The Lean Builder: A Builder's Guide to Applying Lean Tools In the Field

by Joe Donarumo, Keyan Zandy

Sam Brooks, a young superintendent with ProCon Builders, has been given responsibility for the largest and most complicated project of his career. He struggles with all of the common difficulties in construction — lack of communication, coordination issues, and other kinds of wasteful occurrences that rob his project of time and money, while leaving him and his team frustrated and overworked.

Luckily, his friend, mentor, and co-worker, Alan Phillips, brings the benefit of his experience and his knowledge of Lean Construction tools and processes to help Sam learn valuable skills for improving the operation of his project. Together, Sam and Alan discuss the merits and explore the practical applications of:

Daily Huddles
Visual Communication
The “Eight Wastes”
Managing Constraints
Pull Planning
The Last Planner System™
Percent Plan Complete

Genres: Construction, Nonfiction

Kindle Edition

Published August 20, 2019

Reviews

[Athena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would recommend to anyone in the field or office of a construction site looking to sharpen their axe and implement LEAN. A good read for superintendents specifically!! The book is outlined in a way that you can almost implement as you go. The fable format makes the content easily digestible for all levels of readers and LEAN practitioners. The audio book is a good performance effort by Jim Messkimen. I specifically enjoyed the different voices for different trade partners.

10/10, would recommend.

[George Nassif · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for entry level construction employees whether never in construction before, fresh out of college etc. gives a great view on working lean and smarter. Recommend for construction industry employees.

[Amber Plant · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with our managers at work (both office and field). It was easy to read and easy to understand the concepts. The only suggestion I could make is to come up with a version for subcontractors.

[Carol Sente · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this with a construction friend who met one of the authors at a safety conference. This book is narrowly written for its target audience - construction professionals, specifically trade partners, General contractors and construction managers’ superintendents and Project managers. If this is you, I think you will really enjoy this book.

Modeled off the Patrick Lencioni fable format, this short book is easy to read and would be perfect to discuss with a construction company wanting to implement Lean Building practices. I like the idea of short, daily huddles using a variety of visual tools and “Pull Planning” versus the more typical “Push Planning” via a Master Schedule with milestones initiated by the GC’s office without direct trade partner input. In fact the idea of replacing the label “sub-contractors” (sub=lesser) with “trade partners” alone is genius. Highly recommend for General, CM and trade construction firms.

[Jack Ziobrowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a project engineer starting off my career in the construction industry, this book provides vital insight to the ways Lean Processes can quite literally turn around a project. The two authors of this book have amassed great expertise in construction and with that knowledge delivered ways a construction manager can better their crafts in the field, in the office and overall.

Great Read!

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall—really good overview of the Lean method of construction. Put in an easy to follow format that was entertaining as well as educational. I think some points in the fictional portion of the book were over-optimistic. However, great read. Would totally recommend to anyone in the construction industry.

[Cyril Danthi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author has narrated the use of lean tools in the construction project through a story. If you are interested in a deep dive of tools and implementation part, then this book is of no use.

All major tools and techniques of lean is not covered in the book.

[Harvey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Lean Builder gives a straight forward and clear explanation of the Last Planner method of construction management. I recommend it highly to anyone wanting to implement The Last Planner System.

[Brian Chiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I new nothing of Lean Construction before reading this book and now I feel like I could lead a project!

[Chris Downey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent intro to lean construction and the last planner system.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really really easy read. Will be a good one to share with apprentices to familiarize themselves with concepts that GCs will be implementing in the job trailer. Wish I had read this when it came out.