Engineering & Works

Cegelec Maroc has won an HVAC and smoke extraction contract as part of the Hôpital Universitaire de Bouskoura teaching hospital construction project near Casablanca. The 250 bed, 40,000 sq. metre hospital will contain surgical and in-patient units. BYMARO, a subsidiary of the French Bouygues Bâtiment International Group, is carrying out the project, with Cegelec Maroc as sub-contractor for the Fluids works package.

What is the special feature of this project? The choice of lean construction, an automotive industry method applied to building and civil engineering.

Mohamed Safe, fluids business unit manager in Morocco, talks about his experience with lean construction on the Bouskoura worksite.

Why did you use the lean construction method on the Bouskoura project?

The decision was taken by BYMARO as general contractor. BYMARO called on a design office specialising in lean construction to help us adopt the method. As a subcontractor, we did not have a say in the decision and had to go along with it, but we were already convinced that it could provide value added on a project of this size. In addition, this was not the first time we had tried it, because we had already used it when working with BYMARO on the construction of the Casablanca Finance City (CFC) tower.

How was the method introduced?

The goal of lean construction is to reduce all forms of waste – time, materials and human energy. It is a process that primarily focuses on sequencing and collaborative scheduling.

We therefore set up weekly meetings, called “reviews”, with our partners. All the companies involved (structural works, fitting and finishing, technical works packages, etc.) get together for an hour to review progress on the project.

By using the summary drawing (or BIM) as a working document, we share and discuss each stage of the work then adjust it based on a performance indicator, the “promise kept rate”, set at 80%. It is important for each of us to work transparently, report problems and work together to build solutions. We have achieved this, and have succeeded in keeping our promises, notably by considerably reducing wait times.

For example, we need to install a lot of utility lines (ventilation, chilled / hot water, electrical cable trays, medical fluids) in false ceilings before closing them. Lean construction enabled us to carry out this part of the project even before the structural works were completed, which certainly doesn’t happen often!

After the scheduling phase, how did you proceed with your teams?

During the work, we had to streamline a number of tasks so as to leave no room for improvisation. For example, we needed to install more than 700 fan coil units at the site; so we “industrialised” our procedures, for example by eliminating superfluous trips to the warehouse and measuring installation time to boost efficiency and quality.

Do you plan to use this method on future projects?

The Bouskoura project is set for completion in March 2019, so we have several more months of lean construction work scheduled at the site. Meanwhile, we are also using the method on the Fairmont Hotel project in Rabat, which we are carrying out in a joint venture with SGTM and AERIA 2A.

As far as I am concerned, it is a very good method, because it gives meaning to a project and I think we will be using it again on future projects.