The construction team on the $80-million Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort Guest Room Renovation bet that its employees and partners would improve as the project progressed—and they came up big. Work was parsed into three phases. By implementing lessons learned from work completed in Phase 1, the team improved flow, sequencing and quality for Phase 2, delivering ahead of schedule. That strategy also helped Phase 3 complete ahead of schedule. Despite the challenges of working within an active resort, the team reached substantial completion approximately seven months ahead of schedule. By opening early, the project owner generated about $17 million in additional revenue.
“What made the project so successful was that the entire team took a learning approach and wanting to work together to improve,” says Mike O’Rourke, project manager at Granger Construction. “We had a lot of lesson-learned meetings, and we really tried to cultivate an atmosphere where there are no dumb ideas.”