Are You Implementing the Toyota Way or Just Talking About It?

You say you’re lean. You talk about respect for people. Continuous improvement. Flow. But you’re not implementing the 14 principles of the Toyota Way. Principle four says level out the workload, work like the tortoise not the hare. But you’re pushing hard, crashing schedules, working like the hare. Principle two says create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface. But you’re using CPM creating chaos hiding problems until they explode. Principle three says use pull systems to avoid overproduction. But you’re pushing materials onto site based on projections and guesses creating excess inventory. Principle six says standardized tasks and processes are the foundation for continuous improvement. But you have no standard work, no rhythm, no predictable sequence. And here’s the realization Jason had reading these principles: there is no other system other than Takt that will implement these. There is no other system out there that adheres to these. You really can’t understand Takt planning until you understand these fundamental principles of the Toyota Way. Because Takt is how you actually implement them, not just talk about them.

Here’s what most teams miss. They learn lean concepts. Respect for people. Eight wastes. Stop call and wait principle. 3S for cleanliness and organization. Pull versus push. Just-in-time deliveries. And they try implementing them with CPM scheduling. But CPM fights every principle. It left justifies activities to early start dates instead of leveling workload. It pushes activities through network as fast as possible instead of pulling based on readiness. It creates chaos instead of continuous process flow. It hides problems in critical path instead of bringing them to surface. You can’t implement Toyota Way with CPM. You need Takt. Because Takt levels the workload creating rhythm. Creates continuous process flow bringing problems to surface. Uses pull systems avoiding overproduction. Standardizes tasks and processes as foundation for continuous improvement. Takt is the vehicle implementing Toyota Way in construction, not just discussing it.

The challenge is most teams think they’re lean when actually they’re just talking about lean while using systems preventing lean from working. They respect people in theory but put them in chaotic environments preventing them from doing good work. They want continuous improvement but don’t create stable environments with flow enabling teams to see and fix problems. They talk about total participation but don’t create visual systems showing everyone what winning looks like daily. They pursue quality but don’t build culture of stopping to fix problems to get quality right first time. The concepts sound good. But without Takt creating the stable foundation, they remain theory instead of practice. Takt turns lean concepts from aspirations into systems.

The Four Foundations of Lean in Construction

Everything starts with four foundations:

• Respect for people and resources: Everything we do must align with highest standards of respect for people and psychological safety. Also respect for resources. Cannot be wasteful simply because we live in economy of abundance.
• Stable environments with flow and culture that sees and fixes problems: Stable environments with standardization of flow are the only environments that will bring problems and issues to surface real time so teams can fix them, resolve them, and remove them.
• Total participation with visual systems: Continuous improvement is only supported when entire project site is participating in lean culture and can see what winning looks like daily at their place of work.
• Continuous improvement and fanatical quality: If respect, stability, and total participation are present in culture, project culture can begin efforts to continuously improve flow of supply chains, processes, and systems. Everyone sees and fixes problems every day.

These four foundations build on each other. Respect creates foundation. Stability enables seeing problems. Total participation engages everyone. Continuous improvement drives daily progress. Without all four, the system fails.

Flow Is the Single Most Important Condition

Flow is the single most important condition to strive for in construction. It is the most value-added effort on our journey to increase safety, customer delight, profits, employee satisfaction, and reduce production durations. We focus on three types of flow:

• Workflow: The flow of work through areas without interruption.
• Trade flow: The flow of trades through zones in predictable sequence.
• Logistical flow: The flow of materials, information, and resources supporting work.

Enabling flow drives the most appropriate continuous improvement efforts. To do this we need to differentiate between resource efficiency versus flow efficiency:

• Resource efficiency: Maximize use of individual resources and attach work to resources (people, equipment, crews, tools).
• Flow efficiency: Focus on flow of product to customer or customer to their end goal and attach resources to flow units.

We always attempt to achieve both in harmony. In construction we utilize one process flow instead of one piece flow because the process flows through a stationary project site. As we optimize flow for areas and processes we need to optimize the bottlenecks.

A bottleneck is any resource whose capacity is equal to or less than the demand placed upon it by the entire system or a slowdown in flow of work. We look for and increase capacity of bottlenecks to improve flow. Once this is done, bottlenecks will show up in other locations and will become our new focus.

The Eight Wastes We Must Eliminate

We are looking for the eight wastes:

• Overproduction.
• Excess material inventory.
• Transportation.
• Motion.
• Defects.
• Overprocessing.
• Waiting.
• Not using wisdom or experience of team.

Overproduction and inventory are the mother and father of all wastes. Typically in construction when we overproduce, we have excess inventory which then needs to be transported and which causes excess motion. The distraction and process of moving inventory creates defects or allows us to ignore them. Defects then need to be fixed which causes overprocessing and that creates waiting and lost crew hours. It is all waste because we know better and could have worked as a team.

In addition to waste, we need to watch out for overburden and unevenness:

• Overburden: When workers are made to work too fast or a floor is stocked with too much material or when project management team has to process too much paperwork. Occurs when a resource is utilized over 100% of its reasonable capacity.
• Unevenness (Mura): Non-uniformity or irregularity in construction. Variation in flow of work or variation in resources available to do the work. Causes waste because it causes variation.

Stop, Call, and Wait Principle

This principle relies on four steps:

• Discover an abnormality.
• Stop the process.
• Fix the immediate problem.
• Investigate and solve the root cause.

We create environments where people and teams can see as a group, know as a group, and act as a group to see, stop, fix the problem, and prevent it in the future. We must see what winning looks like as we work.

3S: Creating Clean, Organized, Enjoyable Environments

3S is a standard practice all teams and crews perform daily:

• Sort: Remove what is not needed.
• Straighten: Organize what remains.
• Sweep or shine: Clean your area in detail.

3S creates cleanliness, organization, and enjoyment. It results in ability to find and see problems so they can be fixed. We are able to observe these at the place of work. We do not focus on numbers and reports from a distance. We observe numbers and reports and observe at the place of work close to the work. We determine if we are winning as close to place of work as possible with total participation with people doing the work.

Pull vs. Push Systems

Pull is where we bring material onto the project when it is needed. It is based on demand. Push is where the material arrives based on projections and guesses. Pull prevents overproduction. Push creates excess inventory.

Just-in-time deliveries are a strategy synchronizing orders from suppliers by production areas and standard delivery schedules to project site in right amounts at right time to supply material inventory buffers. This is pull, not push.

The 14 Principles of the Toyota Way

We follow the following principles of the Toyota Way:

• Base management decisions on long-term philosophy even at expense of short-term financial goals.
• Create continuous process flow to bring problems to surface.
• Use pull systems to avoid overproduction.
• Level out the workload, work like the tortoise not the hare.
• Build culture of stopping to fix problems to get quality right first time.
• Standardized tasks and processes are foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment.
• Use visual control so no problems are hidden.
• Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technologies that serve your people and process.
• Grow leaders who thoroughly understand the work, live the philosophy, and teach it to others.
• Develop exceptional people and teams who follow your company’s philosophy.
• Respect your extended network of partners and suppliers by challenging them and helping them improve.
• Go and see for yourself to thoroughly understand the situation.
• Make decisions slowly by consensus, thoroughly considering all options. Implement decisions rapidly.
• Become learning organization through relentless reflection and continuous improvement.

Jason’s realization: There is no other system other than Takt that will implement these. There is no other system out there that adheres to these. Level out the workload, work like the tortoise not the hare. Build culture of stopping to fix problems. Use pull systems. Create continuous process flow. Standardize tasks. This is all Takt.

Workers Make the Money in Construction

Workers make the money in construction. They are the heroes. We optimize and stabilize their environment first. Information, materials, layout, quality expectations, equipment, permissions, and safety planning should be prioritized in steady flow to create safe, clean, organized, and productive environment for the worker.

We do not lose money while crews are working. We lose money when flow of work or crews are interrupted. Our focus should be on clearing the path for work to progress. We do not track production while crews are in flow. We track interruptions to flow and continuously improve to create more flow.

The System Failed You

Let’s be clear. When teams talk about lean but don’t implement it, it’s not entirely their fault. The system failed by teaching lean concepts without teaching the scheduling system enabling those concepts to work. Nobody showed that you can’t implement Toyota Way with CPM. Nobody explained that leveling workload requires Takt creating rhythm, not CPM left justifying to early start dates. Nobody demonstrated that continuous process flow bringing problems to surface requires stable environment Takt creates, not chaotic critical paths CPM generates. The system taught concepts without vehicles implementing them.

The system also failed by not teaching that overproduction and excess inventory are mother and father of all wastes. If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow. When you overproduce, you create excess inventory needing transportation causing motion creating defects requiring overprocessing producing waiting. The chain reaction starts with overproduction. But CPM encourages overproduction by pushing activities to early start dates. Takt prevents overproduction by pulling based on readiness and leveling workload. The system taught push when actually pull prevents the waste cascade.

The system fails by not teaching that workers are heroes we optimize for, not resources we maximize. Workers make the money in construction. We optimize and stabilize their environment first. But resource efficiency thinking maximizes utilization of workers instead of creating stable flow enabling them to work productively. Flow efficiency focuses on product flow to customer attaching resources to flow units. This respects workers by creating conditions enabling them to do good work instead of squeezing maximum utilization from them regardless of conditions. The system taught wrong efficiency metric preventing respect for people from becoming reality.

The Challenge

Here’s your assignment. Stop just talking about lean. Start implementing the 14 principles of the Toyota Way through Takt planning.

Level out the workload. Work like the tortoise not the hare. Use Takt creating rhythm and predictable pace instead of CPM pushing to early start dates creating chaos.

Create continuous process flow bringing problems to surface. Stable environments with standardization of flow bring problems to surface real time enabling teams to fix them. CPM hides problems in critical paths until they explode.

Use pull systems avoiding overproduction. Pull brings materials when needed based on demand. Push brings materials based on projections creating excess inventory. Just-in-time deliveries synchronized with production areas prevent overproduction.

Build culture of stopping to fix problems getting quality right first time. Stop call and wait principle: discover abnormality, stop the process, fix immediate problem, investigate and solve root cause. Create environments where teams see as group, know as group, act as group.

Standardize tasks and processes as foundation for continuous improvement. Takt creates standardized work with rhythm. Each Takt wagon has work packages. Each work package has work steps. This standardization enables improvement.

Implement 3S daily. Sort (remove what’s not needed). Straighten (organize what remains). Sweep (clean your area). Creates cleanliness, organization, and ability to see problems enabling fixing them.

Eliminate the eight wastes starting with overproduction and excess inventory. They are mother and father of all wastes creating transportation, motion, defects, overprocessing, waiting, and underutilizing team wisdom.

Respect workers by optimizing and stabilizing their environment first. Information, materials, layout, quality expectations, equipment, permissions, and safety in steady flow creating safe, clean, organized, productive environment. Workers are heroes making money in construction.

Track interruptions to flow, not production while in flow. We lose money when flow is interrupted, not while crews are working. Focus on clearing path for work to progress.

You really can’t understand Takt planning until you understand fundamental principles of Toyota Way. And you can’t implement Toyota Way without Takt. They go together.

On we go.

FAQ

Why is Takt the only system implementing the Toyota Way?

Principle four: level workload (Takt creates rhythm). Principle two: continuous process flow (Takt creates stable flow). Principle three: pull systems (Takt pulls based on readiness). Principle six: standardized tasks (Takt creates standardized work packages and steps). CPM fights these principles. Takt implements them.

What are the four foundations of lean in construction?

Respect for people and resources. Stable environments with flow and culture seeing and fixing problems. Total participation with visual systems showing what winning looks like daily. Continuous improvement and fanatical quality. These build on each other creating conditions enabling lean to work.

What are the eight wastes?

Overproduction, excess material inventory, transportation, motion, defects, overprocessing, waiting, and not using wisdom/experience of team. Overproduction and inventory are mother and father of all wastes. When you overproduce, you create excess inventory needing transportation causing motion creating defects requiring overprocessing producing waiting.

What’s the difference between pull and push?

Pull brings material when needed based on demand. Push brings material based on projections and guesses. Pull prevents overproduction. Push creates excess inventory. Just-in-time deliveries synchronized with production areas are pull. CPM pushing to early start dates is push.

What is the stop, call, and wait principle?

Four steps: discover abnormality, stop the process, fix immediate problem, investigate and solve root cause. Create environments where teams see as group, know as group, act as group to see, stop, fix problem, and prevent it in future. Requires culture valuing quality over speed.