LAST PLANNER SYSTEM® MASTER
PLANNING
LAST PLANNER SYSTEM® SMALL PROJECTS
Set Milestones
COMMON PRACTICES Using the Last Planner System on small ®
SHOULD
PHASE
PLANNING
Pull Planning to Specify Handoffs
CASE STUDY LAST PLANNER SYSTEM® SMALL PROJECTS
LOOKAHEAD PLANNING
practices, by flexing the LPS to work in their favor.
WILL
WEEKLY WORK PLANNING
Make Reliable Promises
The goal remains the same as when the Last Planner System is used for
DID
Percent Planned Complete/Variance Retrospectives
improvements with the input from the whole
value to the entire team.
team (Trade Partners, GC, Owner).
2. Understand LPS is about the conversations and reliable commitments that are made within the team and not about how the information is documented. Keep it Simple.
transformational solutions with certainty of results.
to help the team setup the baseline and assisted them in problem solving to identify small improvements.
construction scheduling: make reliable commitments and eliminate waste.
9. Understand what your jobsite “office” will look like and get creative with solutions for visual communication that will work best for YOUR job.
analysis of the schedule and more in depth pull planning/daily huddles.
3. Use the PDCA (plando-check-act) cycle to make improvements - small
7. Work with trade partner project managers/
improvements/changes = big wins.
supervision to instill lean behaviors at every level of the project within their ranks.
At JE Dunn, we seek to maximize collaboration as early in the process as possible to deliver
8. Use Daily Stand Ups to keep everyone accountable and ensure commitments do not slip through the cracks.
5. Utilize a lean specialist
6. Small projects benefit more from closer
®
LEARNING/ IMPROVING
of flexing the system to provide
together to effectively implement LPS
projects teams shared many common Make Work Ready
4. Find a starting point and make
projects focuses on bringing all parties
tools in a short period of time. Our small CAN
1. Understand the importance
10. Focus on progress over perfection – make sure leanrelated goals are right-sized for the scope and scale of the project.
ON THE JOB
We have long used the Last Planner System® for fostering commitments and eliminating waste from the construction phases of our projects. This process
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SULPHUR DELL RETAIL BUILDING
BROOKLYN BOWL TI
GERMANTOWN SPORTSBAR
determines team needs and commitments in order to deliver each milestone. JE Dunn has been intentional about growing our
$6.5M 60,000 SF 4 Months
small projects program. While we use LPS on majority of our projects, we found challenges with
$10.2M 60,000 SF 10 Months
$7.2M 48,000 SF 7 Months
$1.6M 7,000 SF 3 Months
our small/quick hitting projects teams finding value in LPS. Working with an internal Lean Specialist, our teams utilized lean practices to encourage rapid improvements to improve their reliable commitments, trust and workflow on the project. In the end,
“It’s not only critical to stay ahead of potential delays, but it’s
“LPS is the tools we have in place to guide a mentality and style
“Pull planning and look ahead planning fostered communication
“LPS helped us nail down an aggressive schedule through pull
critical to be nimble in your plan when issues do arise. For me this
of communication. It promotes ownership and collaboration from
on our project. These lean tools worked great with the owner
plans on our project. The buy in of our trade partners was key,
is the greatest benefit of LPS, being able to identify road blocks
each party involved. It provides structure and organization to the
involvement and improved our team communication.
due to the short period of time we had to complete the project. It
early but more importantly figuring out quick detours to keep the
chaos of scheduling and sequencing.“
- Ken M., Superintendent
really helped with getting the trade partners to communicate and
project moving.”
- Ben N., Superintendent
collaborate with each other throughout the project.“
- Palen R., Project Manager
- Matt E., Superintendent
our project teams have become comfortable with
It is critical to have activities planned down to the day and to
“LPS carries a connotation of being a production based planning
“Owner’s involvement in our LPS was key. It allowed us to see
“We were challenged to complete our work in a very short
improvements and change, learned how to flex the
look ahead and pinpoint problem areas well in advance of it
tool that only works on complex projects with larger teams. In
things from his perspective and understand what was important
amount of time and the collaborative approach of LPS was
becoming an issue. It’s important to do this every day. I would
truth LPS is a means to build the most important aspect on every
to him and his operations. His activities really helped everyone
crucial to this small project. We brought end-user representatives
utilize the measuring tools (Percent Planned Complete and
construction project regardless of size: a team.”
understand why we were doing what we were doing and why it
into our weekly meetings, so that all parties and end-user could
Variance tracking) of LPS more in depth.”
- Sam R., Project Manager
was so important for us to hit our dates.”
share ideas and solve problems in real time.”
- Eric B., Project Manager
- Kyle R., Project Manager
system, and shared lessons learned with other teams by helping each other think through new possibilities. © 2020, All Rights Reserved. J.E. Dunn Construction Group
- Scott P., Superintendent