TOC in Project Management · Lesson 4 of 6
Full kit
Most rework is born when work starts before it’s ready. Gate every phase on a complete kit, and give preparation its own management bandwidth.
Two kinds of wastage
Some waste in a project is unavoidable. The rest is avoidable, and it comes in two types:
- Type 1: errors and gaps at the start, such as proceeding on assumptions, errors or missing information in drawings and documents, or scope the customer hasn’t confirmed.
- Type 2: what they cause later: flowbacks, revisions and rework.
Type 2 wastage is the visible one: the drawing redone, the part remade, the site work dismantled. But it is born as Type 1. And the later a Type 1 error is found, the more delay and rework it creates.
Pause and think: why do teams start work on assumptions or incomplete drawings, when everyone knows it causes rework?
- Because they don’t care about quality
- Because rework is cheap
- Because of time pressure: starting now feels faster than waiting for everything to be ready
- Because the customer asks them to
Most Type 1 errors come from pressure of time. Starting looks like progress. The bill arrives later, with interest, as interruptions and rework in the middle of execution.
The full kit
The remedy is full kit: no phase of a project starts until everything it needs is ready.
- Specs, design and drawings: complete and approved.
- Material and equipment, manpower and services: available or firmly committed.
- Approvals and process documents: in hand.
Strict gating rules are set for every phase: the kit is checked, and if anything is missing, the phase doesn’t start. That feels slower. In practice, a phase that starts complete runs without interruption, needs no rework, and finishes sooner than one started early and stopped three times.
Preparation needs its own bandwidth
There’s a catch. If the same people who are busy executing projects must also prepare the next kit, preparation always loses: execution is urgent, and kitting can always wait until tomorrow. Then the kit is never ready, the gate is quietly ignored, and the old habits return.
So separate management bandwidth is set aside to make kits ready: a person or team whose job is preparing the next phases. Kitting becomes real work with an owner, not something squeezed in between fires.
Exercise: kitting a fabrication phase
- Approved fabrication drawings
- Steel plates and fittings in the store
- Welding contractor confirmed for the dates
- Final paint colour for the finished machine, decided by marketing
- Agreed inspection and testing standard
Check your understanding
Answer all five. Get four right to complete the lesson.
1. Type 2 wastages, such as rework and flowbacks, are usually caused by…
- Lazy workers
- Type 1 errors: assumptions and missing information at the start
- Customers
- Too few projects
They are born at the start and found later.
2. The later a Type 1 error is found…
- The cheaper it is
- The less it matters
- The more likely it fixes itself
- The more delay and rework it creates
Late detection amplifies the damage.
3. A full-kit gate means…
- A phase starts only when everything it needs is ready
- All phases start together
- Work starts as early as possible
- Only material is checked
Specs, material, people, services and approvals.
4. Why set aside separate bandwidth for preparing kits?
- To create more meetings
- Because execution is unimportant
- Because if executors also kit, urgent execution always wins and kits are never ready
- To hire more people
Kitting needs an owner, or it gets squeezed out.
5. Most Type 1 errors come from…
- Poor software
- Pressure of time
- Too much preparation
- Strict gates
Starting early to look fast is what creates them.