Elevate Construction

Jason continues the Lean Onboarding series with going to the place of work, called going to the Gemba in Lean circles. He explains why decisions about a problem need to be made where the work is happening, and shares the stop, call, wait lesson he learned from Paul Akers, in which workers stop the line, call a team leader, and wait for support instead of leaving leaders to decide from an office.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• What going to the Gemba means: making decisions at the place of work
• The stop, call, and wait response when a worker finds a defect
• Why waiting for a team leader is about support, not a lack of capability
• Why leaders can't decide well from reports, photos, and emails alone
• How getting help in the field uses all of a leader's senses

When something goes wrong on your project, do your leaders come to the work, or decide from the office?

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

In this podcast Jason explains what JIT deliveries means and what it does not mean.

Jason continues the Lean Onboarding series with leader standard work, the repeatable tasks each person on a project should do week in and week out to be effective in their role. He explains that it applies to everyone from laborers and logistics foremen to superintendents and PMs, and shares a real example checklist that spells out daily and weekly duties tied to safety, housekeeping, and site stability.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• What leader standard work is and why it keeps people from getting distracted
• How a clarity document turns career goals into a weekly calendar
• Why laborers, operators, and foremen all need their own standard work
• What a real position checklist looks like, with daily and weekly tasks
• How standard work keeps both a project and a personal life stable

Does every position on your project have a plug and play list of the work that makes them successful?

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason continues the Lean Onboarding series with the idea that problems are not the problem. The real danger is believing a project has none. He explains why people who tie their identity to being perfect will never go looking for problems, and why the best workers, foremen, supers, and PMs find and remove dozens of problems every day before they hurt anyone.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why finding problems is the whole point of 5S and the eight wastes
• How an identity built on never making mistakes keeps people from looking
• Why a project that seems to have no problems is hiding them
• What hidden problems turn into: injuries, defects, or surprises for the owner
• Why the best builders are the ones who find problems early, not the seemingly perfect ones

Is your team celebrating perfect, or celebrating the problems it found and fixed today?

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason continues the Lean Onboarding series with finding and removing roadblocks, using a kinked hose to show why pushing harder never beats clearing the bottleneck. He challenges workers, foremen, and superintendents to be problem preventers instead of problem solvers, looking ahead days, weeks, and even months to remove roadblocks before they ever touch the work.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why pushing behind a bottleneck never creates more flow
• The difference between creating pressure and creating capacity
• Why we need problem preventers, not heroic problem solvers
• What counts as a roadblock, from RFIs and materials to layout and manpower
• How far ahead of the work roadblocks should be found and removed

How many days ahead of the work are you actually finding your roadblocks?

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason continues the Lean Onboarding series with 3S-ing and 5S-ing: sort, straighten, sweep or shine, standardize, and sustain. He explains that the point of 5S is not just a tidy site but making problems and waste visible, so crews can see what bugs them and make small improvements every day.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why 5S is a tool for finding problems and waste, not just cleaning
• How sorting keeps you from organizing things that don't belong
• How straightening and shadowboarding end treasure hunts
• When to use 3S, 5S, or 6S with safety added
• Why crews should 5S every morning, after lunch, and whenever a gang box needs it

When did your crew last 5S their area to see what was bugging them?

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason continues the Lean Onboarding series with Muda, Mura, and Muri, the three forms of waste, unevenness, and overburden that every worker, foreman, and superintendent should watch for on the production line. He explains why asking crews to work too fast or beyond their capacity makes them pay for someone else's failed planning, and why stops and restarts quietly destroy momentum.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• The three forms of waste: waste, unevenness, and overburden
• Why overburdening crews leads to mistakes, injuries, and lost productivity
• How stops and restarts break the even flow of any process
• Why unreleased work and missing resources cause unevenness
• The three questions a good foreman asks about every crew

Is your crew dealing with waste, overburden, or unevenness right now?

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason continues the Lean Onboarding series with the eight wastes, walking through them in cause and effect order with overproduction and excess inventory as the parents of every other waste. He shares a true story of carpenters who built eight desks outside a trailer and ended up with defects, rework, and torn out door frames, all because the team's own knowledge went unused.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why overproduction and excess inventory give birth to all the other wastes
• How defects, transportation, and motion follow from excess inventory
• Why overprocessing and waiting are symptoms of poor flow
• How the eight desks story shows every waste stacking up in one project
• Why seeing waste and letting it annoy you is the start of continuous improvement

Which of the eight wastes did you walk past on your jobsite today without noticing?

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason continues the Lean Onboarding series with buffers, explaining why every well functioning system in life has them and why construction is no different. Using a college assignment analogy, he shows how buffers protect crews from overburden and unevenness, and why they are essential to optimizing cycle times.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why everything that works properly in life has built in buffers
• How finishing early without a buffer leads to overburden and waste
• Why using extra time at the end of an activity helps crews recover and prepare
• Why a little buffer is not sandbagging, it is sound planning
• The different types of buffers: time, material, capacity, and workable backlog

Does your schedule protect your crews with real buffers, or run them with none?

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw

Jason introduces Kingman's formula and applies it to construction cycle times, making the point that a task's real duration is never just the ideal, 100%-productive estimate, it also has to account for natural variation and the fact that a crew's productivity ramps up over time rather than starting at full speed. Using a football team analogy, he argues that just like a championship team wins by practicing plays repeatedly until variation shrinks and execution improves, construction crews get better task durations through repetition and continuous improvement, not by simply promising an idealized, best-case number upfront.

What you'll learn in this episode:

• Why a task's real duration always includes variation and ramp-up time, not just the ideal, fully-productive estimate
• How Kingman's formula translates to construction: durations should account for a crew not starting at 100% productivity
• Why committing to overly optimistic durations sets a project up to consistently miss its own schedule
• The football team analogy: why practiced, repeated plays (tasks) reduce variation and improve execution over time
• Why starting with a realistic (even slightly longer) duration and working it down through improvement beats promising an idealized number from day one

Are the task durations in your schedule based on realistic, practiced performance, or on an idealized best-case scenario that ignores natural variation?

If you like the Elevate Construction podcast, please subscribe for free, and you'll never miss an episode. And if you really like the Elevate Construction podcast, I'd appreciate you telling a friend (Maybe even two 😊).

Also, here are links to our YouTube Channels:

· Jason Schroeder YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4xpRYvrW5Op5Ckxs4vDGDg

· LeanTakt YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/leanTakt

· LeanSuper YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQDevqQP19L4LePuqma3Fg/featured

· LeanSurvey YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ztn3okFhyB_3p5nmMKnsw