Managing Dependencies and Grow Profitably

As projects and contractors grow in complexity it becomes increasingly more difficult to manage all the dependencies between tasks.

D. Brown Management Profile Picture
Share

 It is those connections between tasks and people that are often the culprit of delays rather than the actual speed of task completion itself. 

Quote: Unacknowledged dependencies remain the number one cause for project slippage. John Doerr.
  • When a business or project is simpler it can be easily managed using a task list.  
  • As it grows in complexity tools like Gantt Charts and the Critical Path Method are required for sequencing.
  • Relatively quickly you get to the point where a project or process becomes so complex that not all the dependencies can be seen by the person doing the planning and management.  
  • Even if all those dependencies could be seen by the person managing the overall project or process it is very important for the critical front-line supervisory level to deeply understand these dependencies.  

Additional tools and operating rhythms are required to develop the people that are necessary to develop the project and the company.  

Project:  The Last Planner System

Company:  Objectives & Key Results (OKR)


Learn more about how we help contractors develop the management systems required to grow their businesses profitably.




Foreman - Four Sometimes Competing Responsibilities
No other position in the construction industry has a bigger impact on field productivity than the Foreman who is leading the crew on front-line. There are four major responsibilities the foreman has that often seem to be competing with each other:
Learning, Doing and Teaching
Growth in life, career, and business is about a continual cycle of learning, doing, and teaching.
Time-on-Tools and Minimum Required Installation
Labor productivity IS NOT the biggest problem with field productivity. Under similar conditions the variation in how fast two crafts people actually “turn wrenches” is about 2X but there are far bigger problems to tackle. Focus on these three areas.