LCI-UK's blended learning program saves construction sector over £20m

The Lean Construction Institute UK (LCI-UK) is a charitable membership organisation supporting research into and dissemination of Lean construction principles and best practice with a view to improving public sector construction. Their aim is to provide those commissioning and delivering public works with the information necessary to make informed purchasing and delivery decisions for the public benefit. Lean thinking maximises customer value while minimising waste. It focuses on increasing value for the customer while employing fewer resources and creating less waste.

The Challenge

In close collaboration with partners (which include National Highways), LCI-UK developed a standardised, industry-endorsed Lean construction training programme designed to build Lean capability within the supply chain.

This included a:

• Lean construction competency framework;
• ‘best in class’ learning pathways with stages and points, all supported by workshops and eLearning materials; and
• solution to manage improvement projects and track associated benefits.

The aim was to deliver Lean continuous improvement and help transform the construction sector in line with its strategic priorities and long-term aspirations.

Partners pooled lean training resources, developing a consistent package of training workshops to provide users with three levels of CITB Accredited Lean Training.

• Stage 1 – Lean Beginner

• Stage 2 – Lean Team Member

• Stage 3 – Lean Practitioner

They developed a programme with a blended approach to training, including traditional workshops, online learning alongside proof individuals have delivered Lean improvement tools in real-life environments demonstrating ‘Learning by Doing’. It also included ‘Lean Learning Nuggets’.

However, they needed a pioneering learning platform to bring the vision to life, and capture data on benefits realisation through projects. It needed to not only support, and record individuals Lean learning journeys, but can guide people systematically through the management of Lean Improvement projects and facilitate sharing of best practice across the construction industry.

The Solution

LCI-UK selected Accipio as their Totara partner after a false start with another provider. Accipio swiftly deployed a Totara Learn site to host eLearning and workshops (seminars), and worked with LCI-UK to architect the learning journey and build a number of bespoke plugins to extend Totara for very specific user cases such as projects, benefits realisation capture, case studies, points, coaching tracking and qualifications.

The site now facilitates the development of Lean construction principles through:

• Innovative learning pathway with eLearning, seminars, points and qualifications. Curated learning paths, with a qualification dashboard that shows progress towards each stage of the framework with points for each learning activity such as attending a workshop (seminar);

Stage qualifications are made up of a specific set of assessment criteria, with tasks across a wide range of different courses. This can also be viewed as a gap analysis to see progress towards meeting a qualification stage, and any work that needs to be re-taken or signed-off.

Company administrators can see progress for all of their learners, and drill down into gap analysis and attendance at workshops (Seminars).

They can also access and re-use course and workshop materials for their users though a nested and innovative course layout.

• Projects and case studies. Accipio built specific functionality to guide learners through stages to complete fields a project. In order to progress, these must be reviewed by a tutor, whose feedback is catalogued for future reference. This allows learners to track benefits estimated and realised as part of that project, with these then collated by company. Results can be be exported as an A3 PDF and as case studies that anyone with membership to the LCI-UK can access. The case study page can be searched, sorted and filtered, to make it as easy as possible for others to learn from these projects. A management dashboard allows company administrators to see collated impact data. They can summate the individual benefits from all the projects attached to them, or just by each specific project. These can also then be exported for further analysis.

• Coaching visits. Accipio also built functionality to track and log detailed coaching visits that support learners. Items are flagged as needing attention (for example sign-off).

• Badges and recognitio. Badges are issued along with the qualification certificate for each stage. Learners get points for completing each learning activities which combine in various combinations to meet requirements for gaining a stage qualification.

Learners can also to take their learning journey with them from one organisation to the next which is an important aspect and made possible by the platform.

Results

The Lean Construction Development Pathway has been shortlisted in the National Highways RIP 2022 Awards.

Through the projects tracking process, it has already delivered £5.3m in savings of the targeted £20.0m, it has delivered significant savings in carbon emissions and considerable improvements in supply chain lead in times.

100s of badges have been issued, and each active user has attended at least two workshops (seminars) on average.

The modern and highly functional platform provides a wide range of high-quality eLearning, which is organised and easily accessible. Learners can easily track their progress through each stage, seeing clearly which tasks are required in order to progress.

For company administrators, the platform summarises project benefits, but also allows for data to be exported for further analysis.

“Despite Lean being essential for delivering effectively and efficiently, expertise has been concentrated in a limited number of key individuals across the sector, normally in Tier 1 suppliers.  LCDP addresses this by focusing on upskilling Tiers 2 and 3. While some companies already use Lean, others have yet to start their learning journey. By providing them funded training, the programme builds sector capability, encouraging ongoing improvements.  This growing cohort of trained individuals, having undertaken consistent learning, will take knowledge and standard ways of working onto future projects until this becomes business as usual”.

– Martin Bolt, National Highways Head of Lea