The world was mesmerized when IBM unveiled its super computer named “Deep Blue,” a computer that is capable of defeating the world’s No. 1 grandmaster chess player at his own game. This computer, programmed with the experience of 700,000 grandmaster games and capable of evaluating 200 million positions per second, was matched against Garry Kasparov in May 1997. Both man and machine were using the same strategy — make the right moves at the right time, not just a move for the sake of keeping things moving. At every twist and turn, Deep Blue simply followed the program that had been skillfully put in place before the game ever began. When Kasparov made the wrong move in the opening of game six, Deep Blue was destined to become the first computer system to defeat a reigning world champion in a match under standard chess tournament time controls.
Sometimes, the strategy in a turnaround becomes “just keep things moving” with the mistaken notion “if you keep earning the number of man-hours planned, you are automatically on target to finish on time.” It takes nine months to have a baby, right? Three months from three different women should be enough to stay on schedule, right? Wrong. All nine months have to be credited to the same woman. That’s the way turnarounds work. Some things are resource dependent and other things are task dependent.
Some tasks are on the critical path and some tasks are off the critical path. Proper scheduling takes into account which work is critical, which work is near critical and which work is associated with which staffing strategies, equipment availability, parts deliveries, shop turnaround times and so on. Often, those who are end users are not aware of the big picture and the strategy behind it and don’t appreciate the right move must be made at the right time. Good productivity is only good when it is being credited to the right bucket. If you make a great kick, but into the wrong goal, it can take a soccer game in the wrong direction in a hurry!
So, how do you keep everyone making all the right moves at all the right times? In other words, how do you keep them consistently complying with the schedule that was skillfully put in place before the event ever began?
I worked on a suite of turnarounds once where unplanned and out-of-sequence work was causing the manpower histogram to spike at the data date because so many jobs were started but not finished. The productivity was not bad, but the critical path was changing because critical and near-critical work was not being strictly worked according to the schedule. Delays, discovery and opportunistic work were allowed to interfere with the plan. When we realized there was generally a relaxed attitude toward working the schedule, we set up a schedule compliance program and started measuring daily schedule compliance as a key performance indicator. Along with safety, compliance was king! Work that was sitting on the data date and could not be addressed immediately was suspended until a later date. Every item on the daily schedule was daily marked for “do” and graded the next day as done or not done. The first time we measured schedule compliance on every contractor and every craft and every supervisor, it was a very enlightening experience. Since we used schedule updaters, there was no way to beat the system. Schedules returned to where they belonged, to the hip pockets of foremen in the field. Schedule compliance increased very quickly and even became a friendly competition as various leaders began comparing published reports each day.
Looking at earned value and productivity alone can cause us to drop our guards when instead we should be smelling trouble on the horizon. Schedule compliance is an area where it is easy to underestimate costly impact. Schedule compliance is a program that is easily set up, easily man-aged and pays great dividends as it gathers low-hanging fruit. Saving time and money dictates we make all the right moves, at all the right times, at every twist and turn, and that dictates a rigid, consistent and accurate schedule compliance program.
For more information, contact Mike Bischoff at (281) 461-9340, email sales@tamanagement.com or visit www.tamanagement.com.
