What Is Crashing In Project Management?

What is Crashing in Project Management?

Crashing in project management refers to the practice of accelerating a project by adding more resources to activities, typically those on the critical path. It may sound like a good solution to speed things up, but in practice, crashing often leads to negative consequences. When you increase resources whether that’s adding labor, working overtime, or bringing in additional materials it can create more harm than good.

While it seems like a quick fix, the reality is that crashing activities usually increases work in progress above the capacity of your resources, resulting in inefficiencies and delays. It’s important to understand the long term consequences of crashing and why it’s often not the best approach for improving project performance.

The Drawbacks of Crashing: Overproduction and Wasted Resources

One of the primary problems with crashing is overproduction, which leads to a cascade of waste throughout the project. Overproduction results in excess inventory, which then creates transportation, motion, defects, overprocessing, and waiting all of which are considered the “8 wastes” in lean construction. These wastes reduce the efficiency of the project and increase costs, leading to delays and a lack of productivity.

Crashing pushes teams to rush and “throw money at the problem” by bringing in extra crews and working overtime. However, this only exacerbates the issue. The additional labor and resources don’t solve the underlying problems; they simply create more complexity and confusion on site, resulting in lower productivity and more costly mistakes.

How Crashing Disrupts Team Dynamics and Productivity

Another significant issue with crashing is how it disrupts team dynamics. When you add more resources to a project, especially late in the game, it can lead to communication breakdowns and context switching. The more people involved, the more complex the task becomes, requiring additional coordination and introducing the risk of mistakes due to miscommunication.

Additionally, increased team sizes and adding more resources without proper onboarding leads to inefficiencies. Crews may not be familiar with the project or the systems in place, which means they will struggle to maintain the quality of work required. As a result, productivity slows down rather than accelerating.

Crashing also leads to fatigue. When teams are pushed to work overtime, they become fatigued, which negatively impacts their focus, quality of work, and decision making abilities. Rework becomes inevitable, and tasks that could have been completed quickly take significantly longer.

The Risks of Overburdening Resources: Muri and Mura Explained

Crashing activities adds more work to an already overburdened system. This concept is best understood through two Japanese terms, Muri and Mura, which describe overburdening and unevenness in the system.

• Muri refers to the overburdening of resources, whether human or material. When too much work is added without considering the capacity of the system, it leads to burnout, mistakes, and inefficiencies.
• Mura describes unevenness or variability. This happens when work levels fluctuate significantly some tasks may be overstaffed while others may not have enough resources, creating chaos and instability within the project.

These issues result in long periods of stops and starts, leading to inefficiencies and significant delays. The team is forced to recover from the inefficiencies caused by overburden and unevenness, further prolonging the project timeline.

Why CPM’s Approach to Crashing Leads to Project Failures

The Critical Path Method (CPM), which is widely used in project scheduling, typically leads to a situation where the critical path is the primary focus. This can be a huge problem, as CPM often dictates that activities on the critical path are “crashed” by adding more resources in an attempt to speed up the project.

However, the issue with CPM is that it lacks flexibility and doesn’t account for important variables like project flow, roadblocks, or the capacity of the team. CPM encourages a push system, which results in overproduction, overburdening, and unevenness.

When resources are rushed and projects are forced to move faster without considering capacity, they spiral out of control. This approach increases variability and introduces more waste into the system, ultimately causing delays and escalating costs.

Effective Alternatives to Crashing: Stabilize, Plan, and Flow

Rather than crashing activities, there are better approaches that can actually speed up the project without the negative consequences. The key is to stabilize the workflow, plan effectively, and improve the flow of work.

• Stabilize the system by removing roadblocks, ensuring that materials and resources are in place before the work begins.
• Plan effectively by focusing on proper resource allocation, accurate scheduling, and Last Planner System principles, which involve planning collaboratively with all stakeholders to ensure that the schedule is achievable.
• Flow is the backbone of lean construction. By ensuring that work moves smoothly from one phase to the next without unnecessary interruptions, projects can accelerate without the need for rushing or panicking.

How the Last Planner System Helps Avoid Crashing

The Last Planner System (LPS) is a proven method that focuses on improving planning and execution while maintaining stable workflows. By involving all stakeholders’ foremen, workers, and project managers in the planning process, LPS helps create reliable schedules and commitments.

LPS focuses on the principles of continuous improvement and collaboration, ensuring that everyone involved in the project has clear expectations and understands their role. This results in predictable flow, which can keep projects on track without the need for crashing activities.

The Key to Faster Project Completion: Focus on Flow and Stability

If you want to speed up your project, the key is not to add more resources and pressure your team. Instead, focus on flow and stability. By addressing bottlenecks, removing obstacles, and ensuring that every task is properly prepared and planned, you can achieve faster results without the waste, overburden, and disruption caused by crashing.

When the focus is on one piece flow, visual systems, and continuous improvement, projects can progress steadily, and delays can be avoided.

What You Can Do Instead of Crashing to Improve Project Performance

Rather than crashing, consider the following actions to improve project performance:

• Focus on removing roadblocks early in the process.
• Implement the Last Planner System to align teams and ensure realistic commitments.
• Ensure that your work packages are well defined and ready before they reach the team.
• Invest in proper training and team health to avoid overburdening and uneven workloads.
• Prioritize stability and predictable flow over rushing and pushing.

FAQ

What is the main issue with crashing in project management?
Crashing creates overproduction, overburdening of resources, and unevenness, which leads to waste, delays, and decreased productivity. It disrupts the flow of work and increases the chance of rework.

How does the Last Planner System help avoid crashing?
The Last Planner System improves planning and coordination, focusing on collaboration and realistic commitments. This helps create a predictable flow and avoids the need for crashing activities.

What are Muri and Mura in project management?
Muri refers to the overburdening of resources, while Mura refers to unevenness in the workload. Both lead to inefficiencies, slowdowns, and disruptions in project performance.

How can I speed up my project without crashing?
Focus on stabilizing the workflow by removing roadblocks, ensuring proper planning, and improving flow through collaborative efforts and continuous improvement methods like the Last Planner System.

Is CPM a good method for project management?
While CPM can help with scheduling, it often fails to consider important factors like resource capacity and flow. Its focus on the critical path can lead to the negative consequences of crashing and overburdening the system.