IPD In Action 

While many factors are playing into the project’s success, everything starts with IPD – the respect and trust of the teams, our shared risk/reward, and our collective belief in the customer’s mission to help people live well.

Challenge: Understanding the Goals

Advocate Aurora Health set very lofty goals on this project, including 40% prefab and modularization, along with a 25% diversity goal and the pursuit of LEED certification. They also had an aggressive timeline with an emphasis on reducing waste, and they put a premium on safety, quality, and teamwork.

Solution: Implementing Lean IPD

From the very start of the project, the team came together in an IPD contract that broke down communication barriers and empowered everyone to succeed. We collaborated to establish our target design, cost, and schedule goals up front. We also implemented prefab into the design drawings right away and have carried it out through procurement, delivery, and installation.

To accomplish our prefab goals, we established a manufacturing facility close to the job site, where we could design and build multi-trade racks, bathroom pods and exam room pods (a first for Advocate Aurora Health). This approach increases safety by reducing job site congestion, and it provides an extra level of quality control. Our use of lean tools such as A3s, pull planning, 5S, gemba walks and kaizen events further enable job site safety while reducing waste and eliminating inefficiencies.

Throughout the project, we have followed a One Model approach that helps manage costs and track design changes, with a focus on getting the right design quality while finding the best and maximum value for the customer. Everyone participates in the decision-making process, with a collective drive to do what’s best for the project and our customer.