Schneider Electric Joins Lean Construction Institute

Schneider Electric has joined the U.S. Lean Construction Institute as a corporate member. Founded in 1997, LCI seeks to improve the construction and design industries through promoting Lean approaches to project design and delivery, focused on improving efficiency and productivity across the entire construction industry.

Lean methods seek to develop and manage a project through relationships, shared knowledge and common goals. Traditional silos of knowledge, work and effort are broken down and reorganized for the betterment of the project rather than of individual participants. Through these approaches, construction companies can improve their ability to deliver projects on time and on budget, as well as ensuring worker safety.

Along with the LCI organization, Schneider Electric will work with other innovative and like-minded companies to adopt Lean thinking and methodologies in construction practices, projects and business relationships. Within Schneider Electric manufacturing plants, Lean practices are already used to streamline and eliminate waste. The partnership between Schneider Electric and LCI will enhance the firm’s effort to implement and promote Lean construction as part of the value chain in the construction industry.

In joining LCI, Schneider Electric hopes to bring further value to customer projects. For example, the Lean approach to construction is critical to the firm’s work with Penn Medicine to design and build a new state-of-the-art pavilion featuring smart building technology for power and building management systems for the University of Pennsylvania Health System. As part of this project, the firm is helping to envision, design and supply much of the technology for the hospital’s opening and will continue to supply its electrical infrastructure and equipment needs over its many years of operation. As much of the building technology required by Penn Medicine spans disciplines and departments, the project requires a Lean approach: collaboration, innovation and working across the silos within organizations, specifications and technologies.