The Lean Construction Blog's Podcast

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Victor Sanvido has been thinking about better project delivery since he worked in his family’s business in Cape Town.  He came to the States to study with many of the luminaries in production delivery at Stanford University and later taught many of the leading lights in the lean community at Penn State University.  Victor was thinking about more effective and more collaborative delivery models in the 1980s, more than a decade before the formation of IGLC and almost 2 decades before LCI.  He managed an ad hoc Owners forum from his office in Garden Grove, California and brought his intellect to LCI as a long time Board Member, recruiter and evangelist.  He shares his experience from the early days and talks about ways that lean has and will continue to transform the built environment.

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Daniel H. Pink is the author of five New York Times bestsellers, including his latest, The Power of Regret: How Looking Backward Moves Us Forward. His other books include the New York Times bestsellers When and A Whole New Mind — as well as the #1 New York Times bestsellers Drive and To Sell is Human. Dan’s books have won multiple awards, have been translated into more than 40 languages, and have sold millions of copies around the world. He lives in Washington, DC, with his family. 

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Glenn Ballard, Research Associate, P2SL - UCBerkeley began lecturing on productivity and quality improvement at the University of California, Berkeley in 1989 and was named Research Director for the university’s Project Production Systems Laboratory (P2SL) in 2005. He co-founded the International Group of Lean Construction (IGLC) in 1993, the Lean Construction Institute (LCI) in 1997, the P2SL in 2005, and Lean in the Public Sector in 2007. Glenn is currently working on a TVD book that will be published soon.

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Vince Chapman started his tenure at the University of Texas as a philosophy major.  He didn’t do well in his first accounting course, so like a never fail Longhorn would do, he decided to master that degree.  In the interim, he has become one of the best known auditors of IPD and other construction delivery contracts.  Join us as we explore the three major transparency questions in IPD:  overhead, hourly rates and profit.

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Howard Ashcraft is the most recognized and most honoured currently practicing lawyer in the Lean Design and Construction Community.  He has been thinking about and drafting collaborative contracts (most usually IPD) since 2005.  Join us for a thoughtful chat on where he started, where he’s been and where he wants to go.

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Luciana Burdi returned to Southern Italy after receiving her masters in Architecture from Instituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia (IUAV) in Venice, Italy.  She had developed a passion for using architecture in the public sector and so turned her attention to the United States.  At the age of 28, with no experience in English, she moved in with family in Chicago and began a career in public service and the built environment that has been remarkably successful.  She was a SPURS Fellow at MIT, then took her Doctor in Design degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Design.  She has been teaching “Negotiation and Conflict Resolution” at Worcester Polytech since 2011 and co-taught “Modern construction Delivery Methods” at Wentworth Institute of Technology for many years.  She’s on the Lean Construction Institute (LCI) Board of Directors and was on the Board of Directors of CMAA (Construction Management Association of America) for many years. She won that organizations 2015 “CMAA National Award in New Technologies Techniques in CM.”  Recently she won the Construction Institute’s “Industry Innovation” Award.  She serves as the Director of Capital Programs and Environmental Affairs at MassPort in Boston.  Join us for an entertaining hour with this powerhouse woman in construction.

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Mark Van Buren came to Queens University in Kington, Ontario looking for a degree in Architecture.  He stayed 8 years and ended up with Ph.D. in Civil Engineering, concentrating on water management.  He spent the next decade or so in California and Milwaukee on large water management projects, largely storm run-off systems.  Turns out the storm was in the contract delivery system and not in the pipes.  Disgruntled with the delivery process, he jumped at the chance to head back to Kingston about 20 years ago.  Since then he has risen through City Engineering ranks to become the Deputy Commissioner of Major Projects.  In that capacity he and his team just delivered the Waaban Crossing, the “third” crossing in Kingston that unites the City through the middle of the Cataraqui River.  The $180M dollar IPD project was the first IPD bridge project in Canada.  Unlike most civil structures and megaprojects, this one landed in Bent Flyvbjerg’s .5% of projects:  it was on time, on budget and delivered all the benefits initially proposed.  Join us for a thoughtful hour with this unique bridgebuilder.

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Stuart Eckblad has been thinking divergently since he left home for Kent State to pursue a degree in architecture.  That led him to the University of Wisconsin where he received a masters degree in Environmental Design.  He was particularly interested in the effect of color on human beings.   That kind of curiosity inspired a long career dedicated to moving from traditional delivery to a new vocabulary in the built environment, one that focused on collaboration, integration, purpose and innovation.  Join us for a glimpse of the life that led Stuart to found the Center for Innovation in Construction and lead the current team building the $4.5 B Parnassus Heights hospital program.

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Jessica Kelley lives in the Pennsylvania farm house she grew up in, and that her Mom also grew up in.  Her two-year-old son is the fourth generation in that house.  While she is obviously honours her traditions, she is also one of the great pioneers and innovators in our lean community.  She participated in the first IPD project with Sutter, helped drive the most successful Community of Practice in Northern California for LCI and worked with mechanical design/build leader Southland Corporation.  She is now director of Lean Delivery at Merck Pharmaceutical and joins us on the podcast to talk about what Owners need from the design and construction supply chain.

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There is much talk these days about women in construction. How about a woman who’s name is synonymous with thought leadership in construction?  Iris Tommelein describes herself as a secular humanist. She balks at being called the high priestess but she surely is a Grand Dame of lean construction. She leads, and founded with Glenn Ballard in 2005, the Project Production Systems Laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley.  At Berkeley, she has guided, mentored and presided over the PhD journeys of some of the Lean Community’s most well-known academicians and luminaries.  

She was one of four founders of the Lean Construction Institute in 1997. She is among the leaders of the International Group for Lean Construction. The Project Production Institute recently recognized her with their 2022 Technical Achievement Award.  LCI recognized her with their prestigious Pioneer’s Award in 2015. She has been a member of the National Academy of Construction since 2019.  Join Dick Bayer as he spends an hour with the legendary Dr. Tommelein.