Is your organization getting better in planning?
Logically you would say so. You always get more insight and experience in the planning process and you build on that. But how do you that? For example, a higher productivity would not necessarily imply that you became better in planning. In this blog we describe how you can measure the planning performance of your organization. Why measure planning performance? Why would you actually want to measure the planning performance? Because you want to have grip on things. You want to be
Lean, simplicity and logical sense
With Lean, we want to change things to better and maybe even more than better. Working daily towards continuous improvement is the goal. Entwine the Lean DNA with the own DNA. Because we use Lean in our business and planning processes or at home in the kitchen, it is possible to eliminate steps that don't matter and never deal with them again. But do we really need Lean here? Just use your logical sense! Or is logical sense in fact Lean
2 Killer KPIs for forecasting in projects
Forecast planning and budget variance. There are, of course, numerous ways to analyse your projects. Budget vs. actual, planning vs. actual, spending variances based on percentage completed, and so on. And all are valuable, but only aimed at looking at the past. Not that looking at the past is wrong, because this is how you will learn when budgeting and planning future projects. But during your projects, you would mostly like to look ahead. You want to know where you will end
Flexibility is the norm, but in sustainable form
On the way to a ‘Smart High Performing Organization’. There are more and more signals that the future labor organization without far-reaching forms of flexibility will not last long. The discussion on flexibilization focuses mainly on the distinction between 'bad' and 'good' flexibility. This blog contains a number of topics on what will now be called 'sustainable flexibilization'. The importance of a ‘Smart High Performing Organization’ Organizations have to deal with more and more dynamics, complexity and unpredictability. The cause of which lies
Planning in a shrinking organization
Grip on shrink through innovative planning If the demand and/or turnover drops, structurally, we speak of shrinkage. In a shrinking organization you need to get a grip on the biggest expenditure, namely the employment of employees. We explain our vision on shrinking below, from the perspective of employee planning through innovative plans. Calculation example There are 9 day shifts run on a department, from Monday to Friday, each of 8 hours. To do this, you need 10 employees who all work full time. 9
50% safety margin may go
According to the Critical Chain Project Management method, 50% of the built-in safety margin in projects could go. It is a waste of time and by cutting back, projects could be completed in 3/4 of the normal time. That is a time saving of 25%. To achieve this, Critical Chain Project Management uses the Buffer Management technique. We estimate way too much I've discussed the causes of this waste of time in the blog 4 time wasters in project planning. It concerns
The planner as a driving force
Continuity and flexibility in the planning organization. Personnel costs are the biggest costs in many organizations. Professional planning can often lead to substantial cost savings, especially in situations where both the organization and the staff are pushed to change. What does this mean for the planning organization and for planners? Developments 1. The work is more dynamic In sectors where there is intensive staffing we saw an important role for collective duty rosters, especially in the past. Because with these duty rosters, it was
4 time wasters in project planning
The Standish Group conducts research on project performance every year. It turns out that the majority is not delivered within the scheduled time. The main cause is that much time is wasted by the way in which projects are planned. Employees include a generous margin of safety in the project plan to ensure that they will complete the activity in time. However, research shows that they waste their safety margin. There are 4 causes. 1. The student syndrome If people think they