Sectors / Professional Services / Mosart — Sustainability Value Stream
Mosart: Lean transforms a Passive House sustainability practice
An Enterprise Ireland LeanStart case study in sustainable architecture. LeanTeams partnered with Mosart — Ireland’s leading Passive House certification practice — to map and redesign their Sustainability Value Stream. Result: €15,000 annual savings, 10% capacity increase (0.5 FTE), and 20+ improvement measures identified.
Architecture / Sustainability & Passive House
LeanStart (EI)
Ireland
€15k
Annualised cost savings from reduced non-billable time
10%
Capacity increase (0.5 FTE freed through levelling)
20+
Improvement measures identified through Lean analysis
Passive House assessments bottlenecked: unpredictable workloads and excessive non-billable time
Mosart is a leading Irish practice in sustainable architecture and Passive House (PH) certification. Their Sustainability Value Stream — the end-to-end process from client enquiry through to PH assessment and certification — was under growing pressure.
The issues were systemic, originating upstream in the process:
- Unpredictable workloads. The team couldn’t forecast when assessments would land, creating feast-or-famine cycles that made resourcing impossible
- Inconsistent client information. Essential project data wasn’t being captured at the pre-sales stage, triggering repeated clarification cycles during assessment
- Single-person bottleneck. Key assessment activities were funnelled through one senior team member — creating delays, overburden, and a fragile process dependent on one person’s availability
- Excessive non-billable effort. Time spent chasing missing information, reworking assessments due to design changes, and managing inconsistent client expectations was eating into productive capacity
- No forward visibility. The team had no way to see upcoming workload, making it impossible to balance resources or plan capability development
As the analysis identified, the root causes of delay originated in the pre-sales, customer onboarding and project definition stages — not in the assessment work itself.
INSERT: Workshop photo, SIPOC/VSM session, or Mosart team photo
Value Stream Mapping the full Passive House assessment process
Key Challenges
The Mosart sustainability team needed to:
- Stabilise and forecast workload so the team could plan ahead
- Capture consistent, complete project information before quotation
- Remove the single-person bottleneck on assessments
- Reduce non-billable time spent on rework and clarification
- Create forward visibility of each team member’s workload
- Build capability across the team to reduce dependency on the team leader
- Increase capacity to take on more clients and more profitable project types
The Lean Solution
LeanTeams delivered a structured LeanStart programme with training and facilitated workshops:
- Lean Principles training using LeanTeams’ Business Simulation — giving the team hands-on experience with Lean thinking before applying it to their own processes
- SIPOC analysis of the end-to-end Sustainability Value Stream — mapping Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs and Customers to create a shared understanding
- Current-state and future-state Value Stream Mapping — visualising where time was being spent and designing the improved flow
- Team Performance Dashboard development — creating visibility of workload, capacity and throughput
- Countermeasure development using silent-sharing brainstorming — surfacing 20+ improvement opportunities from the full team
- Standard Work creation for the redesigned processes, plus leadership presentations to embed the changes
“By realigning team roles and being able to anticipate the timing of customer demand, the initiative created more capacity for capability building, knowledge transfer and professional development.”
— Mosart LeanStart engagement summary
LeanStart programme: from Business Simulation to value stream redesign
The LeanStart programme combined training with practical application — the team learned Lean principles through the Business Simulation and immediately applied them to map and redesign their own Sustainability Value Stream.
Training
Lean Principles delivered through LeanTeams’ Business Simulation — hands-on experience before applying tools to the real process.
SIPOC & VSM
End-to-end Sustainability Value Stream mapped. SIPOC defined suppliers, inputs, process, outputs, customers. Current and future state designed.
Root Causes
Issues originate in pre-sales, onboarding and project definition — not in the assessments. Missing data triggers rework cycles downstream.
Pre-Sales Fix
Standardised data set for quotation: roles, contracts, support levels, timelines, financials. Key stage dates now captured before work begins.
Design Alignment
Assessments redesigned to match industry design phases. Eliminated over-processing of designs that change under Design & Build contracts.
Client Comms
Standardised onboarding agenda and ‘jigsaw game’ help clients understand what’s needed for PH assessments. Clarification cycles reduced.
Role Redesign
Project Leaders appointed to manage client contact and flow. Single-person bottleneck removed. Capability growing across the team.
Workload System
Monday.com tracking with weekly management cycle. Forward visibility of each team member’s workload. Assessment timing forecasted.
INSERT: Monday.com dashboard, Value Stream Map output, or team working session
LeanStart results: €15,000 saved and 10% capacity unlocked at Mosart
The LeanStart engagement delivered results across efficiency, capacity and team capability:
- €15,000 annualised cost savings. Reduced non-billable time and shorter lead times translate directly to the bottom line — more of each day spent on work clients pay for.
- 10% capacity increase (0.5 FTE). Through workload levelling and improved team ownership — equivalent to half a person’s output freed without hiring anyone.
- 20+ improvement measures identified. Structured Lean analysis surfaced a comprehensive improvement backlog — not just quick wins but a roadmap for ongoing optimisation.
- More value-adding time. The team now spends more time on PH assessment and client advisory work — the skilled, billable activities that drive the business.
- Reduced rework and client interactions. Standardised communication and onboarding mean clients provide the right information first time — eliminating clarification cycles.
- Greater team capability and resilience. Role redesign and knowledge transfer mean the team is no longer dependent on a single senior person — creating resilience and growth potential.
- Improved work satisfaction. More predictable workloads and clearer processes have improved the day-to-day experience for the whole team.
Learnings
- The root causes of delay in professional services almost always originate upstream — in pre-sales, onboarding and scoping — not in the skilled work itself. Fixing the inputs fixes everything downstream.
- A single-person bottleneck is a business risk, not just an efficiency issue. Removing it through role redesign creates both capacity and resilience.
- The Business Simulation gave the team a shared language and understanding of Lean before they applied it to their own processes — this accelerated buy-in significantly.
- Silent-sharing brainstorming surfaced 20+ ideas because it gives every team member an equal voice — not just the most senior or most vocal.
- Forward visibility of workload (through Monday.com and weekly management cycles) transforms how a professional services team operates — from reactive firefighting to planned, predictable delivery.
- Aligning assessments to industry design phases eliminated an entire category of waste — over-processing work that would change anyway under Design & Build contracts.
- The standardised onboarding ‘jigsaw game’ is a creative solution that helps clients understand what’s needed — reducing friction while improving data quality.
Enterprise Ireland LeanStart for architecture: productivity and satisfaction improve together
Mosart’s engagement demonstrates that Lean methodology is a natural fit for professional services firms — particularly those delivering technical, knowledge-intensive services like Passive House certification. By mapping the full value stream and fixing the upstream causes of delay, the team unlocked €15,000 in annual savings and 10% additional capacity — resources that can now be invested in more clients, more profitable projects, and professional development.
The fact that work satisfaction improved alongside productivity is not a coincidence — when processes are predictable and roles are clear, people do better work and enjoy it more.
This case study sits within our Professional Services sector. Explore all our case studies by sector or learn about our Enterprise Ireland LeanStart programme.
Lean methods used to transform Mosart's sustainability value stream
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Lean for Architecture, Sustainability and Professional Services in Ireland
This case study demonstrates how Enterprise Ireland LeanStart helps professional services firms unlock capacity and reduce non-billable time. Mosart used Value Stream Mapping, SIPOC / Process Mapping, structured brainstorming and Standard Work to transform their Passive House sustainability practice.
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