So, how does the Clear Flow Matrix (CFMx) work with the proven methodologies of The Last Planner system?
The Last Planner System has greatly improved project communication and planning, bringing all levels of supervision and management into daily communication with proven results. Takt has applied another proven lean concept focusing on production planning and controls re-emphasizing flow as the essential component. Realizing the perpendicular relationship between Process Flow (Area Handoffs) and Operations Flow (Trade Production), CFMx is able to balance the two flows and condense the traditional waterfall schedule into a one-page dashboard. The matrix then identifies and balances both flows in one-week increments of time, which identifies the Balanced Production Front (BPF) and Phase Planning concludes with balanced handoffs as well as projections for trade production. With this, team members can easily visualize and adjust project flow prior to detailed negotiations.
Once the CFMx has identified the flow of the project, the Lookahead Planning will then commence with confirming and detailing the pacemaker activities and handoffs. During this period, manpower projections can be made along the BPF using the Manpower Matrix built into the program, to then develop detailed crew activities negotiated for each pacemaker easily and accurately. And since revisions to the CFMx are no problem, each craft will have a dedicated page predicting their manpower for each pacemaker, that is able to be adjusted as often as needed based on the project parameters.
Wondering about the Weekly Work Plans? Those can then be easily developed based on detailed pacemaker activities much earlier in the project, providing enough preliminary detail to ensure negotiations are made that identify and resolve potential roadblocks. The CFMx also allows for ease of set up and fast updates, so you can make changes to the details in real time. This is also where the foremen and last planners, identify the tasks of their teams and workers – committing to the activities they agree to finish by the deadline. This commitment ensures each team know their jobs and how they relate to other team’s commitments in order to keep the project flowing and avoid costly bottlenecks.
The one-page CFMx dashboard is easily available and understood by all supervisors, and benefits all workers by building unity and understanding among teams. With less work being allocated towards updating schedules and more towards resolving project issues, work is completed more efficiently and foremen know how their weekly commitments fit with the rest of the project.
The result? Schedules are met and manpower demands are stabilized with less waste.
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