Measurement is all-important in design and construction. And it’s not just materials that need to be measured. You’re measuring money (of course) and time. Lean construction improves the measurement of time as it relates to the schedule.
One way to measure how well you’re conforming to the overall project schedule is to see how well your teams are sticking to theirs. That’s where lean processes come into play. In other words, you:
- Plan the work.
- Measure how you performed against that plan.
Reporting is the key idea here. The planned percent complete report tells you whether you’re reasonably predictable in delivering tasks as promised.
In construction, it’s common for subcontractors to complete their assignments on their promised dates about half the time. In other words, if the chances of completing a task are 50–50, it’s no better than a toss of a coin. That’s a bit risky.The better contractors manage their teams to deliver their tasks on schedule 8 out of 10 times!
Compare PPC metrics of 80+ percent to industry norms of 50–60 percent. That’s a big enough difference to eliminate many “cut twice” wastes of effort such as rescheduling of teams and rework of spaces.
Key measurements go into the PPC metric
To deliver impressive PPC numbers, it’s necessary to measure variances – those times when a task isn’t completed when promised – and constraints – those essential tasks, materials, and resources necessary to complete a task. Submittals are constraints, for example; subs are constrained from completing a task until submittals relating to that task are approved.
If you don’t manage constraints, you’ll have more variances, which contributes to a lower PPC.
So if you’re practicing lean planning, don’t neglect the reports to be derived from tracking task cards across your planning board. Those measurements will spare you and your teams from wasted effort and materials.
For more about the metrics of lean construction, read the blog post, 3 Things You Can Do With Lean Data.
Read “3 Things You Can Do with Lean Data”
