On the Need for Effective Lean Daily Management in Engineering Design Projects: Development of a Framework

Engineering contractors (ECs) need to focus on minimizing performance waste, in order to maintain their competitiveness, as the global petroleum industry experiences lack of investments in new projects, due to low oil and gas prices. This requires ECs to put great emphasis on: improving timeliness of current equipment deliveries; cost-effective and timely implementation of documentation; increased efficiency of engineering tools; and development of new products for future orders. Lean Daily Management (LDM) elements, such as visual control boards, daily accountability, and leader standard work, etc., with identified key performance indicators, support leaders to continuously improve processes and eliminate waste. This manuscript demonstrates the basics of LDM, then presents the findings regarding design project delivery and performance in a case study EC company. It also demonstrates the potential of using LDM to solve the existing challenges pertaining to design projects' delivery in the case study company. Finally, it presents a methodology and guidelines for implementing LDM to minimize backlog of design projects and waste of design projects' delivery process in the case study EC company, to avoid over-budget circumstances.