Blogs Archive

Building a Better Community

Touchplan was recently utilized by XL Construction on a very special project that created a new transitional housing facility for LifeMoves that will provide assistance for 100 displaced residents in Silicon Valley. Read more in our latest case study.

See How You Can Lead Your Jobsite With the Help of Two Tech Partners

Weren’t able to make our webinar earlier this month with OpenSpace? Not to worry, we have all the great conversations available on demand. Watch the recording now and learn “How Combining Technology Can Help You Lead a Jobsite.”

CEO Elected to National Academy of Construction

The National Academy of Construction has elected Sandra Hamby, CEO and president of MOCA Systems, Inc. and Touchplan, as a member of its class of 2021. She was formally inducted on October 21 during the NAC annual meeting.

Empowering Millennials on Jobsites

A new episode of the National Association of Women in Construction podcast Build. Lead. Succeed is now available. Angela Highland, CIT, CPC Highland speaks with Jennifer Ponce de Leon, MBA, Sr. Business Development Manager for JEM Group, LLC – Construction Services. The two cover a variety of industry topics including ways to empower millennials to have a voice and share new ideas.

Growth Driven by Data

Jacobsen Construction used data to drive growth by digitizing the planning process. “We feel confident taking on tougher projects because we know everyone down to the subs and trades will be on the same page when using Touchplan,” said Layne Hess, Corporate Director of Scheduling and Planning. Learn how it all came together by reading our case study.

Pushing For Industry Inclusion

In honor of Construction Inclusion Week, we published a new episode of the Build. Lead. Succeed. Podcast. This episode is from the NAWIC annual conference with the leaders of a panel focused on DE&I. Angela Highland, CIT, CPC, discusses the importance of having the panel discussion and learning about their personal stories of promoting equity for all.

We also publish a DE&I focused blog: “The Pitfalls of an Exclusive Industry.” Guest blogger Jackie Falla from Elaine Construction joins us for Construction Inclusion Week to discuss the importance of impacting change and providing resources to smaller businesses that are necessary for success.

Up Your Podcast Game

Join Touchplan’s Head of PreSales/Sales Engineering George Hunt, CM-Lean, PSP as he discusses a range of topics surrounding one of the foundational elements of Lean: capability development. From operations methods to new technologies, Upping Your Game takes a look across the AEC industry and beyond to bring you how others are improving the way they work as well as helping develop those around them. Listen to the trailer here.

LCI Congress Through the Eyes of Touchplan’s Lean Enthusiast

Touchplan’s Lean expert George Hunt recently attended and presented at the 2021 LCI Congress Conference in Phoenix, AZ. We sat down with George to get his takeaways from this year’s event.

Insights as a First-Time LCI Congress Attendee

Carolyn Yee provides her thought s from the LCI Congress Annual Conference and how technology and knowledge sharing continue to impact the construction industry.

Introducing Touchplan’s Lean Coaching Affiliate Program

Touchplan’s new affiliate program is designed to serve its customers’ needs and quickly connect them with high-quality Lean construction practitioners that can help with their transitions to managing construction projects with a Lean Mindset.

The Evolution Of ConTech & Its Impact On Lean

While Noah Baker was on vacation, Touchplan’s Head of Pre-Sales and resident Lean expert George Hunt took control of the mic and was joined by fellow Lean experts Colin Milberg and Connor Butler for a discussion on construction technology and the impact it has on Lean construction practices. Listen here!

The Demo Culture

In this Voices of Construction episode, Noah chats with Chase Rezentes from The Demo Company. Noah and Chase discuss the fantastic culture at The Demo Company that motivates their employees to be the best they can be while also reinforcing the importance of the work they do and the safety of those around them.

Subscribe to The Saturday Shift – Your Weekly Source of Industry News & Entertainment

As always, if you are interested in seeing more updates like the ones above, be sure to sign-up for The Saturday Shift! The Saturday Shift is meant to educate AND entertain you about a variety of topics in and around construction. Its purpose is to make your “weekend shift,” whether it is on the jobsite or just doing what you do in your downtime, a little bit more enjoyable.

We hope you enjoyed this October content roundup! We know there are a ton of places to get construction news, blogs, podcasts, and more out there, so we wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you for checking us out.

LCI Congress Through the Eyes of Touchplan’s Lean Enthusiast

Technology in Construction has moved to the forefront. Do you think that this came through at LCI? Are contractors seeing that Tech is the best and perhaps the only way to move forward when planning and managing construction projects?

I had several conversations with people about how COVID exposed them to the need for some resiliency in some of their processes. Planning on the jobsite was one of them. I think many people who were on the fence about going to a more digital environment were accelerated and pushed into adopting. Even aside from the planning environments themselves, anything that has helped keep the lines of communication open and transparent to everyone who can not be on the job every day has been valuable. The biggest takeaway for me was that everyone I was speaking with said that their processes were better in general and would keep with the new tech even after we went back to normal. There were also many presentations that were around the use of digital tools.

What were some of the hotter or popular topics this year? What were attendees looking to find out?

The overall theme of the conference this year was Learn by Doing from Those Who Do. From there, everything was broken down into learning tracks: Leveling Imbalances in Lean Learnings, Lean Learnings from Prefabrication, Lean Learnings from the Field, and Lean Learnings from the Design Community. There were lots of presentations spread between all of these tracks that included teams presenting on singular projects and lessons learned to companies talking about complete organizational transformation. There was something for everyone!

Do you think Lean is growing in popularity? Were there more first-timers there this year looking to implement it more on their projects?

I haven’t seen the final numbers for the conference overall, but I know Lean Construction, in general, has been growing in popularity. I don’t know the numbers on first-timers, but I know that I did meet and talk to quite a few. The construction industry has recognized that there are better ways to do our work, and I think that year after year, the growth of this conference is a testament to that.

What was your biggest takeaway from LCI Congress?

My biggest takeaway from the conference was the overall perseverance of the Lean Construction community. While it would have been easy to revert to our old ways of working and pause to anything new, this community found ways to improve and innovate despite the challenges faced with this pandemic. People not only had a desire to share their experiences with others in the form of presentations, but everyone showed up to listen and learn from them. It makes quite a statement about the Lean Construction community and the desire to improve our industry and the lives of everyone in it.

For more Insights from George, check out his new podcast Upping Your Game, and read his blog series on project production management.

Insights as a First-Time LCI Congress Attendee

The Lean Construction Institute (LCI) recently hosted their annual LCI Congress event, offering many educational sessions and an exhibitor’s hall featuring software companies and consultants for construction professionals. This week-long event consisted of knowledgeable, collaborative conversations and opened new doors to transforming the construction industry through digitalization.

Setting Expectations

As a first-time LCI Congress attendee, and a recent college graduate, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from this event, let alone any business conference. I was looking forward to learning more about Lean construction, meeting new people in person (both customers and my Touchplan team), and sharing what Touchplan had to offer. It was fascinating meeting customers for the first time. From someone who knew nothing about the construction industry before joining Touchplan, having conversations with folks in the field expanded my knowledge tenfold. I met incredible people sharing insight on what they are currently using or doing to manage their project and listened to how or even if they think software could impact their project. It was refreshing to see how passionate and casual everyone was; after a long day of presentations and meetings, attendees took the time to visit our booth and talk about construction, their processes, and where they saw the future of construction and technology going. They clearly highlighted past and current struggles they’ve experienced and openly shared what they felt this industry needs to move forward.

This experience solidified the idea that there is so much information out there, and it is exciting to know that we can digitize and share that knowledge and use it to transform the state of construction. There is a lot to learn, but who better to learn from than those who are on the frontline every day making it all happen? You can only assume and interpret their pain points when you hear what they are through word of mouth. But after speaking directly with customers and hearing their stories and struggles firsthand, it’s about working together and genuinely listening that will shape the best perspective.

A Marketer’s Perspective

In marketing, the focus is often on who your customers are, but it’s not every day you get to meet them directly, let alone engage in extensive conversations with them. LCI brought customers and prospective clients from all over the U.S. and allowed them to not only interact with each other and share experiences but also the ability to interact with companies who really value the transformation software can have on the construction industry.

There is intention behind Touchplan that came full circle as I met customers for the first time this past week. It’s not about selling a product or service for the sake of selling it, or even for the sake of adding something beyond these workers’ essential needs. It’s about taking this existing process, particularly the Last Planner System®, and digitizing it in a sustainable, easy way so that jobs can get done faster and more efficiently. Simply having these types of conversations with customers allows them to ask more questions about what software has to offer but also for us to flip their question around in certain instances and ask them: What are your main pain points? Is this feature what you absolutely need or want out of it? Questions helped them either confirm their feelings or get them to think about the fact that just because it was in their current process doesn’t necessarily mean it’s needed or even wanted at the end of the day. What they need is a tool that can get their job done quickly, easily, and efficiently, and LCI Congress allowed us to engage in those open conversations.

As a first-timer, I find myself stitching information together that provides a foundation on what’s currently happening and where the state of construction can go. But beyond the facts, I’ve walked away from this conference thinking about the conversations we were all able to have, in person. Everyone I asked said they love what they do, and at the end of the day, we’re all working together to transform this industry into its greatest potential. I believe it’s the knowledge, conversations, and openness that will get us there so long as we are all willing to have them.

For additional LCI and Lean related content be sure to check out the Lean Construction Resources page on our website, and check out our new podcast Upping Your Game with Touchplan’s resident Lean expert George Hunt.

Guest Blog Post: The Pitfalls of an Exclusive Industry

The last few years we’ve done a lot of talking about Diversity. We’ve talked our way into an alphabet soup of acronyms that organizations feel encapsulate the challenges we all face, as it relates to the construction industry. Inclusion was supplanted by D & I, which got one-upped by DE & I and was bested still when “belonging” was thrown into the mix. Not to be outdone, there are organizations that want justice, and claim to be dedicated to JEDI. I can’t say I blame them, we could all use the power of the force when considering how to turn this exclusive club into an all-access pass, to the field, the office, or both.

Invest in Human Capital

October 18^th through the 22^nd marks the first inaugural Construction Inclusion Week. There will be discussions about Leadership Commitment and Accountability, Supplier Diversity, Jobsite Culture, Community Engagement and Outreach, and more. Important topics to cover for sure, but I feel left wanting more. Actionable steps that will bring us closer to fortifying our industry with hardworking individuals from all walks of life.

There aren’t enough members in our exclusive club to manage and procure, to build, test, and commission, and this is driving costs and forcing delays. A challenge that is only going to get worse unless we make an investment in our industry. Like a company that is moving from manual data entry to automated systems, there will be a cost to purchase the equipment, and train employees, but it will pay dividends down the road. A similar investment needs to be made in the human capital that fuels our industry. Owners, OPM’s, General Contractors, and Subcontractors will need to share the financial commitment to training those new to the industry. Access to resources that will help small business owners navigate the complexities of the commercial construction industry will be required. Coaching, mentoring, training and support are all necessary for success.

Impact Change

If you are in the construction industry today – the buck stops here. You have the ability to impact change, and if change is scary, which it can be, just think about how frightening it will be when the bucks stop flowing into your account. May the force be with you all this week, as we include and belong, engage, and reach out, and work earnestly to build a stronger more sustainable industry.

For additional content related to Construction Inclusion Week, listen to this podcast on Diversity Equity & Inclusion from the National Association of Women in Construction.

Introducing Touchplan’s Lean Coaching Affiliate Program

Touchplan is pleased to announce an exciting new program that makes it easier for our clients to connect with experts and thought leaders in Lean Construction and Last Planner® Methodologies.

We sat down with Jimmy Suppelsa, our Head of Partnerships and Alliances to learn a little more about it and how consultants and clients alike will benefit.

Tell us what the Lean Coach Affiliate Program is all about?

The program is designed to serve the customers’ needs and quickly connect them with high-quality Lean practitioners that can help them with their transitions to managing projects with a Lean Mindset.

What was the motivation behind starting the program?

Our Customer Success team informed us that they were getting regular requests from our clients for referrals to Lean coaches and other consultants throughout the construction industry.

Touchplan has been working with a variety of Lean Consultants since our inception. We saw a prime opportunity to build a better network to make it easier for our clients to access the knowledge base to progress on their Lean journey.

Talk about the value to consultants when they sign up for this program?

Our goal with this program is to make it mutually beneficial for all involved. Clients get access to world-class experts. The consultant community can provide existing clients access to an intuitive program like Touchplan, enabling them to plan their projects more efficiently and improve overall project profitability.

Consultants will also have access to their client’s representative projects in Touchplan, which aid’s their ability to coach their clients throughout the project. Access to analytics allows consultants to track process adoption and gain insights into what’s working and what needs improvement.

Touchplan also provides consultants with the opportunity to express their point of view and thought leadership via our various marketing platforms, including blogs and social media.

Who should sign up for this program? Are there any qualifications candidates need to sign up?

We are looking for Lean coaches and other industry experts who can add value to our clients and expand their network. Respect for people should be a guiding principle, and all should have a dedication to high-end service and continuous improvement.

Interested coaches/consultants would apply to Touchplan at the following link:

https://partners.touchplan.io/referral-partner-application/

How Combining Construction Technology Can Help You Lead a Jobsite (A Webinar Recap)

Touchplan recently hosted a webinar with our marketing partner OpenSpace. OpenSpace combines simple off-the-shelf 360° cameras, computer vision, and AI to make it incredibly easy to capture a complete visual record of a jobsite, share it via the cloud, and track progress remotely.

The webinar topic focused on combining technologies like Touchplan and OpenSpace on a construction project which helps leadership run projects more efficiently. The meeting was led by Andrew Piland and Jeff Flores from OpenSpace. Joining them were Corrie Neuens and Sarah Tenpas from The Boldt Company, who have used the two technology tools on their construction projects.

The conversation revolved around how to grow leadership capital through innovation, improving team member accountability, the contributing factors to a productive planning meeting, and how technology enhances the visibility of jobsite conditions.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the panelists.

Touchplan and OpenSpace’s integration aims to build collaborative synergy by talking specifically about a particular scope and showing what it looks like on the job allowing users to have concise, data-driven conversations and walk away with a solid understanding of what they will be doing.
When leading a team on the jobsite, if someone is reluctant to use technology, understand how much value that person adds to the project. Touchplan is simple to use, especially with the multiple training sessions, but you need to make sure they learn to do it themselves and that you as a leader take the time to train them. If they can learn Touchplan, then they can understand OpenSpace, and the efficiency will genuinely improve.
The value of using Touchplan and OpenSpace, especially in real-time, allows for richer discussions. You can talk about an issue and pull it up with OpenSpace to show the exact problem spot, so people can stay focused and see for themselves what is going on. The field doesn’t always grow up with the schedule so using them together and updating it is essential.

You can watch the entire webinar by visiting the following link. If you are heading to LCI Congress in Phoenix (Oct 19th – 21st), visit Touchplan at Booth 227.

Extreme Collaboration: Improvisation Meets Planning (A Webinar Recap)

Touchplan recently participated in The Lean Construction Institute’s “LCI Congress Exhibitor Webinar” series, a preamble to the Annual LCI Congress Conference that will take place October 19^th– 22^nd in Phoenix, AZ.

Entitled Extreme Collaboration: Improvisation Meets Planning and hosted by Andrew Piland, the webinar focused on how construction leaders can take ideas from ‘Getting to Yes and: The Art of Business Improv’ to build buy-in and consensus across a team.

Piland provided practical examples of how construction leaders can be better listeners and facilitate collaboration via the structure of jobsite meeting space, time management, and enabling the construction project team to be the primary speakers while leaders listen.

Some key takeaways from the webinar include:

Leaders must utilize the first principle of Lean and have Respect for People first and foremost. Understanding interpersonal conflict can happen on-site is essential, so having a reliable, consistent meeting to let people address what they want and then setting time aside to solve the problem is very effective.
Leaders need to have Big Ears; they should listen more than they talk, opening up the collaborative process. Also, when people speak, as a leader, say “Yes, AND” instead of “Yes, BUT” as not to negate everything they said and to validate what they feel is okay–even if you go with a different idea.
Think ahead about how the meeting will benefit everyone in the end, and consider how to set up the room for success best. No chairs or food are two fundamental rules so that meetings can be quick and concise without any distractions. Having visuals properly sized and placed at eye level will enhance the collaborative experience so everyone can reference it and always be on the same page.

Listen to the entire webinar here.

Meet With Us at LCI Congress

If you are interested in learning more from Andrew about this type of planning or want to speak to other members of the Touchplan team, be sure to stop by booth #227 when you are out at LCI Congress later this month.

Construction Projects Around The World

Touchplan is trusted by owners, general contractors, and specialty contractors to help manage schedules and control costs on all types and sizes of construction projects across multiple continents around the world. Check out our new interactive map to see the projects that are using Touchplan across the globe.

MOCA Systems Announces Sandy Hamby as CEO

This month, we proudly announced the appointment of MOCA Systems, Inc & Touchplan’s appointment of Sandy Hamby as its chief executive officer. Read the full release on our latest news releases.

Get a Better Understanding of How to Use Touchplan

Dig into different use cases to expand your knowledge of Touchplan, step-by-step with our newly published Solution Notes.

ANDRES Construction Helping to Build a New Downtown Dallas Neighborhood

Touchplan is being utilized by ANDRES Construction to build a new 650,000 SF mixed-use tower that is also building a new Dallas neighborhood. Read more in our latest case study.

New From the Touchplan Podcast Network

Voices of Construction Ep. #4 Talking Lean Construction Down Under

In episode four of Voices of Construction, Noah Baker speaks with Ross Sterland, Director & Co-Founder of Orbiz (Touchplan’s strategic partner in Australia), a consulting company in Melbourne, Australia that focuses on Lean practices for construction as well as other industries. They discuss Ross’ path from Toyota in the UK to promoting Lean construction and other happenings in the Australia construction market. Give it a listen.

Voices of Construction Ep. #5 Women in Construction

The Touchplan Podcast Network comes together in episode 5 of Voices of Construction. Host of Voices of Construction, Noah Baker, chats with Angela Highland, host of Build. Lead. Succeed. Angela is an amazing woman in construction who has owned her own subcontracting company, and is a mentor to young women looking to build careers. This is a listen that you do not want to miss!

Voices Of Construction Episode #2: Construction Life Across The Pond

In this episode, join Noah Baker as he speaks with Daniel Shakespeare and Umut Duren MEng from Jacobs as they discuss Construction in the UK and the importance of work-life balance as it relates to mental health.

Build. Lead. Succeed. Ep. #2 Annual Conference (pt. 1)

In part one of two episodes, host Angela Highland takes the podcast on the road to the 2021 NAWIC Annual Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. You’ll hear interviews from powerful women including Catherine Schoenenberger, President of Stay Safe Traffic Products, Inc, Ally Jencson, CEO of Frontline Floor Coatings, Cindy Spiropoulos, Safety Director at H. J. High Construction Company, and Riki Lovejoy, President of RFL Consulting Solutions, Inc. Listen here.

Build. Lead. Succeed. Ep. #3 NAWIC Conference (pt. 2)

This episode is part two of the broadcast from the Annual Conference in Charlotte, NC. Host Angela Highland, speaks with three amazing women who are new to NAWIC but not construction. All are senior leaders in their respective companies and also making an impact on the industry. Listen here.

Our Latest Webinars Available To Watch At Your Convenience

How Operationalizing Your Schedule Can Radically Improve Margins – A Webinar Recap

Get the key takeaways from our webinar on Project Production Management & Listen to the Whole Conversation. If you’ve got some extra time, watch the on-demand webinar video here.

Extreme Collaboration: Improvisation Meets Planning

In this webinar presentation Andrew Piland explains how superintendents and other construction leaders can facilitate collaboration via the structure of their meeting space, time management, and how to enable construction teams to be the primary speakers while leaders listen. Andrew pulls together insights from Getting to Yes and: The Art of Business Improv, Jazz improvisation for radical collaboration, Lean construction principles, and his own experience on the jobsite to teach construction professionals how to be better leaders. Watch the presentation here.

The Project Production Management Blog Series Continues With Parts 13-15

Project Production Management: Takt for Professional Services (Part 13)

In part 13 of our blog series on Project Production Management, we hear from Touchplan’s Lead of PreSales/Sales Engineering George Hunt and Terri Erickson from Kata Consulting. The pair discuss how Takt can also be advantageous for professional service firms as pacing the production of design can have similar benefits to those described for construction.

Project Production Management: Transition from Responsibility to Accountability with Takt Planning (Part 14)

In part 14 of the PPM blog series, George Hunt and Adam Hoots look at how to best take accountability for executing a Takt plan.

Project Production Management: Stop in the Name of Production Management (Part 15)

With the 15th and final part of our blog series on Project Production Management, George Hunt brought the PPM blog series to a crescendo. In his final take, George discusses the value that can be obtained by removing practices as opposed to simply adding new ones.

Subscribe to The Saturday Shift – Your Weekly Source of Industry News & Entertainment

If you are interested in seeing more updates like the ones above, be sure to sign-up for The Saturday Shift! The Saturday Shift is meant to educate AND entertain you about a variety of topics in and around construction. Its purpose is to make your “weekend shift,” whether it is on the jobsite or just doing what you do in your downtime, a little bit more enjoyable.

We hope you enjoyed this September content roundup! We know there are a ton of places to get construction news, blogs, podcasts, and more out there, so we wanted to take the opportunity to say thank you for checking us out.

Project Production Management: Stop in the Name of Production Management

(By George Hunt, Lead – Pre-Sales/Sales Engineering Touchplan) When making improvements, we have a tendency to focus on adding new structure or practices to our daily routines. We don’t look enough at practices that we are already doing and what we could stop. Oftentimes, this can make just as large of an improvement as adding something new. Many of our common practices today actually do more harm to our projects than we realize. When it comes to Project Production Management and using Takt, these practices come in direct opposition to the production laws.

Stop starting work that isn’t “ready”

How many times have you been in a weekly planning meeting, and someone is told that they need to start work in an area because “the schedule says we should be here?” Chances are that this happens quite often. Teams look at this as a way to push along trades that may be falling behind or get a new trade onto the job as soon as possible. It is also a regular practice to measure the percentage of planned activities started per the master schedule. We need to STOP doing this.

We have discussed the idea of making work ready throughout this series. This is an absolute MUST before starting work. If we continue to start work that is not ready, it will add unnecessary Work in Process (WIP) to our system and make everything take longer. On top of that, we know that speeding up trades who are not the bottleneck will do nothing to speed up the project as a whole. In fact, it might end up slowing us down if the work they are putting in place will be in the way for someone else. The weekly make-ready process with the team is a crucial step for all parties to understand what is ready to be started and what is not. Sometimes it is better for the project overall to hold off on starting work.

Stop planning to 100% capacity

If we are paying for resources (people or equipment), we want to make sure that they are working. Because of this, we generally plan for our crews to be working at 100% of their capacity when they are on the jobsite. While this does make sense in some respects, it leaves us vulnerable to the inevitable variation that will come our way. If everyone is working at 100% capacity we need to pull them from their planned work to address the change. This leaves work needed for other trades unfinished, which can send ripples through the entire project.

This is where a properly managed capacity buffer solves our problem. Having additional crew members working specifically on workable backlog allows for them to be pulled in to address variation when needed. This gives us the best of both worlds. Everyone will be working on value-added work, but we will also be able to handle the variation when it happens. The key is planning for this from the start.

Stop operating with a “plan of the day” mentality

If you have ever spent time working around a design or construction project, you would probably agree that “firefighter” could be added to your resume. It is very common to hear folks describe the scenario where, based on something that happened yesterday, they need to redirect the crews in the morning to go address the issue. Too often we will fall into the habit of operating on this “plan of the day” routine and find ourselves in a complete reactionary mode. This has a huge impact on the productivity of crews, not to mention the impact of changing plans every day will have on the overall project. Introducing more variation to the plan never has good results.

Working within a proper set of buffers can help with this. If there is standby capacity, it can be used to take care of the issues that arose as discussed earlier. Additionally, having a workable backlog can give crews somewhere to go if the problem area requires some replanning and work to stop. The key is to approach the issue as a team and plan for the solution. We want to keep work flowing and steady. Make sure that the work that needs to be done to maintain the overall flow is held as the priority.

Throughout this entire blog series we have introduced you to the fundamental science behind Project Production Management, takt planning and control, and a number of practices that you can start doing, and now some practices that you should stop. The field of Project Production Management is far broader and more in-depth than everything we have written within this series. We hope that it can all serve as a small primer for you to begin researching on your own and discover how PPM can drastically improve your project results

Project Production Management: Transition from Responsibility to Accountability with Takt Planning (Part 14)

(By George Hunt, Lead – Pre-Sales/Sales Engineering Touchplan and Adam Hoots, Lean Shepherd Construction ACHE Solutions) Throughout this series, we have established a background on Project Production Management, Takt planning, and several examples of how these concepts can be used to vastly improve your project results. The previous information serves as a solid foundation on how to take responsibility for your schedule process utilizing Takt planning. From this point forward, the blogs will focus on how to take accountability for executing the Takt plan. There are lots of rules and best practices that exist and others that are being established in real-time. The intention of this article is to highlight the most important ones to consider, not to be all-inclusive.

Benchmark first work in place to avoid repeating mistakes

Nothing will ruin the flow of your jobsite more than having to go back, rip out installed work, and reinstall a defective installation. This becomes amplified the longer time passes with the defective items being built on top of it. There are several ways that Touchplan teams have been able to avoid ‘go back work’:

Understand prescriptive and descriptive expectations from all stakeholders
Conceptual Mock-ups away from building
Material receipt inspection
First in place mock-up and inspection by all stakeholders
Prescriptive and descriptive continuous inspection walks with all stakeholders

When all appropriate parties review and approve each of these opportunities for disruption, corrections can be made before the remainder of work is put in place. After this initial approval, both prescriptive and descriptive expectations will be mutually agreed to, therefore minimizing the need to redo the same work in other areas. As we bring the prescriptive and descriptive requirements to the surface, Touchplan teams can begin cautiously building to confirm their understanding of the expectations. Conceptual mock-ups are typically done away from the building and are the first step of the actual building process. Once the team agrees the mock-up is acceptable, the transition to the jobsite begins and the team does another in-place mock-up to ensure repeatability. Once the team is aligned in the field, the building begins. As the building progresses, the teams continue to involve all stakeholders with continuous prescriptive and descriptive inspections throughout the course of building.

Install: never assemble in place, never fabricate, never coat

It is becoming more commonplace to see jobs utilize offsite prefabrication, but it is still far from being the norm. If you are planning on utilizing takt, prefabrication will be a game-changer. When you move multiple steps involving raw materials and assembly from the jobsite, teams only need to install in-place. Depending on the operation, the time required on the site decreases significantly. It could mean that one trade could shift from being the bottleneck that extends the overall takt time to being faster — all with the overall takt time reduced. Prefabrication takes many of the steps that introduce variation and moves them to a controlled environment that will not affect the work on site. Do you remember Herbie from the Goal? Herbie moved much faster once his team took all the heavy items out of his backpack! This is what we are trying to do with prefabrication for the bottlenecked trade partners!

Finish as you go: no go-backs, no punch lists, no loose ends

With traditional methods of managing the schedule, we have a tendency to start activities because our CPM tells us to or we start activities to show external stakeholders that we are ‘on schedule’. Our teams are allowed to bill for progress that they have made, thus incentivizing this errant behavior. Adding work in progress only exacerbates the issues as now we have more potential for defective work and management is stretched out covering the more frequent issues that are arising. The problem is that we do not finish the same work, leaving lots of hanging threads all over the project. At some point, we will need to stop the flow of work where we are and go back to finish these areas. This mode of operating can have negative effects as we have discussed in other posts.

Adam recalls when he learned this the hard way. On a 220,000 SF dorm and dining facility at Clemson University. There were areas of work started all over the building, causing chaos and confusion as to the status of the project. When the decision was made to stop starting work and start finishing work, the project made a substantial leap forward. Seeing this in real-time helped convince the team that production laws should be always obeyed! Further understanding of Little’s Law and the law of variation have proven this to be the reason why the turnaround was so great! The decision to focus on finishing smaller batches was the best thing for the project!

Own your zone

As we discussed when starting your takt planning, the project will be broken into different takt zones and trades will systematically move their way through each zone to completion. The team must all agree on terms of what the handoff of a Takt zone is defined as meaning when a zone is handed over to you, you “own” that zone. This means that everything that happens in that Takt zone is the Zone Owners’ responsibility and that trade partner will be held accountable to ensure the next wagon receives a workable Takt zone. This also means the team will respect the other zones that have been turned over to the other trades. Here is what it means to own the zone:

Cleanliness – Accountable to ensure the level of cleanliness is the same or better during their zone own and turnover.
Safety – Accountable to ensure all safety hazards within each zone has been mitigated appropriately during their zone own and turnover.
Defective (Damaged) work – Accountable to inform trade partners and/or repair damaged or defective work during their zone own and turnover.
Finishing work – Accountable to finish their work within the Takt zone in the proper Takt time.

The handoff points become more important as we are encouraging teams to work together to be able to hand off the zone and/or accept the next zone. Ensuring clear conditions of satisfaction are key to encouraging flow from Takt zone to Takt zone. Zone acceptance inspections become critical to understand the current conditions prior to taking ownership of a Takt zone. We encourage trade partners to get a Takt zone ownership flag and move their flag with them as progress continues. This visual representation is telling the world that this zone is owned and by who! Think about the amount of pride and ownership that this philosophy is encouraging at the project site level!

If flow is to continue, accountability must be paramount to all parties involved. While planning for proper production on site is the first step, executing the work is the next. The team needs to be aware of the plan and then hold each other accountable for producing as expected. The practices described in this post serve as a starting point for you to develop a culture on your jobsite where the work is continually flowing, and the project is owned!

For more information about the value of Project Production Management, listen to our recent webinar where industry experts discuss how PPM has benefitted their projects. Additionally, we have a new webinar happening at 2 PM Eastern time on September, 22nd with our partners at Bridgit on Scheduling Risks and How to Best Manage the Causes & their Ripple Effects, which you can register for now.

Scheduling Risks How to Manage the Causes & Their Ripple Effects