Staging materials at the workface so crews do not go looking
At 7:05 on the fourth floor of a social housing building, six electricians are at the hoist gate instead of in the suites. Each needs boxes, connectors and cable from the laydown yard, and they will make the same trip twice more before the day ends.
Stage each crew's material, fasteners and small tools at its work area before the shift, in the quantity for that day, from a list written the afternoon before. Delivery planning gets material to the site; staging moves it from storage to where it will be installed, before the crew needs it. A crew that fetches its own material is paid to walk, wait and search.
The staging routine
- Write tomorrow's kit list by area each afternoon: the material, fasteners, consumables and tools for every suite, room or bay, counted from the drawings and today's progress. It belongs in the crew's work package.
- Build one labelled kit per area, on a cart, in a bin or on a pallet; someone other than the installers builds it.
- Move kits when the hoist and corridors are free, and put each where the work is, not where it is easiest to drop.
- Stage a day's worth, not a floor's. Surplus blocks other trades and gets damaged.
- Walk the kits before the start, and have anything missing brought up before it is needed.
- Bring leftovers back and adjust the list, so kits stop coming back half full.
Common mistakes
- Kitting the main material but not the fasteners and consumables, so the trips for small parts go on.
- Leaving the crew to build its own kits at the start of the shift.
- Stocking a whole floor at once to save hoist trips.
Checklist
Before you leave today
- A kit list for each area tomorrow
- One labelled kit per area
- Kits moved while the hoist is free
- Each kit at the work, clear of walkways and edges
- A day's worth, not more
- Leftovers back, list adjusted
Check your understanding
Your crew now starts on time, but other trades say your kits block the corridor every morning. What do you change?
Show the answer
Put each kit inside the room or bay where it will be used, and stage only a day's worth, so the corridor stays a walkway and an exit route. Staging that blocks another crew moves the waiting to them.
