Last Planner® System

The Last Planner® System is a production planning and control system designed to produce predictable work flow and improve project performance across the design, construction and commissioning stages of construction projects.


Risks Addressed:

Work flow variability is an important source of waste in lean. Fluctuations and uncertainties in work processes cause disruptions in workflow, significantly impacting project cost, duration, quality, productivity, resource assignment, flow path, sequencing and project performance. The consequences of deviations from planned activities have a negative effect on the production system and results in adverse outcomes like lost production resources, wasted capacity, increased cycle times, high levels of inventory, long lead times, poor quality, and dissatisfied clients. As a result, understanding and managing variability is essential to improving construction. If variability is not reduced, the efficiency of the system will be affected and will result in failure to meet the overall project objectives. Maintaining consistency in production facilitates proper  matching of labor and other resources to workload and shields production from uncertainties in construction operations, thus improving productivity.

The last planner system (LPS) of control is also applicable to resource management. Getting work done on construction sites depends on the availability of resources. One of the challenges workers face during the course of a project is coping with discrepancies between anticipated, actually needed, and available resources. Factors such as ambiguity in design drawings, errors in measurement, rework, transportation delays  and damage during handling of materials affect the smooth flow of resources on construction projects. LPS aids the clarification of work tasks, identification of constraints, checking constraint satisfaction and the efficient allocation of resources. It has been successfully implemented on construction projects to increase the reliability of planning, improvement production performance, and the establishment of predictable workflow regardless of uncertainties in design and construction operations.

 


How Risks are Reduced:

To improve the quality of planning and avoid the adverse effects of unreliable workflow, construction activities should be protected from variability in the system. Accordingly, the Last Planner System (LPS) for production planning and control was developed to reduce the negative impact of variability and increase reliability of workflow and has been successfully implemented on construction projects to improve planning and production performance. Forecasting, buffering, smoothing and rationing are some of the techniques used in LPS to address variability. Forecasting is done to anticipate uncertainties in construction processes. Uncertainties in the project environment is usually compensated for by the addition of buffers to task inputs and performance. Buffering is done to safeguard production from the harmful consequences of variability and disruptions to the flow of activities. Buffers of different types can be introduced to reduce instability in a system’s operations and they include money, time, capacity, inventory, space and information.

Smoothing is used to reduce variability in inputs and internal operations to avoid the extra costs and the resultant reduced performance of system buffers.

Rationing limits the allocation of resources to uncertain work tasks. Work processes are shielded from fluctuations in the system by restricting the allocation of resources to uncertain activities. Shielding workers from project uncertainties by means of proper planning is essential to maintaining productivity.

In addition, prior to the release of  work packages to the site for construction, they are subjected to constraint analysis to satisfy last planner’s quality criterion for execution and soundness. Constraint analysis is a technique used for tracking and close monitoring of work tasks for production level planning. This expedites the removal of obstructions to the successful execution of work tasks. It improves safety performance of target operations by identifying and removing safety risks and hazards. It also ensures the active management of the production and delivery of goods and services by suppliers. The last planner is provided with an early warning of potential problems with sufficient lead time to plan and address issues as required. Typical constraints on construction tasks are incomplete design or prerequisite work and non-availability of materials, information, directives, and labor or equipment resources. After successful constraint analysis, weekly work plans are formed from workable backlog, which improves the productivity of workers who receive the assignments and increases the reliability of work flow to the next phase of the works.

Last Planner® system uses a variety of approaches to achieve the required level of safety on site. Production control brought about by process stability and work flow predictability creates fewer opportunities for accidents. Construction planners are informed of safety risks at all levels of planning decisions. Risk levelling is done to ensure that safety risks are planned and filtered in Last Planner assignments and safety management resources are pulled to the places they are most required.

Availability

Transportation Insight
To obtain information, visit LEAN Solutions or contact 1-877-226-9950 info@transportationinsight.com

Argent
To obtain information, visit Lean and Six Sigma or contact 1-800-731-6388

West Monroe Partners LLC.
To obtain information, visit Operations Excellence: Lean Solutions or contact 1-616-771-0325

McKinsey & Company
To obtain information, visit McKinsey & Company or contact 1-616-771-0325 info@rightplace.org

Geolean USA
To obtain information, visit GEOLEAN Services or contact 1-313-859-9780

Novo Precision
To obtain information, visit Lean Solutions or contact 1-860-583-0517

Manex Inc.
To obtain information, visit Lean Manufacturing or contact 1-925-807-5100