In the Last Planner System levels of detail increase as the time for starting the activity approaches

Last Planner System

2015-12-15T13:53:56Z

Alanmossman: Created page with "The Last Planner System (LPS) is a collaborative short-term planning process that involves trade foremen (the last planners) in planning in greater and greater detail as the time..."

The Last Planner System (LPS) is a collaborative short-term planning process that involves trade foremen (the last planners) in planning in greater and greater detail as the time for the work to be done gets closer.

LPS was created to enable more reliable and predictable production in projects. It also:

* supports the flow of work through the project
* builds trust and collaboration with a project team
* delivers safer projects faster.

LPS brings together those who will execute the work (the team) to plan when and how work will be done through a series of conversations. It requires the team to collaboratively remove constraints as a team and to promise delivery of each task. These conversations increase the chances that work flows reliably, and recognizes that personal relationships and peer pressure are critical to that process.

LPS is a planning, monitoring and control system that follows lean construction principles. It was developed by Glenn Ballard and Greg Howell who later founded the Lean Construction Institute at the behest of a number of contractors who had benefited from their use of LPS.

== Five key processes ==

Each process within the system brings its own benefits. When all are working together they reinforce each other and the overall benefits are greater. The processes are:

# Collaborative Programming[[#_ftn1|[1]]] —creating and agreeing the production sequence (+ compressing it if required) and agreeing the key hand-overs from one trade or design team to the next.
# Make Ready[[#_ftn2|[2]]] — Making tasks in the Look Ahead period ready (i.e. constraint free) so that they can be done when the team want to do them.
# Production Planning — collaboratively agreeing production tasks for the next period (e.g. shift, day or week)
# Production Management — collaboratively monitoring production to keep activities on track, generally on a daily basis
# Measurement, learning and continual improvement — learning and improving project, planning and production processes so as to improve the flow and the rate of flow of the work.

[[File:LPS levels of detail ]]

Figure 1: In the Last Planner System the level of detail increases as the day for the work to be done approaches (source: Mossman 2015 with permission)

== Last Planner principles ==

* all plans are forecasts; all forecasts are wrong
* the longer the forecast, the more wrong it gets
* the more detailed the forecast, the wronger it is

The implication of these principles are that it is important to:

* Plan in greater detail as you get closer to doing the work.
* Produce plans collaboratively with those who will do the work.
* Reveal and remove constraints on planned tasks as a team.

In addition, it is important to:

<ul>
<li>[http://www.reformingprojectmanagement.com/docs/securing-reliable-promises-on-projects.pdf Make and secure reliable promises.]</li>
<li>Measure promises kept (planning capabilities, Percent Plan (or Promises) Complete (PPC, a measure of plan reliability) and improve by learning from early, late or incomplete deliveries and workflow disruptions.</li>
<li>Improve workflow as a team based on what has been learned.</li>
<li>== [http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Find_out_more Find out more] ==
</li></ul>

=== Related articles on [http://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/Designing_Buildings_Wiki Designing Buildings Wiki] ===

[[Lean_construction|Lean Construction]]

=== External references ===

* [http://www.leanconstruction.org/training/the-last-planner/ Lean Construction Institute]
* For recent papers about LPS search [http://www.iglc.net iglc.net], [http://www.leanconstruction.org/training/lcj/journal-papers/ Lean Construction Journal], [https://www.google.co.uk/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=Last+Planner Google] and Google Scholar
* Ballard, Glenn (2000). [http://www.leanconstruction.org/pdf/ballard2000-dissertation.pdf Last Planner™ System of Production Control] (pdf) (Ph.D.). UK: University of Birmingham. [note: LPS has moved on in the 15 years since Ballard completed his thesis – both theory and practice have developed since then.]
* Ballard Glenn & Gregory A. Howell (2003) [http://toip.uchile.cl/~mcerda/Sup/creators%20The%20Last%20Planner%20System.pdf An update on Last Planner]. IGLC
* Ballard Glenn & Gregory A. Howell (2003) [http://leanconstruction.org.uk/media/docs/ShieldingProduction.PDF Shielding Production: An Essential Step in Production Control]. Journal of Construction Engineering and Project Management, Vol. 124, No. 1, pp. 11 – 17.
* Gregory Howell and Hal Macomber (2011) [http://leanconstruction.org/media/learning_laboratory/Reliable_Promising/Last_Planner_System_as_Network_of_Commitments_LPC-4.pdf The Last Planner System: Conversations that Design and Activate the Network of Commitments] LPC
* Mossman, Alan (2015) [http://bit.ly/LPS-5cc Last Planner®: 5 + 1 crucial & collaborative conversations for predictable design & construction delivery]. 36pp
* for more on reliable promising read [http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1478378484 Fernando Flores (2013) Conversations for Action]; LCI's [http://leanconstruction.org/media/learning_laboratory/Reliable_Promising/Reliable_Promising.pdf Reliable Promising]

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[[#_ftnref1|[1]]] sometimes called pull scheduling, pull planning, reverse phase scheduling, collaborative planning, collaborative mapping, sticky-note planning

[[#_ftnref2|[2]]] sometimes called LookAhead planning [all plans look ahead!]