MOUNT PROSPECT, Ill. — Robert Bosch Power Tools GmbH, a division of the Robert Bosch Group, is offering construction teams a method to increase intelligence in job site planning and collaboration through the adoption of digital lean practices, streamlined by RefinemySite.

Unveiled in 2020, RefinemySite by Bosch is an easy-to-use, digital construction platform that allows teams to plan, communicate, and document job site changes in real time. The software works by digitizing components of the Lean Construction Institute’s (LCI) Last Planner System®.

What is Lean?

Lean is an operational strategy and business culture designed to reduce waste and create value by empowering team members with the clarity and sense of ownership to optimize workflows. According to the LCI, Lean methodology has six fundamental tenets: respect for people, removal of waste, generation of value, focus on process and flow, optimizing the whole, and continuous improvement.

LCI’s Last Planner System is a holistic program that streamlines those six principles and guides companies to discover ways to reduce waste and add value to their project performance culture by encouraging teams to work together transparently and collaboratively.

How Has Bosch Digitized Lean?

Bosch understands the value of team collaboration and incorporates that into the cloud-based software. RefinemySite is a digital complement to the Last Planner System that improves communication, accountability and insight across every phase of a project, increasing job site productivity.

“Through customer conversations, we’ve learned that teams, across trades more effectively communicate with each other when work is made visual for everyone involved in the project,” said Rafael Franca, head of business, RefinemySite North America, Robert Bosch Tool Corp. “Keeping project details and schedules transparent for all members of a team, not just managers, and empowering trade contractors to raise issues as they arise prevents plan failures by grounding decisions in reality.”

RefinemySite creates opportunities to keep the collaboration and transparency going in real time, even when team members can’t be in the same place. The moving parts of a project, traditionally captured on paper, become readily accessible on computers and smart devices to all team members from any location through the cloud-based software. Structured similarly to popular social media platforms for ease of use, RefinemySite empowers those who perform the work to plan the work. By digitally documenting schedules, task status, constraints, approvals, manpower requirements, and other project details through the platform, team members have easy access to information and maintain the clarity needed for successful, authentically Lean projects.

For more information, visit www.bosch-refinemysite.us.