The suspension assembly that HTI manufactures can be found in almost every computerized device. The company makes approximately 15 million parts per week and ships 98 percent of them to Southeast Asia.

“Quality is very important,” says Jack Yates, corporate director of facilities. “If we ship four million parts per week, all parts have to be exactly the same and perform the same. If we are not focusing on continuous improvement, then we are losing money. The manufacturing process has to be very repeatable.”

Based in Hutchinson, Minn., HTI has grown from 350 employees in 150,000 sf of space in 1983 to 5,200 employees in two million sf of space spread across four North American facilities.

“When we first started out, our problem was we didn’t apply manufacturing process principles to our construction activity,” says Yates.

During the time of growth, the project planners and developers relied heavily on the architects to spearhead the projects and see them through. There was not a metric against which HTI could measure its progress and gauge the amount of necessary input and responsibilities of all the internal employees and the architects. Because project planners were not challenging the designs, they were suffering from groupthink: People invited to the design reviews would agree with the design, and not grow the design capabilities.

“We did about a million square feet in about three years and it really taxed our resources,” says Yates. “So we thought, well, we’d better find out how to do this better and actually make a process out of it.”

What They Found and What They Did

Stemming from the chief-executive mantra, “If you can measure it you can improve it, and you can measure anything,” HTI realized that it needed to develop a capital projects process that not only the facility group could understand, but also one that the accounting group could support.

“Quality products are the result of a repeatable process,” says Yates. “We had to develop a repeatable process for construction projects.”

In documenting past processes and process flow, HTI discovered that it was relying too heavily on the architects.

“We pretty much relied on the architects to run us through the project,” he says. “We were not directing the process. They kind of dragged us along.”

In an effort to anticipate the direction of building projects better and work forward with them, Yates researched industry Web sites and developed a set of objectives: produce a quality product, meet goals of the project, reduce construction time, improve delivery time, and focus on continuous improvement.

“At one Web site I found the sequence for the design of a building, and corroborated it by interviewing two architectural firms.”

After receiving documentation from industry associations relating to what is expected in each phase, HTI modified its expectations to best suit attainment of the building goals.

“The Concept Development phase is usually incorporated in programming, but our process starts prior to hiring an A/E firm, so we separated it,” says Yates.

HTI purchased the Project Definition Rating Index and combined it with the HTI design process for manufacturing, the Process and Product Development (PPD), a sequential, internal process used to ensure that a product passes verification reviews for requirement, design, engineering, and manufacturing before it is brought to market.

These processes justify the reason for, and summarize the intentions of, HTI’s Construction Project Planning Process (CP3).

A Defined Concept

Before the CP3 can begin, concept definition must take place. This includes defining objectives, how the project will support the company’s direction, the statement the building is intended to make, the relationship between the site features and the building, the financing considerations to be used during design, the major elements of design, and the site landscape features. A one-page document summarizing the concept definition is delivered to the CEO, COO, CFO, company president, vice president of operations and the architect for review of accuracy and completeness.

The CP3 consists of 10 phases:

Concept Development: This stage focuses on understanding the market need, the size of the problem, how critical it is to the customer, geographic location, and timing.

Programming Development focuses on the requirements. This can involve refining concepts, clarifying the manufacturing requirement, defining the timeline, and planning projections for the project.

Schematic Development addresses the size and shape of a facility. Here the site, conditions, and code design must be defined. Product flow and relationships should be established. Approval must be sought and granted, resulting in a site plan.

Design Development focuses on process. Design locations, elevations, finishes, and controls are detailed and assessed through value engineering. The civil, landscape, and structural processes must be established. This should all be documented before meeting with officials, who, if all is in order, will ultimately sign off on the project.

The Construction Documentation stage focuses on the project plan, encompassing the architectural plans, mechanical/electrical plans, process support plans, and long lead times for equipment.

Construction Work Bidding focuses on position and method. This stage establishes by whom, how, and what process is to be used. This also accounts for and determines owner position and liability.

Factors to consider in the Contractor Selection stage are experience, size, bond abilities, past and current other projects, contracts, and how these other people will work with the people who are already involved in the project.

For Construction Project Management, HTI developed a “Top Ten” list of things to establish after the contractor selection and before groundbreaking. First there must be a single point of responsibility for the project, the project leader. A process for problem resolution must be put into place. Roles and responsibilities for the project must be clearly defined. There must be a formal meeting structure. A method of communication for the project must be planned and in order. In addition, a weekly structure of communication should be planned. There should be a method of structure for printed documents. A formal purchasing approval process should be in line. The structure for field orders, change orders, and change approvals should be clearly defined. Finally a process for maintaining the project schedule should be established. Beyond the “Top Ten” list there should be a five-week schedule, a clear priority of work, and a set budget.

Building & Systems Commissioning delivers the product to the customer. In doing so, the product specifications must be defined. Equipment manuals must be offered, and any necessary training should be planned and conducted. This will then allow the process to begin to be qualified.

Construction Project Closure finalizes the paperwork. As-built prints, CD, and CADD documents should be approved so that a project closing report can be offered, and then a post mortem can take place.

Initially, HTI used the CP3 for construction, renovation, and demolition of buildings. Now the process is being used on installing systems such as a nitrogen generation system, which removes the nitrogen from the air using a molecular sieve. The CP3 can also be adapted for equipment installation or for a combination of the three: construction projects, system installations, and equipment installations.

Savings

“The savings are in the design changes that come about from better process design reviews as well as the process we use,” says Yates.

These better processes result in HTI improving delivery time by 13 percent and reducing scope creep. One project reduced its building costs by $6 million in the design development stage, and then saved another $1.5 million through process improvements.

“All companies are unique,” says Yates. Similarly, no project is a typical project. However, he concludes, “If you have your process in place, you can start to quantify the differences that you see within your company, and improve it.”