3rd Annual Last Planner System® Conference

When you look at the Last Planner System (LPS) you find that the practices embody the core six tenets of lean: Optimize the Whole, Generation of Value, Focus on Process & Flow, Removal of Waste, Continuous Improvement, and Respect for People. This session will build on the first session and dive deeper to show how LPS addresses root causes related to project definition, planning and control by exploring how lean principles inform the Last Planner System.

This presentation will walk through the benefits and challenges of using digital Last Planner® from an Owner Project Manager and Lean Coach perspective. The benefits of starting Last Planner® by first going from an analog system to a digital platform are enormous. In our technical world most users skip the step about learning the system and process and go right to a digital platform. What is lost when this happens is the initial skill of knowing the inner workings of Last Planner® and how powerful it can be.

As more and more teams use digital last planners and those efforts are scaled up across organizations, it is important to ensure these efforts are performing well and contributing to successfully managing production and achieving schedule goals. In this session, Nick will share how his company assesses performance, detect gaps, and coach teams to improve using digital LPS. He aims to set the right focus and coach teams with actionable insights before it’s too late.

When we think about the Last Planner System, we often imagine a wall filled with post-it notes. But over the past few years, and accelerated by the pandemic, several new digital tools have entered the market with the purpose of advancing lean construction implementation using technology. In this session, several of our exhibitors will present their tools, discuss the benefits of big data, and how technology can increase lean adoption and enhance your LPS implementation.

How is the Last Planner System applied in projects across different companies? What are the main hurdles and how to overcome them? How to get buy-in from management and workers out in the field? How has LPS improved the way we build? This and more will be discussed in the superintendent panel, with representatives from ICM Construction, McCarthy, Skiles Group and Impetus.

We think of the Last Planner® System as one of several alternatives to scheduling. But is it really an alternative? In this session, Dick Bayer discusses how bio-mimicry and the cycles of life are actually incorporated into and reflected by the Last Planner System, making it the only natural planning process currently available to us in the construction industry.

Critical Path Method of scheduling and related project control methods were developed with the best of intentions – to improve predictably and project performance. However, in practice these methods fail to deliver. Gary will discuss why, how CPM hides the generation of WIP and how to connect production scheduling and production control with scheduling to not only achieve predictability but to improve overall project performance.

Many people are already familiar with the Last Planner System. And that's great news since we know it's better than traditional CPM schedules. However, in practice, people fail to make commitments that stand the proof of action. In this session, Paz Arroyo will describe practical strategies and research based on language action theory to leverage a network of commitments in a construction project.

The concept of psychological safety, emotional intelligence, and effective communication has become more important as many projects strive for high- performance lean teams. In this session, Sean will explore the skills and practices that help teams work more effectively together, design and construct better projects, and produce more value for their clients.