More transparency, better coordination and higher productivity: the takt planning / takt control (TPS) method stands for daily performance management. Photo: Shutterstock.
Jörn Steinbeck transferred the assembly line to the project industry
The inventor of the project-management method takt planning / takt control (TPS) is Jörn Steinbeck. His development from 2008 is now in use worldwide in the project industry and is taught at various universities. Takt planning / takt control has established itself in particular in the lean-construction field as a standard method. But how did the idea come about? We asked Jörn Steinbeck, partner at Lean Group, about the origin, application and benefits of his method:
Why does takt planning and takt control belong in the toolkit of every site manager?
Jörn Steinbeck: “The takt planning / takt control method delivers a controlled construction process that stays controlled and on plan even in the final phase. Traditionally in the trades the work itself dictated the path. If a metre of skirting board was missing, you would drive to the hardware store one more time. With takt planning / takt control, we calculate the deployment of our resources fully in advance. We synchronise trades, avoid demand peaks and meet our deadlines. That creates a calm, repeating, rhythmic build flow.”
Jörn Steinbeck developed the takt planning / takt control method. Before becoming a partner at Lean Maritime and later at Lean Group, the industrial engineer worked at IBM and Porsche Consulting. Today his appetite for development is focused on Industry 4.0 solutions: at the Institute for Productivity, Jörn Steinbeck builds AI for productivity improvement in the OEE Cloud. Photo: Lean Group.
What does “takt” mean?
Jörn Steinbeck: “Takt is the rhythm in which I produce my product. A repeating element. In the project industry, the repeating element is — unlike in mass production — not always obvious. But repeating elements exist in every construction project, whether it is the metre of wall, the square metre of floor, or an entire room. As project or process managers we look for these repeating elements and gain full control of the production process through them.”
How do I plan and control the takt?
Jörn Steinbeck: “Takt planning is the preparation of every construction activity. Through taktung, I divide the work to organise it better. The elements are processed individually and put back together at the end. To do this, I build a schedule across the entire lead time of the project, around which every trade and the entire logistics align. The takt and schedule plan is contractually relevant. The subcontractors are qualified accordingly. Everyone has to understand exactly what they have to do, when, where and how. That is the key. Takt control then takes care of monitoring. During the build phase we check, almost in real time, whether the takt is being held. Where there are deviations, we counter-steer immediately.”
How do you achieve a real-time overview of project progress?
Jörn Steinbeck: “The precise overview of the status of every construction activity is given by the takt control board. It stands in the section that is currently being built. Green, yellow or red marks give current answers to the question ‘Will you deliver your work by end of takt?’. Green means yes. Yellow stands for the need for additional support. Red would mean no, definitely not. Deviations — for example because of missing staff, pending decisions, defective material or weather-related disruptions — are completely normal in a construction project. What matters is to spot the problems immediately so that they can be resolved quickly. That works with manual or digital takt control.”
What improvements has the method brought?
Jörn Steinbeck: “It is absolute. With takt planning and takt control we take an industrial-engineering approach. We calculate resource demand over the entire project duration and can expect the calculation to add up. We know where how many people are needed in order to deliver the planned work in the planned period. We do not plan for one week, but for many months or years. There is no buffer. For example, the painters have to finish their construction section within one week — they cannot come back. That is new. Established methods leaned more towards an operationally reactive approach, not towards rigorous planning.”
How did the idea come about of transferring the assembly line to single-piece production?
Jörn Steinbeck: “The idea came on a hotel build. It was the first construction project I was called in to. Six weeks before handover of the 380-room hotel, we had 380 individual construction sites. It was pure chaos. With 380 construction sites, simply nobody knew where which work still had to be done. So I started the analysis on a flip chart behind the door of a site container. In the end we sat together at the desk and asked ourselves how we could let a project run stably and efficiently from start to finish. We were looking for the line along which everything moves. In automotive production the body moves along an assembly line through the factory. With a hotel that is obviously not possible. So we had to move the people and the materials. That is how the picture of a train running through the hotel — along the repeating elements — was born: in each wagon sits a different trade.”
How has the takt planning / takt control method evolved since its inception?
Jörn Steinbeck: “The field of application has expanded considerably. We used to takt the pure construction process; today we use the effect of the method across the entire delivery — from concept and design through procurement and construction to commissioning. The takt planning has also become more dynamic. We combine it in hybrid project management with the lean logic and the agile mindset. That gives us robust and responsive structures even in highly complex projects.”
Who is the takt planning / takt control method suitable for?
Jörn Steinbeck: “The method is predestined for the construction of hotels, multi-storey residential buildings and hospitals as well as for the construction and cross-border delivery of large industrial facilities. Anyone who likes to think ahead, values clear flows on site and wants to meet deadlines will choose this method.”
Timo Schellerhoff