Delays are bound to happen, but steps can be taken ahead of time to minimize the magnitude of them. In Dr. Simon’s lecture, he mentioned building a shed as an example. The planning phase is crucial to decreasing potential delays by properly accounting for the amount of required materials, strict time required for certain steps (like glue/adhesive drying time), and parameters/spec. When gathering the materials and resources at the start of the project, the team should buy an excess of the estimated amount wood required to build the shed. If more wood was required than originally determined, or if some planks are damaged in process of building the shed, an additional trip to the shop won’t be needed. Materials left unused by the end of the project can be stored for future projects or simply returned. It will also help to start the project closer to the ES than LS date, since it will create a larger buffer of delay for each following phase and increase the chance of project completion before the LF deadline.