We work with our clients to apply global best practices and systems at the onset of a project that will impact positive delivery, maximize value, and minimize waste.
How we deliver impact
We have a dedicated team of experts, including senior professionals with specific asset and discipline expertise, ready to be deployed worldwide and at all stages of project execution, from design to start-up. We provide risk identification, assessment, and mitigation; support rigorous project and performance management; and drive accelerated project commissioning and ramp-up.
We have refined a number of tools and offerings for our clients that support successful project delivery and help create world-class project organizations. In particular, McKinsey’s Control Tower provides unprecedented accurate and real-time tracking of progress, productivity, risks, and key performance indicators. Using Control Tower, the project team is able to make much faster and more effective decisions.
In addition to implementing tools that enhance transparency, we work with clients to integrate lean construction practices to improve labor and equipment productivity, generate significant cost and time savings, and improve loyalty and trust between project owners and contractors teams.
We have established a global team of lean experts who work with clients in four primary ways:
- Lean diagnostic. Through the use of qualitative and quantitative tools—data analyses and benchmarks, management interviews, field observations, and expert assessments—we pinpoint the project status and reveal project gaps and improvement opportunities.
- Last Planner System implementations. We facilitate implementations to integrate lean principles into all aspects of projects. Our experts collaborate with the field teams to develop a feasible, coordinated master plan and rollout strategy. We also coach the project team to develop the skills needed to sustain the effort and facilitate future implementations.
- Capability building. We provide project teams, including contractors and subcontractors, with targeted lean construction training modules and coaching to equip them with the right skills to ensure sustainability of lean efforts throughout execution. We provide lean boot camps, 3-day intensive trainings that use lean simulations to demonstrate the practical application of lean principles in design, construction, and commissioning. Composed of several modules, the boot camp equips participants with the necessary knowledge and tools to deploy lean construction.
- Lean transformation. From project-based to corporate-level transformation, we help to create lasting change in the culture of the organization by establishing a new mind-set and behaviors that support continuous improvement and respect for people, the two fundamental pillars of lean.
Examples of our impact
- Supported lean construction implementation and applied the Last Planner System at scale during the construction of a $12 billion power-generation project. Our work focused on capability building for more than 500 project team members, from senior leadership to direct labor.
- Supported a corporate transformation for a large general contractor with operations in South America, Europe, and Africa and a portfolio of more than $3 billion in assets. We supported the selection, training, and deployment of the client’s change-agent team. This work also included implementation of the Last Planner System and Control Tower.
- Provided support to the operational-excellence team of a $500 million renewable-energy project. We provided Last Planner System training, implementation, and coaching. We leveraged Control Tower to create visibility on a portfolio of 12-plus projects across various regions. We also developed a playbook on lean construction and operational excellence.
