The construction industry often struggles with complex, uncertain processes requiring coordination among many stakeholders. Incomplete or inaccurate documentation, poor communication, and uncoordinated actions frequently lead to costly rework. The Last Planner® System, a proven production management tool, offers a solution by fostering lean behaviors and improving project delivery. This article explores three key reasons why Last Planner® is valuable in the design phase.
Simplifying Design Management
Last Planner® enhances design management by fostering deeper understanding among team members. Through collaborative discussions centered around a visual work board (the “wall”), each discipline gains insight into the roles, responsibilities, and actions of others. Multi-colored Post-It® notes represent activities, decisions, and milestones, clearly displaying progress and dependencies. This transparency allows everyone – including owners – to see how scope changes, approvals, and other factors impact the schedule.
Better Communication and Coordination
Combining Last Planner® with Building Information Modeling (BIM) further boosts efficiency. Disciplines use color-coded Post-It® notes mirroring BIM software (like Revit) colors, ensuring consistency throughout design and construction. The collaborative discussions around the wall quickly surface issues that could delay procurement or construction, eliminating unnecessary work. This proactive identification of potential roadblocks – often called “delivering bad news early” – is critical.
Studies demonstrate the impact: a UK Highways Agency project using Last Planner® saw a 34% improvement in commitment reliability, accelerating the design schedule by a month.
Reducing Rework and Improving Schedules
Last Planner® reduces schedules by engaging those doing the work to make reliable commitments. Understanding the workflow, dependencies, and required resources helps projects flow smoothly. This clarity minimizes rework by clarifying handoffs between designers and contractors at the wall, ensuring defects are corrected before they escalate.
Rework is a significant cost driver: studies show it can account for 2–12% of project costs. Glenn Ballard’s informal research revealed that 50% of design time is spent on unnecessary rework. Love’s research found that 50% of rework stems directly from design changes, with indirect costs potentially six times the rectification expenses.
Last Planner® tackles this waste by clarifying handoffs and defining accountability through the visual transparency of the wall. As Hwang and Yang noted, “Good communication between designers and contractors can prevent the occurrence of rework.”
Developed by Glenn Ballard and Greg Howell in 1992, Last Planner® is becoming the production management tool of choice for many owners, designers, and builders. Despite documented benefits in numerous research papers, it has yet to become the industry standard, raising the question of why.
The next article will delve deeper into the core elements of effective Last Planner® implementation: milestone scheduling, pull planning, making work ready (6-week look ahead), weekly work plans, and learning
