P4 System is based on 4 primary activities that set field leaders and their team up for success on any project. As the name suggests, each of these activities starts with the letter “P” – Process, Pace, Prepare, and Perform.
- Process – Prior to beginning any work, map the overall process from design to final inspection. Start at the end – what does a successful project look like? From there, identify the milestones, or deliverables, that are needed to achieve this end goal. Your next step is to map out the process that needs to happen from one milestone to the next. This is a simple process map and should call out whatever is necessary to make sure nothing is missed.
Once you have a map that represents the high level view of what needs to happen to complete this work, assign a duration to each process. Design 3 weeks, design review 2 days, Foreman design review 1 day, Prefab 2 weeks, foreman prefab review 1 day, material, tools, equipment deliveries 1 day, Installation 5 days, Final inspection 1 day… Don’t forget to assign milestone dates based on these durations.
{lightbulb icon} TIP: Use post-it’s (trust us it’s easier to move things) to make changes and add to the process as you develop this map. Each step and milestone receive its own post it.
- Pace – Use a floorplan/map of the space you’re working in to make your process a visual plan. Use colored wall lines and grid lines to break the work up into weekly chunks by floor, zones, phases, or areas. Use color to clearly show what each week’s work zones are at a glance. Write in big bold letters Wk1, Wk2, on each floor, zone or area you’ve identified on your map. Enter a number right next to these weekly titles, this number is the crew size including the foreman. Wk1-3, Wk2-4…this means, week one with a crew of three, week two with a crew of four.
- Prepare– Develop a detailed process map of just the field installation process. This step is adding more details to each of the processes you identified in Step 1: Process.
Why do this? There are many ways to complete work, or as they say, “skin the cat”. Different foremen have different experiences and often different methods to approach and perform the installation process. This is a great opportunity to get different perspectives from the project team and think about trying new things that would benefit the installation team. Some topics we’ve seen discussed:
- What are the best means and methods to getting work done?
- Did we consider transportation in time of delivery?
- How much should be delivered and when?
- Where should materials be staged? Is there a location to stage close to the installation site?
- Once ideas are gathered, align and agree with the trade partner’s team on how work will be done.
- Perform– What does 100% Satisfaction look like on this project? List everything that has to happen to make this phase of work successful. List any constraints internal to your own organization (such as drawing errors, prefab failures…) and any external constraints from outside your organization (such as vendors, other trades, RFI’s, owners, GC…) List things that have gone wrong in the past…talk about they can be prevented this time around. Determine what “done done” means to everyone for this particular phase of the work.
As with any system there must be a feedback loop. After work is completed, check it against the planning done during P4 planning. Note any adjustments that were made during the process and include lessons learned. Share your results with others and help us bring awareness to Lean Construction for Field Leaders.