The Most Common venture capital Debate Isn't as Black and White as You Might Thi

Posted by Tressa on January 18th, 2021

Many people totally misunderstand the idea of a lean business model, when in fact the basics are very simple. If you stop to think about it for even a second, a person who is lean has no fat, no excess. Lean meat also has no fat, or at least very little, so fillet steak, for instance is almost fat free whereas other parts of the animal have a lot of fat. Partly this will depend on the feed that the animal has had and how much exercise.

When it comes to businesses, lean means much the same. There are some articles that you can read about it which use terminology which actually makes you wonder exactly what it is that they are talking about, but in essence a lean process is one in which the business maximises customer value while at the same time minimising waste. Think about the vegetable, the leek. If you go into the average greengrocer, you will only be able to buy a leek with a large part of green at the top.

The leek should be white, and lower down it will be, and that is the part that you cook and eat, not the part at the top which is where the leaves are dark and hard. So you pay for the leek as it is, take it home, and promptly cut off and throw away the top part which is perhaps a quarter of the weight and for which you paid good money! If you are a good gardener, you will compost the top part so that at least it is not totally wasted. The same thing applies to many other vegetables if you think about it: you peel off the skin of potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and so on, and the outer leaves of lettuces and cauliflowers, all of which you pay for and then throw away.

Lean is the part that you want, and the only part that you want. And that is the perfect way to run a business process: eliminating all waste and reducing the production line to the most perfect way that it can run. Or if you are providing a service, such as accountancy, ensuring that all your staff are operating at peak level with no time wasted.

Lean has been described as not a cost reduction programme or a tactic, but a way of thinking and acting for an entire business. In fact, the term lean thinking was coined by Jim Womack and Dan Jones of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in their book of the same name in the late 1980's when they used it to describe the performance of the Toyota Motor Company.

Another view of lean says that it is the process of introducing changes in an organisation with the objective of maximising the flow of value for the customer: as a result, wasteful activities are reduced or eliminated, but this is simply a by-product of improving customer value and should not be regarded as an end in itself. This is different to simply removing random wastes supervisors, managers and teams spot in their work area, without focusing on the vc news flow of value to the customer. Focusing on value flow provides razor sharp direction. In other words, any improvement activity that does not remove obstacles to flow may itself be wasteful.

If you wish to transform your business into a lean model you need to be certain that you have explained to your management team and staff exactly what it is that you are going to do and why. Nothing is going to change unless your managers and team adopt a new mental approach which will transform the way that they work.

In fact, it has been said that in lean transformation everyone is a leader and that to some extent every team member must be allowed to make decisions, even if they are not major ones, without having to ask a supervisor for specific permissions. If you think about it, this makes sense, because it offers every team member the opportunity to contribute to the overall plan and produce a better result at the end of the day.

What you do need in order to make a lean transformation is a consultant who knows all of the steps that are needed to make sure that you are and stay on the right track and maximise your progress.

With innovative technology and digital trends coming forth, every industry is taking the progressive approach in that line and the AEC industry is no exception. This shift is enabled with the implementation of Building Information Technology, due to the revolution it has got over the years with the usage of smart data & resource consumption along with optimal workflow thereby bringing about more profit and productivity in the project. While some of the countries like the USA, Singapore, South Korea, Japan, the UK, Australia, and the UK have made BIM a compulsion for public sector projects, India is still catching up with its usage on bigger levels.

Over the past decade it is seen that even though we have people in India utilizing BIM for the projects, it is mostly to cater to the global market and not much for the Indian projects. One of the major factors for this could be that the BIM Outsourcing companies are not able to convince and explain the impact and advantages BIM implementation can bring about at various stages of the projects which are not just limited to only the design phase as perceived by most in India.

One of the major hindrances is the lack of awareness about the process. While India has a heavy number of private and public sector construction projects, it is still not able to switch to modernizing itself when it comes to construction practices. Not just in terms of implementation, but even the potential benefits that can come along has not been tapped. Due to such things, there is an overall lack of clientele sponsorship and management support which becomes the driving factor for strategic drive and project success.

There is a lack of trained personnel when it comes to BIM usage since there is poor education in the area at the university level. Even after knowing its benefits, companies do not integrate BIM due to a lack of expertise and knowledge of it. Since collaboration can be easily achieved through BIM, it proves to be effective in terms of efficiency, cost, and effectiveness of the project.

While it is true that initial investment for implementing BIM for a construction project is higher the other benefits and the overall ROI which comes along are never considered and so the implementation is not widespread. Since there is no explanation of the benefits one can derive from it the clients simply take it as an expensive service. Unleashing the perks during the construction phase and post-delivery will bring about the required change.

While it is a known fact that implementing BIM would require a remodeling of the work culture, some companies are still not ready to mold themselves. Since there is more planning involved and reduction of errors, the teams need to be more responsible and the pressure to deliver increases and so there is resistance to change. Instead of investing to train their workforce or bringing in a new team, the companies are still preferring to carry on with traditional ways.

Since BIM works based on collaborating different domains or stakeholders during the entire life cycle of the project, the problems arise when some of them do not want to participate or coordinate through BIM. There are multiple teams involved related to specific work like that of MEP modeling services, so the clash arises when there is no coordination between these stakeholders and so working with BIM becomes difficult or out of question.

To start-off BIM at a much greater level, there need to be tight and strong policies in place. Since the involved policymakers are not aware of the implementation and advantages of BIM, there is much chaos and confusion with implementation. Even though we might have certain guidelines in India around its usage, there are no set definition or boundary details and so having clear-cut boundaries and tight policies is what is the need of the hour.

For overseas-based companies, India has become their first choice for BIM work-sharing. Other than the AEC domain companies there are other sector firms like WIPRO, TATA, HCL, Accenture among others providing the BIM services. The different services under BIM that Indian companies get projects for are Scan to BIM services, 3D BIM services, Virtual reality, 4D Construction sequencing, Drawing Production, 5D cost Integration, and 7D Facility Management. With these services India is becoming the prime destination for BIM outsourcing services for countries abroad, thereby promising the future we dream with BIM.

Coming back to the implementation in India there is a lot of untapped markets and so there are many opportunities since the Indian market is one of the fastest and biggest growing construction industries. The AECO industry of India has employed more than 35 million people with the second-highest area of incoming foreign direct investment (FDI) contributing to 11.1% of India's GDP as of September 2018.

While an array of BIM software is available, one of the studies reveals that Revit along with Naviswork has been the primary source for users. For clash detection and coordination, SketchUp is popular and for specialist consultants and people involved in complex structural configurations, Trimble Tekla products are used.

The architectural firms are top in the game when it comes to implementing BIM in India, followed by Structural Engineering consultants. The structural, MEP Consultants, and interior designers/consultants are taking much longer for adapting to BIM.

While 'Make in India' and other initiatives are encouraging, the government needs to push BIM, by making it mandatory to implement BIM for mega projects, for the advantages it gives for decades to come. Involving certification in BIM implementation and management for industry professionals might push it even further. Along with this, there needs to be a mindset shift among the different stakeholders involved in the project

By modifying the mundane practices and processes

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Tressa

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Tressa
Joined: January 18th, 2021
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