and streamlining communication, while Value Stream Mapping (VSM) practices helped in reducing man days and improving productivity. Further, pull-based planning ensured optimistic targets, which is further reinforced by the rest of the tools, resulting in improved productivity; and a sense of waste reduction is nurtured in the team, which resulted in improved coordination and higher percentage plan completion.鈥�
At one of Tata Realty and Infrastructure鈥檚 recent projects in Gurugram, a large SEZ project of about 5 million sq ft, 鈥渨e have implemented Lean and created a Big Room,鈥� says Prakash Patil, Secretary General, The Institute for Lean Construction Excellence, and Vice President-Projects, Tata Realty and Infrastructure. 鈥淲e are using the Last Planner (r) System (LPS), Pull Planning, BIM etc, extensively here.鈥�
- SERAPHINA D鈥橲OUZA
