Ashghal opens international conference with focus on ‘lean design and construction ideas’

The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) yesterday opened an international conference and workshop on “Recognising Lean Transformation in Public Sector – LIPS Qatar 2019”.
Ashghal President Dr Saad bin Ahmed al-Muhannadi inaugurated the two-day conference being held for the first time in the Middle East.
The event at Ashghal’s headquarters is attended by experts and speakers from Qatar, the US, the UK and Finland and organised in partnership with Qatar University’s College of Engineering, and the Lean Construction Institute – Qatar.
LIPS primarily looks to expand lean design and construction ideas to the government construction projects based on the importance of public sector projects and their role in urban renaissance.
Since 2014, this objective has evolved to include the application of lean thinking to government operations and non-profits, in general, supporting the development of new and more effective ways to deliver projects, in addition to improving the efficiency and quality of government services. Al-Muhannadi said Ashghal started implementing lean construction initiatives in 2017 on many infrastructure projects and programmes.
“The lean construction approach has been implemented in 13 projects so far. The effectiveness of this initiative is essentially dependent on the support of senior officials and managers from all participating entities.”
He stressed the need for continuous monitoring the projects implementation and follow-up with contractors closely to achieve the desired results of productivity and high quality in delivery. Ashghal president noted that lean construction reduces time, waste and the cost of projects implementation by up to 50% as it happened in one of the sub-divisions projects. He urged contractors and projects engineers to apply the latest technology methods in project implementation such as BIM and Lean Construction.
Engineer Ahmad Ali al-Ansari, technical office manager at Ashghal, said that the lean construction of infrastructure projects is achieving positive results. He pointed out that the consulting company WSP-Middle East has played an important role in adopting the lean transformation approach and applying it in Ashghal’s Local Areas Infrastructure Programme projects since 2017.
Dr Abdulla Yaqoub al-Sayed, director of the Lean Construction Institute-Qatar and chief development and project delivery officer, Asia and Africa at Qatari Diar, said that Qatari infrastructure is witnessing rapid and significant growth, with major public sectors such as the Public Works Authority.
“Qatari Diar plays a key role in adopting the lean principles within their projects. These efforts have been embracing lean approaches to execute projects to generate value, eliminate waste, increase efficiency, and maximise productivity,” he added.