Key takeaways
A concerted focus on variance analysis enables teams to address the root causes of construction project delays, enabling consistent schedule improvement via:
- Data-backed prioritization of which root causes to address first
- Realistic benchmarking of the percentage of variances which can be mitigated (i.e. insufficient crew size) vs. those which can’t (i.e. bad weather)
- More accurate planning over time as schedule gains become predictable and repeatable
When it comes to Lean construction project metrics, percent plan complete (PPC) tends to be the focus for most teams. But in addition to tracking how many committed tasks are completed as planned, it’s important to dig into your project’s variance reasons to see what this data can tell you about the root causes of uncompleted tasks.
By routinely analyzing variance data, your team can identify patterns in variance reasons. While some sources of variance are outside of your control, such as adverse weather, many can be strategically mitigated through better communication, targeted coaching, and process improvements. Identifying which variance reasons are having an outsized impact on your project’s progress will help you prioritize the areas to address.
After you’ve identified the most impactful variance reasons, working to eliminate their root causes will deliver sustained and relatively predictable improvement to your project schedules. After running several projects with improvements to the root causes of common variances implemented, you can benchmark the schedule and budget gains you experience and use that information to plan more accurately, compounding the benefits of your variance analysis initiative.