Real Life Lean 032

Happy Monday lean construction family and welcome to another edition of Real Life Lean. This newsletter is intended to give construction professionals worldwide 4 quick and easy resources to grow and continue on your lean journey.

Today's Summary:

• Lean Article - Project Production Management: Use Non-Repetitive Work For Your First Takt Plan (Part 8)

• Lean Podcast - When Last Planner Becomes Un-Lean

• Lean Event - Takt University

• Real Life Lean - It’s Only Lean If You Focus On Continuous Improvement

Lean Article

Last week we talked about setting the pace on a project and how important a projects Takt is. So now that we have bought into the idea of a rhythm on the job site, how do we go about setting up a takt plan? This article, part 8 in the series of Project Production Management, focuses on setting up your first takt plan. It uses a simple example to walk the reader through the steps needed to develop the plan.

Takeaway: Takt planning is not as scary as the massive plans and spreadsheets make it out to be, and when broken down into small steps, it is much easier to digest. This article helped me understand in a step by step manner how to implement a takt plan. The focus on non-repetitive work made it easy to visualize how I could apply this to my projects in their current state.

Lean Podcast

When does lean or last planner become un lean? When we stop learning! In the podcast below, Jason shares his thoughts on how when teams stop learning during their pull planning process, they start to be more and more un-lean.

Takeaway - When we stop learning, we start failing. The intent of a pull plan is to plan our upcoming work AND to learn from what didn't work in the past. The team has to be willing to reiterate and change to get better as a team. I really loved the tone of this podcast and the challenge that Jason set forth related to continuous improvement. I will touch more on this in the Real Life Lean section below.

Lean Event

If all of this talk about Takt Planning has you interested in learning more, check out the link below for Takt University. These courses are taught by takt guru, Spencer Easton.

Takeaway: Spencer is a go to resource for all things takt planning, so I am sure these course will deliver. If you have never heard Spencer speak, you are missing out. He has a passion for takt planning and lean construction methods that is inspiring. Even if you are not interested in his course, give him a follow on LinkedIn to see his takt content.

Spencer and I have partnered up and he has been gracious enough to offer an insane deal for Real Life Lean subscribers.

USE CODE ‘realifelean2023’ FOR 50% OFF ANY COURSE PURCHASE FROM SPENCER’S SITE.

Real Life Lean - Lean practices in the real world

While preparing this weeks newsletter I spent a lot of time focused on the podcast I shared this week, ‘When Last Planner Become Un-Lean?’ from Jason Schroeder and the team at Elevate Construction. In the episode you can hear Jason’s passion for continuous improvement and making a change in this industry. One of the topics that I took away from the podcast was the idea that in order to embrace lean teachings, we cannot forget the idea of continuous improvement.

So often I have found myself guilty of running my pull plan meetings the same way, using the same visual management tools from project to project and skipping out on plus/deltas at the ends of meetings. I get stagnant and comfortable and feel like I have it all together. After listening to this episode it reminded me of the need to focus on continuous improvement daily. We should always be looking for ways to do things better or more efficient. We should be looking to change up our routines and find ways to add more value.

I want to offer a challenge to the Real Life Lean readers - Spend some time this week seriously looking at areas you can improve. Be intentional, vulnerable and honest with yourself and review your current week. When was the last time you audited your last planner material? When was the last time you did a 5S Focused walk AND actually fixed the items you identified? Don’t get caught up in the “good enough” mindset. I challenge you to continuously improve.

At the end of the week, I’d love to hear from you to hear what changes you made and how you hope it will improve your project, and therefore the lives of workers on your project!

Have a Real Life Lean story you think would be a great feature in an upcoming newsletter? Send me an email at [email protected].