The sheet on the cabin wall
Your planner updates the master programme monthly. The site manager takes the next three weeks, turns it into a bar chart in a spreadsheet, prints it and pins it up. It gets discussed at the Tuesday subcontractor meeting. By Thursday the plasterer is waiting for the M&E first fix to finish, the M&E firm did not realise the ceilings were due, and the roofer is on another job because nobody told them the steel had arrived early.
Everyone had the programme. Nobody was working to the same one.
Why the lookahead drifts
A lookahead is only useful if it is current and if each trade has said yes to its part. Printed sheets are neither. The master programme and the site's version diverge within days, and subcontractors only see the whole chart, not the few lines that concern them.
- The lookahead is a copy of the programme, not a live view of it.
- Subcontractors are shown everyone's activities, so their own get lost.
- Nobody formally confirms they have the labour and materials for next week.
- Constraints raised at the meeting are noted in minutes, not on the programme.
- Progress is reported to the planner monthly, so the master is always behind.
What a drifting programme costs
Trades arrive to areas that are not ready and either stand or leave. Follow-on trades get squeezed. Your site manager spends the week re-sequencing by phone. The monthly programme update to the client shows slippage that could have been flagged weeks earlier, and the reasons for it are harder to pin down later.
There is a people cost as well. Good subcontractors lose patience with a main contractor whose programme they cannot trust, and they price that uncertainty into the next job or put their best gang elsewhere. A site manager who spends every afternoon on the phone re-sequencing trades is not walking the job, checking quality or planning the week after next.
The live lookahead we build
- We read activities from your master programme file or planning tool on a schedule, so the lookahead always reflects the current programme.
- The next three weeks are split by trade and by area, so each subcontractor sees only the activities that involve them and the ones they depend on.
- Each week, each subcontractor gets their lines by email or text and confirms, or flags a constraint: labour, materials, access, information.
- Constraints go on a board the site manager works through before the next meeting, each with an owner.
- The site manager marks progress on a phone against each activity, with photos, during the week.
- Progress and constraints are summarised for the planner, so the master programme update starts from site facts.
- Subcontractors who have not confirmed are shown at the meeting, not discovered on Monday morning.
| What a trade sees | Example |
|---|---|
| Its activities | Second fix electrics, level 2, from Monday week |
| What it depends on | Plaster finish, level 2, due Friday |
| What depends on it | Decorators, level 2, following week |
| Open constraints | Light fittings not yet delivered |
| Confirm or flag | One tap reply, or a short note |
Your planner keeps the master programme in whatever tool they use. We do not replace planning software; we get it read.
A lookahead people actually follow
Each subcontractor knows what is expected of them next week and has said so. The site manager sees constraints days earlier, while there is still time to deal with them. The planner updates the master from site progress rather than guesses. And when the client asks why an area is late, the constraint history is already written down.
Is your lookahead a pinned-up printout?
- The lookahead is printed from a spreadsheet each week.
- Trades turn up to areas that are not ready.
- Subcontractors do not confirm their labour for the coming weeks.
- Constraints are in meeting minutes rather than on the programme.
- The planner updates the master monthly from phone calls.