by Bob Kunz
Accelerated schedules, complex designs, weather, and availability of an experienced and skilled workforce are just a few of the pivotal factors impacting safety, productivity, and quality in the building construction industry today. Daily huddles are an effective tool in managing the downstream effects of these impacts on safety, schedule, and budget.
Dimeo Construction Company has found incorporating daily huddles into the work tasks of field management are an effective way to develop high performing teams. As we all know, downtime is an outcome of waste and an inhibitor to safe and efficient production. At Dimeo we use the acronym, DOWNTIME as a framework for the effective and safe management and movement of team members and materials on a jobsite. Another acronym our team leaders use as a pneumonic is LEADER, taken from the five leadership skills identified within the CPWR Foundations for Safety Leadership (FSL) program.
DOWNTIME
* Defects
* Overproduction
* Waiting
* Non-Utilized Talent
* Transportation
* Inventory
* Motion
* Extra-Processing
LEADER
* Lead by example
* Engage and empower
* Activity listen and three-way communication
* Develop team members through teaching, coaching and feedback
* Recognition provided by leaders
CM/GC and project partners huddle – just before or after lunch break.
At Dimeo, the DOWNTIME/LEADER model creates a highly collaborative framework for using these principles. The focus of the daily huddles are to identify what went well over the last shift, opportunities for improvement to be applied this shift, work plan realignment, and reaffirmation that the path forward includes all voices.
Dimeo’s daily crew huddle journey began in April 2009 as part of an effort to further improve upon our safety performance. Since then, Dimeo has operationalized daily crew huddles, CM/GC – project partner huddles, and team leader huddles across all trades and projects. We find the following criteria and standardized practices for daily huddles achieve successful onsite programs.
Standardized Time
1. Daily crew huddle – at start of each shift. This huddle allows crew leader to establish worker readiness, re-affirm safety and quality as value, and ensure the resources to support safe production are available.
2. CM/GC and project partners huddle – just before or after lunch break. This huddle is focused on logistics. Above is a photo of a project partners huddle from one of Dimeo’s jobs.
3. Team leaders huddle – mid-afternoon. This huddle allows the supervisor to review the notes from the CM/GC and project partners huddle. The supervisor communicates the logistics issues and last minute adjustments to production schedule and resource acquisition.
Team leaders huddle – mid-afternoon.
Location
Meetings are held at, or close to, locations of work; in areas large enough to safely accommodate all, including utilization of 2D plans, mockups, drone imagery, and virtual models. Abstract discussions without visualization tools have proven to generate waste and misunderstanding.
Group Size
Contractors have reported that group size matters, with 30 being the maximum. Huddles are the time to recognize a good catch while providing a respectful environment with active listening and three-way communication. Effective huddles engage and empower all to participate in planning the work.
Meeting leader
Cultivating next generation leaders and the introduction of the CWPR FSL to all future and current leaders is essential to succession planning and creation of high performing teams. Daily huddles are an outstanding opportunity to create opportunities for teaching, coaching and providing feedback to subordinate leaders. The daily crew huddle provides a wonderful development opportunity.
Visualization board
Visualization Board
Kanban visualization boards are used extensively as a tool for workers to reference and use during huddles. Dimeo uses visualization boards to track work progress, manage commitments, and remind crews about focus activities and for discussing unplanned work activities, and fostering objective analysis of the cause and solution of those work. Dimeo’s work planning board is below:
At Dimeo Construction Company, we strongly encourage our field management teams to participate in daily crew huddles. Huddles are an excellent way to build team awareness around “what it takes to put work in place” and mitigate waste through following the continuous identification and management of constraints. Repeated reinforcement of safety values is communicated through these dynamic daily huddles.
Dimeo’s pursuit of continual improvement would not be possible without our practice of daily huddles. The daily huddle continues to evolve in creating tremendous value and, more importantly, deliver the reliable, safe, productive and quality project outcomes that all stakeholders deserve.
Bob Kunz
Bob Kunz is corporate safety director at Dimeo Construction Company.
