Before Phase Planning: Work Packages, Buffers, and Multi-Train Flow

Here’s the deal. I am continuing the before phase planning list, and before I go on, I want to say that I do not want to overwhelm anybody. This is not something where everybody has to do every single thing, and I am not trying to make anyone’s job harder, although installation should be the easiest thing we do. In my last post on before phase planning, I finished with more detailed installation work packages, and in this post I am picking up from there. You will find the links to the other parts of the before phase planning series at the bottom of this post

Short answer: Before phase planning is the work you do before a Takt phase starts so the phase flows. This part of the list covers work package breakdowns with the designers, classifying installation work package complexity, zone maps leveled by density, deliberate buffer placement, multi-train design, the Lego sheet, and the 3D model as a single source of truth. You do not have to do every one. Start where the risk is highest.

What This Part of the List Covers

None of these are meant to be done all at once. Here is the list for this post:

• Construction work package, engineering work package, and procurement work package breakdown sessions.
• Classifying the complexity of installation work packages.
• Zone maps plus a density and leveling analysis.
• Buffer placement.
• Multi-train design.
• Building your Lego sheet.
• Confirming the 3D model as a single source of truth.

Breakdown Sessions With the Designers

One thing you can do for before phase planning is align the designers and make sure you have construction work packages, engineering work packages, and procurement work packages for each Takt wagon in the Takt phase. Make sure everything is detailed and broken out for that wagon, so the crew that installs it is not working from a batched set of documents.

Essentially, that is what a lift drawing is. Shop drawings are, to a certain extent, but a lift drawing is really trying to unbatch drawings. Drawings should not be batched into the whole project: architectural, structural, and mechanical. Instead, they should reflect building one phase, interiors for example, and then within that you have the structural, architectural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and IT drawings. We should be designing to the work packages and to how we are going to build the actual project. The design world is not there yet, but this is where it is headed.

Why Classify Installation Work Package Complexity?

Another practice is to classify installation work package complexity, which means sizing each package as low, medium, or high before committing. Complexity is not duration. A short package can be high risk, and it deserves more preparation, not less.

So if you are thinking, this installation work package talk has me nervous, how am I going to create a visual definable feature of work for each trade, then just focus on the more complex or higher-risk packages and make sure those are planned and prepared. You do not have to start with everything. Start where the risk is highest.

Zone Maps With a Density and Leveling Analysis

We do this all the time at LeanTakt, so it is a given for us, and it is a given for the Takt Production System. But if you are heading into a phase, one of the things you can really do is carve out zones beautifully, so the trades do not have any difficulty going from zone to zone to zone. You have your horizontal flows and your vertical flows. You have identified workable backlog. You have done a good job of identifying zones, and you have leveled them according to density, not square footage.

Where Should Buffers Go in a Takt Phase?

This is really cool. In some approaches, the buffer sits at the end of the entire schedule, which is how it works according to critical chain. But what we can do instead is decide deliberately where our capacity, time, space, and planned backlog buffers sit.

That is a different way of thinking about buffers. We need to understand that buffers are not slack you forgot to remove. They are protection you placed on purpose, where the risk analysis told you to.

The other thing is that according to drum-buffer-rope, we should know where our most complex zone and our most complex trade are, and put a buffer ahead of them. In before phase planning, and in any kind of planning, especially in the Takt Production System, we had better know where our constraints are. We can do so much by way of optimizing and getting ahead of things if we just know these things. Obviously, buffer your constraints, because that is where the protection counts the most.

Multi-Train Design

I have written about this before. It is frustrating when people keep treating single train as the only option, because that is absolutely not true. Multi-train lets trades run at their own natural rhythms rather than forcing every trade onto one beat.

When you do the analysis, a lot of times multi-train is faster from a throughput standpoint, and it is better buffered. It is better buffered because you do not have so much dependency between one trade and another. We have to be really intelligent when we design these things, and make the call according to what the project needs and wants. If you want to do single train, that is your decision. But looking at it in a deeper way is helpful for the overall phase, and it can also enable other strategies.

The Freeway and Germany

Single train is one single train on the train tracks. Multi-train is more like a well-flowing freeway. You have fast cars going, trucks going slower, and a camper in the slow lane, and everybody is flowing beautifully.

When people are really strict about single-train Takt planning, I wonder why. Even in Germany, the whole country does not run just on rail lines. You have surface roads, the Autobahn, vehicles, and bicycles. There is a lot of variation in how you choose to travel somewhere. Focusing only on single-train Takt planning is like saying, all right Germany, everybody can only travel by train, which would be absolutely ridiculous.

What Is a Lego Sheet?

Building your Lego sheet should be done before the pull plan if you really want to leverage it. But if you have not done it in the pull plan, doing a Lego sheet is still pretty phenomenal. It is a sheet that enables the trade to understand its durations, its Takt time, and its crew composition. Then the trade can plan and package a nicely organized crew within the cycle time that fits within the Takt time. It is additional planning to make sure all of the numbers pan out, in order to keep the rhythm. The sheet gives the trade a way to check, before the work starts, that its crew and its durations actually fit the Takt time.

The 3D Model as a Single Source of Truth

Make sure your 3D model is a single source of truth. Here is what that means:

• You have one federated model.
• Everything is coordinated, and the model is clash free for the areas you are installing.
• You have access to it in the field, and it is used for install.
• The data is tagged, and the quantities and component IDs are aligned.
• You can get quantities from it, and it is ready to go in the field.
• It is broken out by room or by area, on something like Autodesk Construction Cloud.

What Is Not on the List

That finishes the list for this post. There might be things that are not on the list as I keep going through these, like really amping up your field engineering team, getting a great layout person to run at the building, or setting up your logistics system. The question is, what things can we do before the phase starts to pull out all the stops and make sure it goes well, one hundred percent?

So here is the challenge. Pick one practice from this list that fits your next phase, such as placing buffers deliberately, building a Lego sheet, or confirming your 3D model, and do it before the phase starts.

Bottom line: Buffers are not slack you forgot to remove; they are protection you placed on purpose, where the risk analysis told you to.

If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.

Want your team trained on this? See our Last Planner® System and Takt training.

On we go.

FAQ

What is before phase planning?

It is the work I do before a Takt phase starts so the phase flows, such as work package breakdowns, zone leveling, buffer placement, multi-train design, and a Lego sheet. You do not have to do all of it, so start where the risk is highest.

What is a lift drawing?

It is a drawing that unbatches the drawing set. Instead of one set for the whole project by discipline, it reflects building one phase, with the structural, architectural, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and IT drawings within it, designed to the work packages.

Why classify installation work package complexity?

Because complexity is not duration. A short package can be high risk and deserves more preparation. If creating a visual definable feature of work for every trade feels overwhelming, focus on the more complex or higher-risk packages.

What is a Lego sheet?

It is a sheet that lets a trade understand its durations, Takt time, and crew composition, so it can plan a crew within the cycle time that fits the Takt time and keep the rhythm.

Why consider multi-train design?

Because it lets trades run at their natural rhythms instead of one beat. When I do the analysis, multi-train is often faster in throughput and better buffered, since there is less dependency between trades.

Before Phase Planning Series:
Set the Standard and Rehearse the First Run
Stress-Test the Plan Before Crews Mobilize.
The Work That Makes Every Construction Phase Succeed.
Build the Right Crew Before Work Begins