We talk a lot about productivity in construction, and yet 98% of people in our beloved industry have absolutely no idea what it means. Neither did I until I was taught. If I could find the jerk monkey who knew these principles and didn’t tell me when I was a crew leader, field engineer, and superintendent, we’d be having some stern words. Well, the cycle breaks right now.
This is Part 21 of my walk-through of my book Elevating Construction Foremen. If you are just joining, start with Part 1. This part starts Part Two of the book, production, with the production principles: takt as your production system and why trade stacking kills projects.
Short answer: Takt is your production system. It puts time on the top and zones on the left so your crew’s work flows diagonally down the page, zone to zone, on a rhythm. When work is stacked outside that flow, everything breaks: batching, context switching, bigger crews, changing leaders, extra onboarding, spread-thin oversight, rework, missed roadblocks, and finally overtime.
What Does It Mean That Takt Is Your Production System?
Takt is the German word for beat or rhythm. In the Lean community, it means a scheduling system built on a beat. Takt, Last Planner®, and Scrum work together as a system that lets you make money, work effectively, and have a work-life balance. Takt schedules put time on the top and locations on the left, which we call phases, zones, and microzones. That gives you XYZ on the left and T across the top, the four dimensions you see everything in. Learn more in What Is Takt Planning? Beginner’s Guide.
In manufacturing, the car flows. In a hospital, the patient flows. In construction, it is the trade crew. It is you that must flow for us to win. To gain productivity, you must be able to see your crew’s work going diagonally down the page from zone to zone. If you don’t have a takt plan, make sure your work is takted in whatever format you have.
Why Is Trade Stacking So Dangerous?
Trade stacking, or not working from one zone to another in a flow, is one of the worst things that can happen in construction. It is the primary cause of late projects, fee loss, non-conforming work, trade shortages, crash landings, and the general misery we experience. Project teams plan on you pulling off a miracle, stack your work at the end of the schedule, and then add labor, materials, and money above needed levels. Then the project spirals into chaos. Please do not support anyone showing your crews stacking in their schedule, and do not attempt stacked work even if you are pushed to.
What Goes Wrong When Work Falls Out of Flow?
Batching replaces one process flow. Take fabricating gang forms: shake out the components, assemble strongbacks and walers, sheet the form, attach catwalks and lifting lugs, then oil and prep it. One process flow does all five steps for one form, inspects it, and makes sure it is 100% complete. Batching does step one for every wall, then step two for every wall. Studies have repeatedly shown that one process flow is the fastest, most effective, and safest way to do anything. Batching can extend small processes by minutes, medium ones by hours, and large ones by days. See Batching vs. OPF.
Context switching steals time. It takes a crew leader or worker at least 15 minutes to change focus from one zone to another, and sometimes hours. Tell a column crew to go help the deck crew, and it could take two to six hours to switch. This is also why punch lists at the end are the wrong way to finish a building. Finish as you go.
Crews get bigger and communication gets harder. Draw four dots and connect each one to every other dot. You get six communication lines. As crew size grows, the complexity grows exponentially:
| Crew size | Communication lines |
|---|---|
| 4 people | 6 |
| 6 people | 15 |
| 8 people | 28 |
Going from four people to eight gives you 22 more chances for someone to misunderstand, miscommunicate, or get it wrong.
Leaders and crew members get switched. Changing leaders and crew composition is historically one of the worst things you can do for production. You lose a leader’s knowledge of an area and have to onboard people who may not know the safety and quality expectations.
Onboarding happens as an emergency. I love onboarding, but it should happen as a normal course of the work, not as a response to bad schedules. The fastest a worker can be onboarded to 100% productivity is seven days, and it may take weeks or months. During that time, productivity is lost.
Leaders get spread thin. A study often referenced in the Scrum Inc. Scrum Master course shows that a leader’s focus time drops as projects are added:
| Projects at once | Focus time |
|---|---|
| 2 | 80% |
| 3 | 60% |
| 4 | 40% |
| 5 | 25% |
Rework follows. It can cost two to twelve times as much to rework something as to install it right the first time, with an average of six to eight times. Rework also costs time, throws the project into chaos, and makes other trades upset when you destroy their finished scope. See How To Avoid Rework In Construction.
Roadblocks get missed. Once the team is managing chaos and catching up, they stop removing roadblocks ahead of the work. Morale drops and the crew settles into learned helplessness.
Then comes overtime. A U.S. federal government study found overtime usually takes one to two weeks to add productivity, peaks between weeks four and six, and by week nine drops below the original rate, then keeps dropping from fatigue. At that point you are putting out a fire with $100 bills. More in The Truth about Overtime.
The flow of a crew from zone to zone to zone is the most important consideration in construction. We break projects up by zone on a takt time and work crews through those zones in one process flow. These are the largest productivity killers you, as a crew leader, can affect and prevent.
So here is the challenge. Pull up your schedule this week and find your crew’s line. If it doesn’t flow diagonally from zone to zone, dig deeper and raise it with your superintendent before the stacking hits.
Bottom line: Your crew is what flows in construction, so protect that flow and refuse to stack.
If your project needs superintendent coaching, project support, or leadership development, Elevate Construction can help your field teams stabilize, schedule, and flow.
On we go.
Elevating Construction Foremen series:
Previous: Part 20: Listening, Communicating for Understanding, and Why Firefighters Don’t Run Into Burning Buildings
Next: Part 22: Takt Steering and Control: Zones, the Three Ms, Roadblocks, and Constraints
FAQ
What is trade stacking?
Trade stacking is when crews are not working from one zone to another in a flow, usually because work is piled up at the end of the schedule. It is the primary cause of late projects, fee loss, non-conforming work, and trade shortages.
Why is one process flow faster than batching?
One process flow starts and finishes one thing before starting the next. Batching starts a bunch of things, wastes time in between, and finishes less and later. All things being equal, batching will always take longer.
How does overtime affect production?
Overtime can add productivity for a short while. It usually peaks between weeks four and six, and by week nine it drops below the original production rate and keeps dropping from fatigue.
People Also Read:
Lean Onboarding Series – One Process Flow
What Is One Piece Flow In Lean?
What Is Takt Steering & Control?
Benefits of One-process-flow
If you want to learn more we have:
-Takt Virtual Training: (Takt Virtual Training)
-Check out our YouTube channel for more info: (Elevate Construction on YouTube)
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Elevate Construction Podcast)
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Training Programs and Certifications)
-The Takt Book: (The Takt Book on Amazon)
Discover Jason’s Expertise:
Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction. As the company’s Founder and COO, he’s dedicated to taking construction to new heights. With a wealth of industry experience, he’s crafted the Field Engineer Boot Camp and Superintendent Boot Camp – intensive training programs engineered to cultivate top-tier leaders capable of steering their teams towards success. Jason’s vision? To expand his training initiatives across the nation, empowering construction firms to soar to unprecedented levels of excellence.