If you’re practicing lean construction, you are almost certainly using sticky notes on a production planning board. Everybody does, right?
Almost right. More and more, lean practitioners are turning to software to keep track of tasks, stages, and responsible parties.
Ugh, you’re saying. Another software program to learn? No thanks!
Fortunately, at least one lean production planning software program is as simple as paper sticky notes to operate, because it’s visual and tactile, just like Post-it® notes.
And here’s where production planning software beats paper, and beats it with a stick: When you move virtual sticky notes across a screen, the software automatically captures data needed for reporting.
And reporting is the part of lean construction that (1) is essential to success, and (2) is usually not lean!
Typically, reporting requires a person – usually an assistant project manager or assistant superintendent – to transfer data from the sticky notes to a spreadsheet. And that’s extra time and labor that software does automatically!
When you use visual production planning software to manage lean, you have immediate access to the key reporting metrics required for successful lean management
- Planned percent complete
Accurate PPC metrics make it easy to weigh the number of tasks completed against the number of committed tasks. The data help you make sure your project stays on course and team members are being employed to best effect.
- Variances
Find out what factors prevented an assignment from coming to fruition as promised. Staying on top of your variances helps you identify recurring issues before they swerve the project off course. This is the spirit of continuous improvement.
- Constraints
Keeping your project info accurate and in-depth is the first step to navigating constraints. Anticipate constraints so you’re ready for what’s to come.
If you are using a spreadsheet to manage data, visibility into the spreadsheet is often limited to the one person responsible for keeping everything up-to-date. When you get busy (and when are you not busy?), it’s easy for data entry go by the wayside.
The advantage of software is that algorithms don’t forget, they don’t fat-finger the data entry, and they don’t get too busy to update a spreadsheet.
Learn more about software to manage lean construction. Look into Newforma® LeanPlanner visual planning software, powered by LeanKit. No more data entry. No more delays. And pristine, current metrics!
That’s how you manage lean construction.
