Skiles Group boosts project health with digital Lean field planning

Founded in 1972, Skiles Group provides general contracting and construction management services throughout the country, predominantly across Texas and the southern U.S. While the firm has been in business for 50 years, the last decade has been devoted to implementing Lean construction practices and the Last Planner System® to reduce waste, streamline communication, and foster continuous improvement. Since many of the firm’s projects involve interior renovations of occupied healthcare facilities, Skiles Group needed a way to conduct planning and coordination meetings despite limited space for a “Big Room.”

The solution? Bosch RefinemySite, a Lean construction software, digitizes schedules, project updates, and visual communication, putting the Big Room wall on team members’ tablets and smartphones.

“We take pride in our work being done right, but there’s also pressure to complete jobs efficiently, especially in healthcare settings where we don’t want to disrupt patient care,” said Thomas Hardy, superintendent, Skiles Group. “RefinemySite helps us reduce wasted time, resources, and space. It makes us better practitioners of Lean construction.”

Keeping up with the worldwide shift toward digitization was also important to Hardy. “It’s the next step,” he said. “Incorporating a digital Lean construction tool just made sense.”

General contractor wanted to digitize their processes to improve communication and stay competitive in an increasingly digital world.

Implementation of Bosch RefinemySite, the digital Lean collaboration platform.

Streamlined communication and increased input from trades in planning meetings.

Hardy was the first superintendent at Skiles Group to adopt RefinemySite. He first used the software on a $6 million, 30-room addition to a hospital in Plano, Texas, and then on a $17 million redevelopment of a medical office building in Arlington, Texas.

Additional superintendents at Skiles Group have also leaned into the Lean construction software. For example, team members used RefinemySite while building a new behavioral center in Arlington, Texas, and a vertical expansion for an emergency department at a hospital in Richardson, Texas.

Skiles Group’s healthcare projects involve the usual trades and additional specialists. Healthcare facilities may require specialized flooring, machines, or medical gas hookups. RefinemySite helps to integrate project teams and relay details, schedules, and updates efficiently and promptly. “Between all of the trades and our internal personnel, our project teams can be 30-40 people working in different areas. That’s a lot of people to communicate with,” said Hardy. “Add to that all the planning and meetings needed for a project to run smoothly and on schedule — daily huddles, weekly work plans, three- and six-week lookaheads. With RefinemySite, all of that communication and information is instantly accessible and updated in real time, so there’s no worry about miscommunications and no need for the Big Room.”

Bosch RefinemySite is a cloud-based construction collaboration platform that applies Lean principles to enable your entire team — from owners to trade contractors — to plan accurately, communicate clearly, and execute work efficiently. The easy-to-use digital platform empowers your team, builds trust, creates a culture of responsibility, and enhances communication.

At Bosch, we have over 100 years of experience empowering teams on the construction site. But our expertise isn’t limited to power tools. We’re global leaders in technology with an emphasis on digital solutions, and our vision is to build a connected ecosystem for Lean, BIM, and IoT.