Performing The Daily Huddle
1. Before the meeting begins:
a. Foremen status yesterday’s daily task tags. A diagonal slash indicates on-time completion, the superintendent draws another line to form an ‘X’ once he confirms the work. Missed commitments are turned 45 degrees.
2. Once the meeting begins: confirm that everyone has statused yesterday’s work.
a. For each miss, ask “5 Whys”, and record reason for the miss* on back of the tag.
b. Ask foreman to create a new tag for the miss and move to the new promised date. (Keep the “missed” tag turned 45 degrees so the PPC – Percentage of Promises Completed during this week – can be calculated at the next weekly work plan meeting.
c. Ask if anyone is affected by the miss. If yes, that foreman turns his/her tag 45 degrees and writes on back of tag the reason: “Prerequisite Work”. Then they add one or more tags to show when the work will now ACTUALLY be done.
3. Confirm that work planned for today is still on track. Ask each foreman one-by-one, “Is this your promise?” Wait for an answer. Identify who is impacted if work will not be done as planned. Affected parties need to stay after to discuss, if needed. Do not problem solve now.
4. Ask: “What do you need from the team”, or “What will help us get better flow?” and “Are there any new constraints?” (eg. unanswered RFI, unclear design, changed conditions).
5. Release everyone to their work at the end of 10-15 minutes.
IIf your Daily Huddles are running longer than 10-15 minutes…
- Have everyone stand around the Weekly Work Plan board, no sitting.
- Perhaps people are not showing up on time. Ask an Assistant to call foremen 10-15 minutes before the Huddle to assure on-time arrival.
- Enforce the start and end times and encourage foremen to cross off the previous day’s activities before the Huddle starts.
- The meeting may be getting off track trying to solve problems. Sideline these conversations to discussion after the Huddle with only the affected parties, or at a later time.
* If the reason for the miss is complicated due to multiple causes, then after the meeting – on the same day – perform a Root Cause Analysis