I’m in a hotel in France, and it’s interesting that we’re covering Patton’s standing orders and the techniques he used in the European theater against the Axis powers while I’m here, where some of that history took place. Tonight we continue the series under administration: supply and replacements. I love this one.
Short answer: Patton’s supply orders are lean logistics. The onus of supply rests equally on the giver and the taker. The field must anticipate needs and ask in time; the supply side must get the right things to the right place at the right time and, by reconnaissance, start them before they’re called for. Ask three questions: do I have the right materials, when do I need them, and where do they go?
A. Supply: Who Owns It?
Patton wrote: “The onus of supply rests equally on the giver and taker. Forward units must anticipate needs and ask for supplies in time. They must stand ready to use all their means to help move supplies. The supply services must get the things asked for to the right place at the right time. They must do more. By reconnaissance they will anticipate demands and start the supplies before they are called for. The desperate determination to succeed is just as vital to supply as it is to the firing line.”
You’ve heard the quote from me before: amateurs study tactics, armchair generals study strategy, but real generals study logistics.
What Did Age of Empires Teach Me?
Here’s a funny thing. After lots of years being kind of anti-video game, we introduced video games in our home. In moderation, they can be a neat outlet for kids and a nice sense of happiness. I used to like a game called Age of Empires, so I showed the kids how to play. You build armies and fight opponents.
I’ve been studying advanced takt planning strategies, and I noticed something in every battle that Patton knew and the AI confirms. You can build any kind of fortress, and you can’t defend it. The enemy always overtakes it. The only real advantage is an advanced supply of resources, number one, and people, number two, at the front lines, replenishable at the time you need it. You bring your villagers with you, and at your forward position you build castles, barracks, and stables so you can replenish and train as you suffer casualties. That’s how I worked my way from easy to extreme and almost beat the game. You can’t just defend, and you can’t do it all at once. You have to resupply fast.
Why Is Construction Logistics So Complex?
I use the analogy of trains for takt planning and flowable work. This might not land, but it’s like independent trains flowing into boxcars at an intersection in time, bringing people and materials together. It’s an insanely complex system, because everything we do rests on supply chains.
That’s why I love that the onus of supply rests equally on the giver and the taker. There isn’t a way to control every piece of material to the job site without relying on your trade partners, your foremen, and your last planners. We need visual schedules where we align procurement, materials, and resources. And we always have to ask three questions:
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Do I have the right materials? | You can only create flow and add value if you have the resources |
| When do I need them? | Align the ask to a date in the six-week make-ready look-ahead and the weekly work plan |
| Where do they go? | Crews can be where they need to be, with materials staged at the work |
Those three questions came from a recent presentation at the third international takt planning conference, put on by Iris Tommelein and her people at Berkeley. If we can answer them, we can create flow and have crews where they need to be.
What Does the Field Owe the Supply System?
The onus of supply doesn’t only rest on the PMs, PEs, and supers feeding the system. It rests equally on the foremen and workers in the field. They must anticipate needs and ask before they need the supplies, aligned to a specific date in your six-week make-ready look-ahead and weekly work plan, and stand ready to use all their means to help move supplies.
To do that effectively, we can’t say, oh, this was supposed to be here, assume everybody on a $100 million project site is going to use one forklift in the morning, and be surprised when it doesn’t happen. We need a plan, and then we stand ready to move those supplies into place, because logistics is where it’s all at.
The supply services must get the things asked for to the right place at the right time. That’s perfectly in line with lean. And they must do more, by reconnaissance and anticipation, to meet demands before they’re called for. Determination doesn’t just apply to installation. Yes, let’s be aggressive in installing work well. But let’s be just as aggressive in getting materials to the people installing it.
B. Replacements: A Tank Without Gasoline
Patton: “Replacements, spare parts, supplies, etc., must be asked for in time by the front line, and the need for them must be anticipated in the rear. An educated guess is just as accurate and far faster than compiled errors. During lulls you can balance the account. Keep your combat units full. A company without riflemen is just as useless as a tank without gasoline.”
Let me say that one more time: a company without riflemen is just as useless as a tank without gasoline. Let’s get the workers, in the war analogy the soldiers, supplied with the things they need, because you cannot build a building without the materials, the resources, and the information. It must be aggressive. Remember Patton’s old adage: a good plan violently executed today is better than a perfect plan next week. And remember that waiting comes from workers waiting on materials and materials waiting on workers. We can at least eliminate one of those with this advanced logistical doctrine. See Advanced Logistics Queuing.
What’s Happening in France?
Kevin and I are here all week with our good friends Fabien and Julie at Timote, exploring a partnership to scale takt software throughout the U.S. market, and researching the right way to structure software from a fundamental standpoint. We’re getting ready to go 100% on the Art of the Builder takt planning book, hopefully out for LCI Congress. We’ll do professional video for the Lean Takt YouTube channel, including intros for meetings like a fresh eyes meeting, a pull planning meeting, or a trade partner weekly tactical, so people can play the video and go implement.
A listener wrote that a phrase in one of our videos was verbatim something he says to supers: we’ve never built a building, we’ve built the teams that in turn build the building. He’s integrating his faith into his work, sees lean as a path to do that, and uses ideas from Wild at Heart to build up the men and women in his super circle, because the high suicide rate in our industry is very real. I believe in full transparency, and I’m grateful.
So here is the challenge. At your next foreman huddle, ask every foreman the three questions for the next six weeks, and write the answers on the look-ahead.
Bottom line: Be as aggressive about supply as you are about installation, because a crew without materials is a tank without gasoline.
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.
Patton’s Standing Orders series:
Previous: Orders & Worker Huddles
Next: Discipline & Condition
FAQ
Who is responsible for material supply on a construction project?
Patton said the onus of supply rests equally on the giver and the taker. On a project, that means the PMs, PEs, and supers feeding the system and the foremen and workers in the field, who must anticipate needs and ask in time, aligned to the six-week make-ready look-ahead and the weekly work plan.
What are the three supply questions?
Do I have the right materials? When do I need them? Where do they go? Jason heard them in a presentation at the third international takt planning conference and says you can create flow only if you have those resources.
What does a company without riflemen mean for builders?
Patton said a company without riflemen is just as useless as a tank without gasoline. You cannot build a building without the people, materials, resources, and information, so replacements must be asked for in time and anticipated in the rear.
People Also Read:
How to Create Efficient and Effective Supply Chains
Just In Time Materials – Lean Series
Self-Sustaining Logistics System
Recovering the Supply Chain
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