Improving construction management practice with the Last Planner System: a case study

Current market conditions characterized by technological changes, increasing regulatory requirements and low funding make current construction management models obsolete. This tendency affects not only the private housing market but also public administration projects, which have large time and budget deviations across the board. As a result, new approaches are needed to improve the efficiency of the construction process, removing extra costs and delivering projects on time. The most representative trends in the construction industry that enable such improvements are both Building Information Modelling paradigm (BIM) and Lean Construction philosophy with one of its associated tools in the field of construction management—the Last Planner System. However, a review of the literature shows the scarcity of works on the synergy of both paradigms taking into account the extensive literature on Lean and BIM individually. This is further accused if we look beyond the theoretical literature reviews. Therefore, this paper is focused on the benefits derived from the synergy of both disciplines and the impacts on project efficiency through a case study of a public construction project at the university of Alicante in order to provide empirical evidence of the benefits and improvements of using BIM at the Look Ahead meetings and of the Last Planner System. Finally, the results of the case study allow us to make a comparison with the data related to cost deviations of other public projects with different uses, built areas, and complexity which were managed with traditional methods of construction.

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Exploring the links between simulation modelling and construction production planning and control: a case study on the last planner system

Production Planning & Control ◽

10.1080/09537287.2021.1934588 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-18

Author(s):

Mohammed Adel Abdelmegid ◽

Vicente A. González ◽

Michael O’Sullivan ◽

Cameron G. Walker ◽

Mani Poshdar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Production Planning ◽

Simulation Modelling ◽

Production Planning And Control ◽

Planning And Control ◽

Last Planner System ◽

Last Planner ◽

And Control

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ANALYSIS OF CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS DATA IN COMPUTER-ASSISTED CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM : A case study of stored data in material handling management system for automated construction system

Journal of Architecture and Planning (Transactions of AIJ) ◽

10.3130/aija.64.211_1 ◽

1999 ◽

Vol 64 (515) ◽

pp. 211-218

Author(s):

Toshimi DOBASHI ◽

Osamu TSUKAGOSHI ◽

Kouichi BANNO ◽

Tatsuya ABE

Keyword(s):

Construction Management ◽

Management System ◽

Material Handling ◽

Computer Assisted ◽

System A ◽

Construction System

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Comparing three scheduling methods using BIM models in the Last Planner System

Organization Technology and Management in Construction An International Journal ◽

10.1515/otmcj-2016-0024 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 1604-1614 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Xavier Brioso ◽

Danny Murguia ◽

Alonso Urbina

Keyword(s):

Teaching Strategy ◽

Information Modeling ◽

Management Tools ◽

Precedence Relations ◽

Takt Time ◽

Last Planner System ◽

Point To Point ◽

Survey Responses ◽

Last Planner

AbstractThis article presents strategies for teaching scheduling methods such as takt-time, flowlines, and point-to-point precedence relations (PTPPRs) using building information modeling (BIM) models in the Last Planner System. This article is the extended version of the article entitled “Teaching Takt-Time, Flowline and Point-to-point Precedence Relations: A Peruvian Case Study,” which has been published in Procedia Engineering (Vol. 196, 2017, pages 666–673). A case study is conducted in final year students of civil engineering at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru. The mock-up project is an educational building that has high repetitive processes in the structural works phase. First, traditional tools such as Excel spreadsheets and 2D drawings were used to teach production system design with takt-time, flowlines, and PTPPR. Second, 3D and 4D models with Revit 2016 and Navisworks 2016 were used to integrate the previous schedules with a BIM model and to identify its strengths and weaknesses. Finally, Vico Office was used for the automation of schedules and comparison of the methods in 4D and 5D. This article describes the lectures, workshops, and simulations employed, as well as the feedback from students and researchers. The success of the teaching strategy is reflected in the survey responses from students and the final perceptions of the construction management tools presented.

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Barriers faced by new-adopter of Last Planner System®: a case study

Engineering Construction & Architectural Management ◽

10.1108/ecam-08-2017-0162 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 25 (9) ◽

pp. 1110-1126 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Athena Maria Perez ◽

Somik Ghosh

Keyword(s):

Single Case ◽

Implementation Process ◽

Project Teams ◽

Structured Interviews ◽

Construction Technique ◽

Content Type ◽

Last Planner System ◽

Recommended Practices ◽

Last Planner

PurposeDocumented evidence supports the improvements resulting from the use of the Last Planner System® (LPS) as a lean construction technique; however, several barriers to the implementation of the technique have been identified. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the implementation process of LPS by a project team that is transitioning from the traditional planning and control to LPS on a typical commercial project. The paper compares the adopted implementation process with that of the recommended best practices and identifies the overlaps and variances.Design/methodology/approachAn in-depth case study was conducted to accomplish the specific objectives: document the process of LPS implementation in detail; identify the overlaps and variance from the recommended practices; and investigate the causes for variance from the recommended practices. The authors used direct observations, document investigations and semi-structured interviews with key project participants to gather data. Constant comparison and content analysis were used as data analysis method for this study.FindingsThe paper identified critical barriers to the implementation process of LPS in the case study project, which are supported by existing literature and are considered typical of project teams that are new adopters and transitioning to the implementation of LPS.Research limitations/implicationsBased on a single case study, the outcomes may lack generalizability. However, similar findings of existing literature and evaluations by the project personnel substantiated the findings of the study.Originality/valueThe study attempted to conduct a systematic investigation on the implementation process of LPS, which is a less investigated topic. The paper draws attention to the major barriers experienced while adopting LPS in the case study project and suggested possible ways to address similar issues in the future. The barriers experienced by the case study project are typical of project teams who are new adopters and transitioning to the adoption of LPS, process and have the potential to be alleviated through the recommended practice implementation and process maintenance strategy.

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