Milja-Maria Kittilä from Tampere University has written her Master's thesis titled Post analysis of apartment renovation projects’ schedule-based success implemented with takt.
During the last ten years takt production, originated from Lean philosophy, has been researched and utilized on the construction sector. The aim of the master’s thesis was to research the schedule-based successes of five different case projects and the current level of takt production in the target company by doing data analysis. Main research question was how well schedule worked on takt time projects based on retroactive data analysis? The five case projects on the study have been implemented during the years 2020 to 2023. The projects and data was collected using Mestamaster.
One of the most important results of the study are the visual graphs describing the takt production of the case projects. Other important result is the computational results gained from the initial data, describing the numerical results of the takt production’s schedule-based successes on the projects. From the results it was also possible to create instructions on what information to collect from the upcoming takt production projects to apply continuous data-based improvement in the company.
Data analysis parameters were start and finish -clicks: planned and actual on Mestamaster. This data was compared to the planned takt schedule. This data was used to create visual graphs to compare planned and realised schedules.
These projects had a takt of one day, but the duration and content of the projects differed slightly. In the example below, the target is the renovation of three two-storey and one single-storey terraced house. At the beginning of the project, the target duration for the project was five months and for the production with takt three months.
Above: planned takt schedule in toilets. Below: realised takt schedule. Y-axis : takt area, x-axis: takt number
There was variation between the five case projects. One surprising finding was that 30% of tasks were started on time and 50% was started late. Yet, most of the late task were only up to four takts (one day takt length). Other finding was that relying on just the data from Mestamaster was not enough to evaluate the actual performance, that needed interview with site management.
As my own conclusion, getting tradesmen to work meticulously with Mestamaster is the key to get reliable data and also to make schedule works. Improvements to future projects require active analysis of data and getting feedback from the site management. Together these features could allow learnings to compound from project to project. Mestamaster also developes our tool to provide better information on the success of tasks and the causes of recurring problems. Most of the time, these problems occur in the majority of construction sites and with our knowledge, they are easier to solve.