Real Life Lean 036

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 - Turning Around A Project With Takt (Part 11)

• Lean Podcast - Bringing The Soft Into Hard Construction With Cory Fisk

• Lean Event - Maximizing Project Performance Through Data and Culture

• Real Life Lean - Lean Potty Training

Lean Article

Is your project off and running and already behind schedule? Did you not implement takt planning to begin with, so you feel like all hope is lost? In the article below we learn that takt is not just a tool to use when you start your project, but also a tool that can be successfully implemented in the middle of the project to get your team back on track. The article shares two separate stories of projects that did not start with takt as a planning tool, but ended up implementing it to help recover a slipped schedule.

Takeaway - I thought this was an interesting article to show the versatility of takt planning. Just because you did not start with takt, doesn't mean you can't add it in as a lean tool during your project. It will take flexibility and effort from your team, but this tool can be used to recover schedules. The team must keep the production laws in mind and be open to continually adjusting the plan, but together, it can be successfully implemented to get your project back on track.

Lean Podcast

Have you ever thought about how you set boundaries at work? What values do you hold close to you, how do you want to be treated. Setting these boundaries and expectations can set the tone for your experience on a project. In the podcast below Felipe and Cory have a conversation around all things construction and project experience. They touch on topics including setting boundaries, storytelling, professional development, onboarding and much much more.

Takeaway - Often times our project onboarding or new hire onboarding falls to one individual. It be comes their job to get someone up to speed and train them on the best practices. No one takes into account the full time job that person already had, we just overload them. It is important for project team to have a deliberate onboarding plan so they can take the time to get new members up to speed and not drop this all on one person to manage

Lean Event

What you don't track, you cannot improve. Tracking data and metrics allows teams to continuously improve by providing a baseline state to check against.  In the webinar below from LCI, attendees will learn what data they can track to improve their project experience, how to accurately collect data, and how to culturally change your team to be data focused.

Takeaway - Data collection and tracking is very valuable for a team. It allows a team to see where they can improve, as well as provide confidence to see where you came from. Learning how and what to track will help project teams improve day after day.

Real Life Lean - Lean practices in the real world

Potty training has started at the house for our oldest son. My wife has taken the lead on this endeavor and has set the house up to provide the most support for our son, and it has me thinking of how she is using visual management to encourage the outcome we all desire. Our common area bathroom is lined with his charts and guides to using the bathroom. He has a tracker that shows his progress and his path to an ice cream party, a guide for the necessary steps, and a celebration when things go right.

The correlation, while rather silly, can be seen on how we use visual communication on our job sites. Does the crew know the steps they are expected to follow that day? Are any of our metrics being tracked and shared for the team to know how we are doing? Is there a celebration when we hit our milestones?

Again, a silly comparison, but one that shows how implementing visual communication can clarify expectations and improve results.

Takt University Special Offer

I have partnered with Spencer Easton from Takt University to share a great offer for Real Life Lean subscribers. Purchase Spencers Introduction Course at the link here and enter “reallifelean2023” for 50% off your purchase!

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