What is Sundt known for? What distinguishes us from our competitors and leads clients to choose us again and again? Very simply, it’s the fact that we consistently deliver high-quality products and experiences to our clients. We do this by always being on the lookout for ways to improve: to become more efficient, innovative and cost-effective.
The latest way Sundt is getting more efficient is through a commitment to continuous improvement, or what some people call “lean.” While this has always been part of Sundt’s culture, the idea has really taken off since Paul Akers published his book “2 Second Lean” in 2012. It inspired many of us here at Sundt to take our existing lean efforts even further and enhance what we were already doing.
The concept of lean predates Akers’s book, but what’s unique and appealing about “2 Second Lean” is that it prompts people to ask themselves, “What bugs me, and what can I do to fix it?” That’s the essence of the book’s concept – encouraging a “just do it” attitude toward making changes (even small, incremental ones) that are within your scope of influence, while striving to eliminate waste.
“Continuous improvement starts with our employee-owners and every day we are looking for ways to improve our processes and eliminate waste,” says Melissa Moreno, Sundt’s Corporate Director of Continuous Improvement. “We are on a continuous improvement journey that is…continuous.”
Akers’s book has been given to many Sundt employees, and since then lean has begun to manifest itself in a number of ways – both large and small. We expect to see additional lean approaches being implemented as a result of Akers’s book and our growing enthusiasm for continuous improvement. Everything we do to become a leaner, more efficient company benefits our clients by improving the projects we build for them and the experience they have throughout the process.