I
have been a proponent of checklist all through my construction management days
and I usually practice what I champion. The checklists has been part and parcel
of construction process and procedures for years. Other high risk industries
like Aviation, or ship building too uses this as missing a step could result
into expensive losses of time, money and sometimes human lives. The Hedge fund
managers too have their own checklists.
In our industry it is
mandatory to attach a checklist while submitting “method statements” or
ITP (Inspection and Testing Protocol) for consultant’s review. These are
equally important while conducting a Risk Assessment before commencing a fresh
construction activity at sites.
It is difficult to
apprehend why there should be such resistance in implementing a powerful tool
like this one in their day to day work activities. It would be interesting if a
research was carried out to find out if the reason behind this reticence is
ignorance, over confidence, the “I don’t need it, I know it all” state of mind
or a combination of many such factors.
As a matter of fact,
Checklist are tools to make an expert perform better. Human memory and
attention often fails when it comes to routine matters and important aspects
can be easily overlooked. Checklist can solve our dilemma about when to follow
the protocol and when one’s own instincts. It also comes handy when faced with
a situation requiring us to process high volume of information.
Aviation pilots uses one
before takeoff and landing and someone once explained that is not a recipe for
how to fly a plane but a reminder of key things that often get forgotten or
missed if not checked. Since then when I notice the aircrew making the routine
checks before takeoff, I get reassured.
The organizations that
practically implement these processes are few and far in-between. This results
in high volume of avoidable rework and frequent incidents leading to life
changing losses to humans. The direct impact on the project is invariably low
quality, higher cost and delayed completion.
It was a shot in the arm
listening to Dr. Atul Gawande, a Boston based surgeon highlighting the
advantages of using Checklists in his TED talk. His narration about
collaborating with WHO to develop a universal “surgical checklist” and making significant
difference to the world was very intense. He admitted that the idea of
checklist was borrowed from high risk industries such as aviation and
skyscraper construction. Interestingly enough it was a team from Boeing who
provided him assistance while preparing the first checklist for medical field.
Checklist can be
categorized into two distinct types. The first one is “Do-Compare” checklist for
general routine tasks which one does out of memory and compare against the
list. The second one is “Read-Do”
checklist are like recipe and mainly for events that are very new for the
users.
I wish we play our part to
use this powerful tools more extensively to improve the KPI (key performance
indicators) as well as make our construction project sites a safer place to
work.
