We’re getting right back into the Last Planner implementation series. Part 1 was get the right foremen on the bus, because the term last planner means the last people in the planning cycle, which usually ends up being the foremen or crew leaders for a trade partner or your self-performed crews. That ties directly into the next two items on the checklist: understand your phases and functional areas, and make sure you have approved foremen for all of them.
Short answer: Break your project into phases by geography, with consistent zones and micro zones, and treat each as a functional area. Give each one its own supervision, foremen, huddles, visuals, takt plan, and zone maps. You run work by geography, so planning with the last planners and execution with the workers both have to happen within each phase.
What Is the Difference Between a Program and a Project?
Let me tie back to a general takt concept that we’ll also cover in the takt production system series. The PMBOK and the PMI certifications talk about programs and projects. If you have something like an Intel or Facebook campus or a Taiwan Semiconductor factory, that’s a huge program with multiple projects on it, with program managers and project managers. Call it a program, a major project, or a campus, whatever you want. You can implement overall schedules, especially takt plans, at that program level.
I ideally visualize each project anywhere from $80 million to $150 million. They can go higher. I’ve seen billion-dollar projects. And each project has subprojects, phases, or functional areas within it.
What Phases Does a Normal Building Have?
Let’s say your individual project is $150 million, a normal building. You’ll have your make-ready, foundations, superstructure, interiors, exterior, and site work. You need to understand what those phases are so you can have what I call geographical supervision by your last planners and foremen for those functional areas.
From a takt perspective, phases always have similar geographical zones, and a phase may have a single train or multiple trains flowing through it. The interiors are all consistent zones and micro zones. So are the exterior and the site. Phases are not determined by trains. They’re determined by the tracks, the geographical location. See Construction Macro Level Takt Plan.
So the bottom line is, are the phases broken out with an assistant superintendent, a project engineer, possibly a field engineer, and the appropriate foremen or crew leaders to supervise each one?
How Did It Work on the Bioscience Research Laboratory?
On the Bioscience Research Laboratory, we had three functional areas:
| Functional area | Supervised by | What it had |
|---|---|---|
| Structure and exterior | Brent Elliott | Its own zones and micro zones, multiple trains of trades, its own foreman or last planner huddle, and its own worker huddles |
| Interiors, levels 1 to 4 | Jake Smaley, with two project engineers | Its own zones and micro zones, foreman huddles, and worker huddles, completely separate |
| Basement | Gordon | Imaging spaces, MRI leave-outs, laboratory areas, clean rooms, an existing building tie-in, an infrastructure tie-in, generators, and upgraded switchgear, all isolated with its own huddles and visuals |
All three had their own visual boards and their own takt plan for their functional area. And they had their own lead persons, foremen, or crew leaders to supervise that area. We never wanted the electrical foreman saying, I can’t be in Brent’s, Jake’s, and Gordon’s huddles. We had separate leads and separate foremen by functional area.
Why Does Geography Matter So Much?
This is crucial. It’s not just about the scopes of work or the people themselves. It’s about how you’re going to run the work. You run work by geography, by phase. You need lead persons or foremen who understand that area of work, participate in the pre-activity, pre-install, or pre-construction meetings, go to the weekly work planning meetings and the foreman or last planner huddles, and orient the workers that morning.
Each functional area has its own:
- Visuals and takt plan
- Zone maps and wayfinding signage
- Look-ahead plans and weekly work plans
- Reporting systems
- Walk and zone control
If you’re going to implement, you need not only the input from the last planners but also the execution by the last planners, and that always happens geographically. Read Last Planner in Construction: Zone Control for Flow.
What Goes Wrong if You Don’t?
- Too large an area: foremen run around and can’t supervise.
- Too many functional areas for the foremen you have: they can’t cover them, and you can’t execute your plans in the field.
- Enough people, but not the right people: you’ll definitely run into problems.
- The right people, but not trained and without the right systems: it won’t scale.
- The right people, trained, but without the right conference room, visuals, takt plan, zone maps, and visual reporting in the areas: it will break down.
The flow unit in this scenario is how, within a geographical phase, you carry the planning with the last planners all the way across to execution with the workers. That’s what you’re looking for, and you have to do it by geography.
What About Work-Life Balance?
Saturday, I took the young women and their leaders from church out to the lake. I got home super tired, and Katie asked if I could take the younger kids to the pool. Sure. So I was sitting on the ground at the pool, holding everyone’s stuff, half falling asleep. I had Daniel come watch the stuff while I got a Diet Coke, and I made it through. Sometimes you just need some caffeine. I’m good sore and exhausted, but I had a great time with the family Saturday and Sunday. Work-life balance is a thing, and I love it.
A listener wrote that he’s binging the podcast to prepare for work in the morning, that it’s given him a new way of looking at his project and the men and women he works with, and that he appreciates the spiritual insights. That’s super cool.
So here is the challenge. Draw your project’s phases on one sheet by geography. Next to each, write the assistant superintendent, project engineer, and foremen assigned to it. Any phase without its own huddle is your next fix.
Bottom line: Understand your phases and functional areas, and make sure you have foremen for all of them.
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.
Takt and Last Planner Implementation series:
Previous: Get the Right Foremen on the Bus
Next: Decide on a Meeting Schedule
FAQ
What is a functional area in Last Planner implementation?
A geographical phase of the project, such as interiors, exteriors, a basement, or site work, supervised by its own assistant superintendent, project engineer, possibly a field engineer, and dedicated foremen, with its own huddles, visuals, takt plan, and zone maps.
How are takt phases determined?
By geography, not by trains. Phases always have similar geographical zones and micro zones, and a phase may have a single train or multiple trains of trades flowing through it.
What goes wrong if functional areas and foremen don’t match?
If an area is too large, foremen run around unable to supervise. If there are too many areas for the foremen you have, they can’t cover them and plans don’t get executed. The wrong people, untrained people, or missing visuals and systems make it break down or fail to scale.
People Also Read:
The Last Planner System
Morning Foreman Huddles Are Just Team Huddles
Visual Area Boards
Zone Control: How to Manage the Speed of the Train
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)
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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.