DPR to Build New 250,000-Sq.-Ft. Medical Office Building and Parking Garage in Mountain View, CA, Utilizing Lean Construction

DPR has incorporated “lean-like” practices into its projects from the beginning. Collaboration, partnering and teambuilding are all techniques that DPR adopted early on to enhance efficiency and provide added value to customers. In fact, challenging traditional methods and pushing the barriers of innovation were just some of the intentions behind the founding of DPR.

Doug, Peter and Ron wanted to create a more progressive type of construction company. As a result, ever forward (advancing for advancement’s sake) is a core value at DPR. It is not surprising, then, that lean construction’s goal of building a project with the highest quality, while minimizing waste and utilizing resources to increase overall production, aligns with DPR’s overall philosophy of maximizing value for all project stakeholders.

Derived from Toyota’s lean production management system that transformed the automobile industry, lean construction, conceived by Greg Howell, a Stanford University alumnus, and Glenn Ballard, a UC Berkeley faculty member, is a methodology that focuses on producing maximum value for customer, looking at both the product and process. When engaging in lean construction, teams—including the owner, architect, builder and all major subcontractors—begin designing the construction process simultaneously with the facility being built.

“Lean leaves no stone unturned to deliver more value,” said Dean Reed of DPR, who is currently engaged in lean construction planning of a new 250,000-sq.-ft. medical office building (MOB) in Mountain View, CA, for Camino Medical Group, an affiliate of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Sutter Health. “We’re looking at each step of the building process and ways to promote continuous work flow to create reliable work flow throughout the project, closing the gaps as we hand off work from one party to another.”

One of the tools DPR is using is 4D modeling technology, which shows how the pieces will be assembled over time by linking 3D objects to the construction schedule. The project team will be able to see interferences and coordinate installations in the computer well before crews are onsite to do the work.

In addition to capitalizing on labor, which represents at least 50 percent of costs in construction, the team is examining methods for reducing waste. For example, the project includes demolition of a 297,000-sq.-ft. building and site paving that will generate some 25,000 cubic yards of crushed concrete. The crushed material will be used during the construction of the MOB and an adjacent 420,000-sq.-ft. parking structure as base rock for the new building pads and paving section. The process, according to Tracy DeLeuw of DPR, will save an anticipated $450,000 in transportation, material and landfill fee costs, as well as generate savings through selling the balance of the unused, crushed material.