This concludes the Last Planner implementation series. I’ve really enjoyed doing it with you. The last topic, which doesn’t mean the Last Planner System ends here, is to help clients manage delays effectively. If you have your meetings and visuals, you’re implementing zone control with the steering strategies, and you’re getting trades back into their wagons, you will still have delays. When they happen, it’s not a big deal, as long as you know how to recover.
Short answer: When a delay hits a takt phase, don’t default to adding labor or stacking trades. First delay the line of balance and use your buffer, then isolate the problem, then recover through resources. That gives you about 11 good delay options before the two bad ones: adding labor to a crew and zone stacking, or trade overburdening.
Is Turning a Pull Plan Into a Takt Plan Collaborative?
Somebody asked me today: if you’re taking pull plans and turning them into a takt plan, that’s not collaborative, right? The answer is no, it is. We have specific ways of keeping the macro-level takt plan high-level and conservative enough that once we get the trade partners together for the pull plan, we can gain buffer days, and that becomes the collaborative sequence we implement. If you follow the macro- and normal-level takt planning methods we teach at Elevate, by the time you get there you’ll have a collaborative sequence and buffers, and you should never end up with a sequence in a phase that you can’t adjust. We have an Excel sheet that shows this whole thing. Reach out if you need it.
Group 1: How Do You Delay the Line of Balance?
Say you have a takt phase in a time-by-location format, with work on the 8th, 9th, and 10th, and a two-day delay on the 11th and 12th. All of these options use your buffer.
| Option | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1. Delay the takt phase | Don’t restart the whole phase until the 15th, the next Monday. Delayed workers work on workable backlog. This is probably my first option: eat into that buffer. |
| 2. Delay the successor wagons | If your first takt wagon is still good, restart the successor wagons on the 15th and let it cascade down in a diagonal. |
| 3. Stop, wait, and prepare | Stop the takt phase and wait and prepare instead of working on workable backlog. You’ll still make more money. |
| 4. Interrupt the sequence and wait | Interrupt as in option 2, but just stop, wait, and prepare. You’ll still make more money than running around like a chicken with its head cut off. |
| 5. Adjust the sequence | If the sequence is red, blue, orange, purple, could it be red, orange, blue, purple, giving the blue wagon more time and moving everything else forward? |
Group 2: How Do You Isolate the Problem?
| Option | What you do |
|---|---|
| 6. Pull it out | If the delay is in one room, pull that room out of the takt phase and zone maps, isolate it, and put it on a pull plan or scrum board. |
| 7. Accelerate one crew | If the delay is in the blue or orange wagon, can you accelerate just that crew to catch up by the last zone? |
Group 3: How Do You Recover Through Resources?
I’ll cover these at a high level, because I don’t want you to default to them:
- Can you go to two crews?
- Can you bring workers from workable backlog to the delayed crew?
- Can you recover that wagon by accelerating their work ahead of the last zone?
- Can you incur the delay and have successor wagons split into more zones and go faster, optimized?
Read Takt Steering & Control Book – Delays.
What Are the Options You Should Hate?
The last two I really don’t like, but I’ll mention them. Add labor to the crew. Or, final, final, final, if there’s a sequence, overlap it with a lower sequence, which is called zone stacking or trade overburdening. I hate, hate, hate this. But they are options, in the third category of trying to recover through resources.
In a typical CPM schedule, you don’t have these. We have about 11 good delay options for you before you ever attempt the bad things, adding labor and zone stacking.
Why Does Delay Recovery Complete the System?
Everything works in a sequence and as a system. It’s great to have a takt plan. Love it. It’s great to have the Last Planner System, the office, the meetings, and zone control. I love them all. But with all of those, you’ll still have delays, and when you do, you must know how to recover, or your trades, your supers, your clients, and you will get frustrated. We don’t want that. We want you happy and fulfilled. This is the time to use the takt plan for what it was designed to do: show you the true situation and let you recover from there as builders. See Recovering a Project.
That’s the series: the right foremen, phases and functional areas, the meeting schedule, the trailer and visuals, every meeting and huddle, finalized formats, zone control, the six steering strategies, all trades in their wagons, and now delay recovery.
A superintendent who has read Elevating Construction Superintendents and is reading Elevating Construction Senior Superintendents is about to build a podium-style job. His team implemented the Last Planner System with Touchplan and wants to expand its lean practices, starting with a signage package of lean visual aids for safety, housekeeping, wayfinding, and motivation. I love that people are using the signage. I sent him the list again, and we’ll design signage in Canva for anyone who sends us a sketch and add it to the library.
So here is the challenge. Take your current takt phase and write down which of these options you’d use first if a two-day delay hit tomorrow, before it ever happens.
Bottom line: You will have delays. Know your 11 good options before you ever add labor or stack trades.
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 All Trades Into Their Wagons
FAQ
How do you manage a delay in a takt plan?
First, delay the line of balance: hold the phase or successor wagons, use workable backlog or stop, wait, and prepare, adjust the sequence, and use your buffer. Second, isolate the problem to a pull plan or scrum board, or accelerate one crew. Third, recover through resources like a second crew or extra zones. Adding labor and zone stacking come last.
What is workable backlog in takt?
Work that crews can do when their takt sequence is delayed, so the delayed workers stay productive while the phase or successor wagons restart on the next Monday.
Is turning pull plans into a takt plan collaborative?
Yes. The macro-level takt plan is kept high-level and conservative enough that when trade partners do the pull plan, you can gain buffer days, and that collaborative sequence is the one you implement.
People Also Read:
How to Manage Delays in Construction Projects
Recovery Plan for Construction Project
How Do You Handle Unexpected Delays or Problems in the Field?
Buffers Are NOT Shared Float
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.