Sips As A Productivity Improvement Tool

THE USE OF SIPS AS A PRODUCTIVITY IMPROVEMENT TOOL
Alvin F. Burkhart
Director of Productivity, Phelps, Inc.
420 Sixth -Avenue, Greeley, Colorado 80631

ABSTRACT
Project scheduling has been used successfully for years to plan, monitor, and manage the construction of
major projects. SIPS, an acronym for short interval production schedule, applies many of the same
scheduling techniques toindividual operations that are key or pacesetter operations on a project. The
three major attributes that distinguish a SIPS from conventional scheduling procedures are:
1.
2.
3.

Only one specific operation is involved;
A much higher level of detail is developed;
Personnel involvement and commitment of everyone contributing to the operation is built into the
process of developing a SIPS.The net result is a detailed, crew level plan for completing one specific operation, safely, on schedule,
and within budget.

INTRODUCTION
The process of building a project is very complex and diversified. Not considering the estimating and job buy-out
process, just the material procurement, work sequencing, subcontractor coordination, and financial management
tend to consume managementtime very quickly. More often than not, we simply hire craftsmen and then send
them out to do an operation. Not much time, if any, is spent with them discussing how it will be done, or what our
expectations of them are. It's little wonder that many times operations go over budget and schedule. The SIPS
process outlined in this paper is a step-by-step method of involving craftsmen in the planningprocess.
Management and staff lead and direct the process and help establish the goals and expectations, but the
craftsmen do the actual planning. This paper details how the process works.
BACKGROUND
In order to concentrate on the process and not get bogged down in the complexity of an operation or form system
selection, a simple cast-in-place concrete column will be used as an exampleoperation in this paper. Let's assume
that the forming system used is a panelized, metal-framed, wood-faced system that connects using steel wedge
pins to attach adjacent panels together. The column is eight feet high by sixteen inches square and will be cast out
of 4,000 psi structural concrete.

SIPS as a Productivity Improvement Tool.doc

Last printed 6/19/2012 11:07:00 AM – 5 page(s) totalDEVELOPING A SIPS
With the task defined and the form system selected, we will proceed with the development of a SIPS. The principle
steps are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Break the operation down into specific activities
Quantify each activity
Assign production rates to each activity
Calculate extensions and set goals
Develop a time-scaled, resource-loaded bar chart.

STEP 1 - BREAK THEOPERATION INTO SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES
Just as an overall project schedule breaks the job into operations, a SIPS breaks an operation into specific activities.
Either a superintendent or an engineer can work with the crew that will be involved with this column operation to
define the activities. It works best if the leader writes the activities on a blackboard or flip chart as the crew
members come upwith them. The basic criteria for defining an activity are items of work that:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Are done by a specific craft (i.e. carpenters do forming, ironworkers place rebar, laborers place concrete)
Do or don't need equipment (i.e. setting gang forms-yes, aligning forms-no)
Have varying manpower requirements (i.e. pin forms together - 1 man, align forms - 2 men)
Requires a criticalsequence of action (i.e. putting base plate down before setting forms, button forms up
before aligning them)

A general guideline as to the number and type of individual activities that should be broken down is to separate
and list any work item that can stand on it's own as a single, easily identifiable step or process. Column one on
Exhibit A is an example of a good level of detail for our...