Lean management has been ensuring lean and efficient processes on construction sites for several years now. When the method is applied to the planning stage, however, it cannot make full use of its strengths. This is where agile task management comes in. Jökel Bau, a construction company based in the German federal state of Hesse, is already working successfully with it.
Complex projects with a lot of parties involved, inefficient interfaces, changes at short notice: these are the challenges facing planning departments. The drafting of buildings is a creative process. The exact features that a building should have are often only decided during the planning stage. Rigid multi-page schedules do not help here – and the lean method also works best as lean site management during implementation on the building site.
The Best of Lean and Agile
Agile task management combines the lean philosophy and agile management for the planning phases of construction projects. Peter Jökel, Managing Director at Jökel Bau, began introducing agile task management in the planning department of the construction company in 2018. One reason was the positive experience with lean site management, which Jökel Bau has been using for several years.
The Managing Director also wanted to use these advantages at the planning stage. The net result after one year is positive: ‘Agile task management has become the heart of our planning department,’ he explained. ‘It makes all the interfaces, workloads and capacities transparent and efficient.’ The cooperation between planners and site managers has improved considerably, added Peter Jökel.
Task management tools
A board of cards hangs on the wall in the office of the planning department – the multi-project board. This enables the team to keep an overview of all the projects that they are planning in-house. The board represents all work packages in all projects for the next 21 weeks. This is based on the jointly developed standard processes for planning, which are specific to Jökel Bau.
On the basis of the work packages for the next two weeks, each team member derives the daily tasks and visualizes them with sticky notes on the weekly schedule or the task management board. Every day, the planning department meets for its daily stand-up meeting, i.e. a short meeting held standing up. This is where employees can share information about the previous day's tasks, the current day and about problems that have occurred or are expected.
