What kind of daily huddles are you running?
The project trailer was a bit cold from the continuous opening and closing of door on that brisk winter morning with the flow of trades foreman piling in for the daily huddle. Almost all the chairs were filled around the table, with others sitting framing the walls, and some standing. I nervously gazed at the clock ticking on the conference room wall. The meeting was scheduled to start at nine o’clock and it was already seven minutes after and no sign on the Project Superintendent yet. His chair at the end of the conference table remained empty.
I grew more anxious as the clock inched forward, I could see the restlessness of the foreman as the minutes slipped away, looking down at their watches and then over to me. Even though I worked for the GC as the project MEP superintendent, I was just as aggravated but was also powerless to get the meeting going. But the angered stares I was getting from the crowded room made me think that I was the only one who believed that.
We all could hear Greg, the project superintendent, in his office laughing while talking with someone on the phone, which made the tension rise even more.
Finally, someone spoke up and asked me, “I thought this meeting was scheduled for 9 o’clock”, pointing directly to the clock on the wall.
Just as I was prepared to utter my excuse, Greg stepped into the room and slid his chair out and sat down. Armed with his usual weapons for the meeting, a 20-page updated projected schedule and a pen which he used to rhythmically tap the table as he stared past his glasses that sat at the end of his nose.
One by one he would have each foreman report out on their progress. It felt like an interrogation that would not stop until he got the answer, he was looking for from each the foreman, YES.
If they reported they didn’t get what was scheduled to be done for the previous day, Greg resorted to starring them down and saying, “you need to tell your office that you need more men.”
He would not move on until the reply he wanted was given, “Yes…I will call my shop right after this meeting.”
So, around the table it went. Then he got to Joe, the electrical foreman.
Greg looked down taking his time reviewing some of his notes and then gazed back up towards Joe.
Looking back down for a few more moments, and then back to Joe said Greg “I see that Chad’s framing crew got ahead of schedule of the second floor framing in area A. Joe I need you to get some guys up there this morning to start roughing in.”
“Listen Greg, I don’t have the manpower for starting work in that area, and its not scheduled for rough in for another week and a half, ” Joe calmly replied.
“Joe, if you look at your contract it clearly states that your company agreed to work in multiple areas at once to maintain the schedule” Greg retorted coldly, tapping his pen with a little more aggressive force.
“Greg, we are following the schedule that we all agreed upon during the pull plan session last month, and that work doesn’t start for another week and a half, I am not sure what your issue is with me today!”
“Listen here Joe, call your shop and get more people here. There is an open work area and I want you start working there immediately!”
Not hiding is annoyance with the request, Joe continued to plead his case once again, “Greg it is not going to happen, we have an agreed plan, and I am sticking to it. I am a little sick and tired of the same conversation day in and day out.”
“Well Joe, I guess I will call your shop then”
Pausing for a moment, Greg continued, “Call me a bit old school but if there is some work area that opens up ahead of schedule. I want to see the next trade working there. End of story!”
Joe immediately stood up from the table knocking his chair backwards sending it crashing to the floor and pointed at Greg in frustration, “WHY DON’T YOU STOP STARTING AND START FINISHING!” and then turning away he kicked his chair to the side storming out the trailer door. The door was left open banging back and forth waving in the howling New England winter wind.
Are we really practicing lean construction on our projects?
There is a real danger of having a lean practice in name only, we are enamored with the lean tools and philosophies, but our execution is often poor or neglectful. Sometimes even nonexistent. Often mandated by the company leadership with little or no understanding of lean principles themselves for managers to implement. In turn managers having not bought in or interest in practicing lean.
At the heart of lean construction practice must be respect for people.
Fake lean..
Its a description of organizations that practice continuous improvement without respect for people.
Dr. Bob Emiliani
Most everyone would agree that being on time when others are waiting for you is a sign of respect. If you have a meeting scheduled with your trades, you need to be on time, and they do as well.
It is pointless to have phase and pull planning schedules worked out with the trades partners and then only to push more work to advance the schedule. Most times it adds no value to the project and causes more disruption to the workflow.
This is where good planning and production tracking is key to the success on a lean project. You may have to restrain the high performing trades from getting to far ahead of the other trades on the schedule. It sounds very counter intuitive, but as an example how many times have a framing contractor frame out an area ahead of the schedule because they had the manpower available. Only for that work to sit for weeks untouched by the MEP trades and jam up access to the other work areas or ending up with damaged track and studs. But this example could really be used for any trade overproducing on a project.
With use of a proper phasing and planning system, and creating work zones you can try to maximize the project workflow. But at the very least if you create an agreed work plan and schedule, you need to stick to it.
Remember overproduction is one of the eight wastes on our job sites. More thoughts on this to come in future articles.
Don’t make the mistakes Greg made that day. Make sure to start your daily huddles on time. As lean construction leaders we need to deal with enough variation and unpredictability each day on our jobsites. Don’t make your meeting start times inconsistent, when possible. Our planning, meetings and project schedules should be the bedrock of the project to build our lean practices on.
As Lean Construction leaders it is hard to build trust and collaboration on your project when we are not practicing what we preach.
Take good care of yourself and your lean construction practice!
Chris-