Crew balance: test the division of steps and the handovers between people
Three workers assemble repeated nonstructural protection panels in an approved work area. One prepares the next kit, one assembles and one checks and transfers the completed panel. The foreman sees the preparation worker waiting during part of each cycle and wants to redistribute a step without adding another person.
Crew balance concerns the division of steps within one defined cycle. Start with a timeline, not a demand that every person look busy. A necessary check, dependent operation, recovery period or reserved receiving position can create legitimate differences. Equal bars do not prove a safe or efficient method, and extra activity can obstruct the step that controls the cycle.
Use the chart to propose one test
- Follow several comparable cycles. Mark a common start and finish, each person's activities and the handovers between them. Record variation and changed conditions. Explain the observation purpose through approved workplace arrangements. Do not select the fastest cycle as the only baseline or turn a small sample into a personal ranking.
- Draw elapsed time and active effort separately. Put roles on parallel lines against the same time scale. Mark necessary checks, waiting, travel and simultaneous work. Note whether another step must finish before work can continue. Adding the lengths of overlapping bars does not give the cycle's elapsed duration.
- Identify the controlling handover. Ask what is keeping the next unit from starting or completing. A worker who is sometimes idle may still be essential at that handover. Find a transferable preparation or handling step, and check qualifications, access, supervision and the applicable technical method before proposing its reassignment.
- Test a bounded split of responsibilities. Agree who does the moved step, what ready condition they hand over and how the previous role responds. Keep required checking independent where the project requires it. Record coordination and setup effort instead of assuming the redistribution creates capacity without any cost.
- Judge the whole result. Compare accepted output, cycle variation, person-hours, rework and the crew's observations. Revert or revise if quality, exposure or the receiving handover deteriorates. Keep a dated task arrangement if the evidence supports it; reassess when the task, location or crew capability changes.
Common mistakes
- Redistributing a step without checking task competence.
- Removing a check to make the bars equal.
- Adding simultaneous activities as elapsed cycle time.
- Calling a single favourable cycle the new rate.
Action list
Leave the review with one decision
- Retain the observed baseline and dependency chart.
- Name one authorized step to test.
- Define its receiving condition and owner.
- Compare complete effort and accepted quality.
- Record retain, revise or revert with a review date.
Check your understanding
One worker's bar is shorter than the others, but that worker must be available at the controlling handover. Does the chart prove the role can be removed?
