by The HLH Team
Over-Processing is what happens when you do your job better than you’re going to be paid for. It can be accidental or deliberate, built into processes or spontaneous, but it’s all Waste.
It can be anywhere and is often hard to see. Here are a few of the usual suspects:
Pricing Insecurity:
No matter what business you’re in, it’s crucial to be confident of the value of your product. If you’re not, you may nurture an internal culture where you or senior staff feel obliged to do more than is required, for fear of losing the customer.
This isn’t discussed much, but it’s a pernicious business Waste. Whatever causes it (we’ll leave the psychoanalyzing to the experts), it results in lower margins due to adding value when not required, at various steps of the process.
Customers won’t tell you when you’re doing too much: they’re good with all free added values we throw at them. When you unilaterally upgrade material or add features, it’s very unlikely that you’ll see any ROI from it. It is likely, however, that you didn’t need to.
Be clear from the beginning, with the customer and with yourself, what the promised product is. Articulate it well, and don’t deviate without a signature.
Establish Governance:
A lot of Over-Processing happens when we literally don’t know when to stop. Unless you’re getting paid for perfection, don’t make it. The standard you construct needs to meet inspection and then reflect the value that the customer is paying for. If they want value added from there, they need to buy it.
Related to that, make sure to document every time a foreman, contractor, or estimator makes a “minor change” to any planning or drawing document. Minor changes tend to be forgotten about, not be billed, and add up quickly.
As part of planning every job, document who is giving the final say. In smaller firms, this will be the owner, but will often be delegated to a VP or other manager in larger companies. The person with the final say is also accountable for processes being done to paid value and not beyond. Having them answerable for that Waste will maintain motivated vigilance.
Use the Resources You Need:
The classic construction site scene that we all snicker at is 2 guys working, 3 guys watching. Over-Processing isn’t just not getting enough ROI for doing extra, it’s also devoting too many resources to a project than you need.
Deadlines, pressure from above, or just wanting it done quickly are all culprits. We put too many people and/or pieces of equipment into a site where they can’t properly function around each other. The result is Motion Waste, potential safety hazards, and lack of progress on the jobs you pulled them from. These all combine into the frustrating slurry that is Over-processing.
Signatures Matter:
What the boss asks for and what the customer asks for are sometimes totally different things. Customers (homeowners being most notorious), will sometimes ask for upgrades informally, whether that’s higher-end material or whole new features, during site visits.
Get their signature. If you don’t, you may discover the homeowner’s sudden amnesia while looking at their invoice, leaving you grappling with a he said/she said scenario and an upgrade that you’re not getting paid for.
by The HLH Team
A job site is a complex organism, where dozens of interconnected jobs happen in isolation, all towards the same goal. In a perfect world, all elements will happen in their turn, without waiting, the order of construction being passed like a baton. Unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world.
Lean thinking is bringing that elusive goal a little closer by attempting to redefine how stakeholders perceive a project and many companies that have adopted the new approach say it’s working.
Coordinate:
You’re building a house, and the plumber has wrapped up. You’re ready to insulate the walls, but the electrician hasn’t shown up for the rough wiring. His last job ran late because the plumber was late, and so on.
Meanwhile, those waiting end up looking for “busy” work while you watch the hours, and your deadlines, tick away. This kind of Waste – a natural extension of what happens when different stakeholders come together, but still only think about themselves – is rampant across the industry.
Instead of just setting a time and place, take the time to designate a specific location and several methods of contact with each other in case one person is late. It’s common courtesy that can save the business money, too.
Phone Tag:
In the midst of construction chaos, meetings need to happen. Frequently. Inspectors meet with construction managers, foremen meet with crews, etc. If there’s not enough lead time to properly coordinate these meetings, thumb twiddling of the worst kind commences. Plan accordingly for all meetings and prevent Waiting Waste before it arises.
Manager’s Role:
If a worker doesn’t clearly understand the expectations, timelines, and procedures, they may hesitate and not get that small sliver of the project done on time. That slight delay has the potential to ripple down an interconnected job site, causing significant Waiting Waste.
The decision not to take 10 minutes to meet with our crew is usually costly. A morning touch point, and another throughout the day, if needed, is vital to keeping people on track and balancing workflow across the site.
It’s also important that the Manager be accessible and making timely decisions. When a crew or subcontractor needs an answer and gets voicemail, they’ll either wait for someone to get back to them or (worse) keep going, not sure of the answer.
Lean Thinking:
One of the key goals of Lean Construction is to change the perception of project stakeholders. Traditionally, everyone is motivated to do their best for their portion of the job, but often have little investment in the project as a whole. Lean asks us to consider the entire value of a project, looking beyond its many separate parts. In doing so, stakeholders will hopefully begin to see themselves as part of a larger process. At that point, their task list becomes a list of their commitments to the project, and they feel more accountable.
Process Improvement strives to add value while, and by, removing waste. Lean Construction puts the value on the customer as paramount, and bases the success of the project by that metric more than hours under deadline or other traditional metrics. The goal is that, if everyone prioritizes adding value, Wastes that arise from a lack of integration with other construction partners, like Waiting, will erode organically.
by The HLH Team
Overproduction is a comfort Waste. When we want to be well prepared for pending orders, it happens.
Just in Time:
There are 2 ways of dealing with customer demand: “the push” and “the pull”. When we push fabrication of components, it’s usually in anticipation of orders that haven’t arrived yet. We’re the active agent, and push out inventory to pile up at the other end, waiting to be scooped up.
We’re comfortable with pushing. It’s a great feeling to tell a pending customer that “we’re ready to start now” and “have materials standing by,” but what happens when things change?
Pull production, also called “Just-in-Time” (JIT), is living close to the rocks. It requires a fine-tuned logistics and production system because we’re not making components ahead of time. They’re made when the orders come in.
When formal customer demand pulls production across the assembly line and onto the construction site, we stay nimble, cash-rich, and Lean.
The Pitfalls:
If it were easy, or felt natural, to fight the Deadly Wastes, we wouldn’t be talking about them. They plague us because fighting them is hard and usually outside our comfort zone.
It’s instinctual to prepare. When the shelves are bare and we’re waiting for the phone to ring, we want to gather our nuts together because our instinct tell us that will save time. But here’s what happens:
- Design Changes: Many construction components are highly specific to the job, and trends shift quickly. If you overproduce your most popular model, the next customers may want design alterations, making those components obsolete.
- Storage: Once you produce it, you have to store it. It’s up to you whether to pay for indoor storage or watch the materials deteriorate in the elements.
- Cash: Overproduction is Inventory Waste’s more dangerous cousin. It freezes all the cash you use to produce, leaving you unable to use it until an order thaws it out. Until that happens, you lose the opportunities that being nimble with cash provides.
Estimating Jobs:
It’s your job to know, within a certain percentage, how many materials you need for a job. Your first deliveries are often from a larger supplier that you have a good relationship with, so naturally you’ll want to get as much from them as possible.
Material Waste, shrinkage, theft and other unknowns are the wild card. You can either order more than you probably need initially, or only what you know you’ll need, expecting to have to make a few trips to the local supplier.
Stay uncomfortable. Ending a job with surplus material means extra handling, extra transportation, and/or extra storage if you can’t use it right away.
Keep Inventory:
Reducing Waste often involves tasks that feel wasteful in themselves. Take the time to document the materials delivered to your site. It doesn’t take as long as you think; consolidate the bills into one running spreadsheet.
Empower your crew foremen to keep track of what they use, marking it on the spreadsheet periodically. (This will also have the added spin-off of making them aware of the efficiency of their own consumption.) With this tracker, you’ll have a better idea of what materials you’re actually using, so you’re less likely to swing blind next time. It will also inform you of what should be left over (if anything), and you’ll be able to see at a glance what you can move to another site to avoid purchasing there.
by The HLH Team
Construction Defects can be crippling, and what makes it worse is how avoidable they are. This Waste is closely linked to Talent, because the key to catching them early is empowering your workers to monitor and speak up.
If the inspector finds a Defect, it’s costly to fix. If the customer finds it after the job is completed, it can be devastating both to cash flow and, more importantly, reputation. Train your foreman and all workers to be vigilant. Have them take the extra 20 minutes at the end of a task to inspect their work before moving on.
Catch it Early:
Construction Defects could be anywhere from annoying to catastrophic, and the difference often hinges on how early you catch it. A flaw in the foundation that only manifests after completion is far costlier than noticing it during the pour.
You can’t do it all yourself. Train every worker with basic leadership skills so they feel empowered to look for and report any possible defects.
Don’t create an atmosphere of fear. If a worker thinks they’ll take the blame and the penalty for something, they’re less likely to report it. Even if it is their fault, it saves money to have them tell you about it, knowing that you’ll be constructive in helping them to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Check your Materials:
Hopefully you’re already inspecting all materials as they’re delivered. If they’re new, the process is simple: don’t accept faulty materials. If the lumber is warped or the insulation is damaged, you don’t accept it.
Wastes blur together. If you over-produced one job, and need to flip those materials to the next, you no longer have any recourse for materials that have been shipped, tossed, exposed, and otherwise pummelled. The Defects may be visible or hidden.
Using defective materials is never worth it. Defects will always manifest themselves, whether in an hour or a month, and you’ll be working backwards to fix it. Dump the defective materials, and accept the loss as a hard lesson for avoiding Overproduction next time.
Remove Variation:
Lean tactics often overlap several Wastes. Standardization is key in avoiding Over-processing, but it’s just as useful for tackling Defects. Construction can often feel like herding cats, so a shift to Leaner thinking from all parties needs to be a prerequisite.
There may be several “right” ways to do something, but there’s only one “best” way. The best way is achieved through balancing efficiency (to avoid Over-processing and Time Wastes) with quality (to avoid Defects).
Identify the best way and document it. Train the your workers on it and standardize those practices on your worksite to create predictable results every time.
Lean Thinking:
Lean construction is about putting the value of the project above the needs of the individual stakeholders. It seeks to replace the feudal system of each contractor, looking out for themselves, with a more decentralized model of authority, where each partner takes their commitment to the overall value seriously.
Ultimately, standardizing processes to reduce Defects requires this shift in thinking. If the project managers empower all stakeholders to feel engaged in creating the overall value of the project, so it assumes more meaning than the average work day, they will start to be eyes on the ground, actively watching for Defects to emerge.
