Effective Implementation of Last Planner System® in Construction Projects:

A Case Study

M. R. D. Gjerde, R. M. C. Ratnayake, S. M. S. M. K Samarakoon

Department of Mechanical and Structural Engineering and Material Science, University of Stavanger, Norway
([Link]@[Link], [Link]@[Link], [Link]@[Link])

Abstract – The construction industry has been relatively done, what will be done and what did get done, as shown in
less productive compared to the manufacturing industry. A Fig. 1.
significant number of construction projects have been delayed
and/or exceeded their budget. Planning has been a significant
challenge in the construction industry, due to the highly
customized nature of designs, construction processes, and
suppliers. Planning, monitoring and continuous control of the
progress of a construction project is vital to improve the
project’s performance. Although Lean construction
approaches (LCAs) and Last Planner System® (LPS) have
Fig. 1. LPS structure.
been proven to deliver target project performance in certain
construction projects, to date, most engineering contractors
have struggled to implement them in practice. This
There has been extensive separate research on Building
manuscript presents the results of an illustrative case study, Information Modeling (BIM) and Lean construction. BIM
carried out in collaboration with a construction firm, to and Lean construction are independent processes.
investigate the potential use of LCAs, with a special focus on However, since both are advancing technology to help the
the use of LPS in practice. Microsoft Excel and Synchro construction industry to improve, there should be some
software have been used to deploy the LPS. The findings correlation between the two processes. Moreover, BIM
demonstrate how planning capabilities have been improved helps to reduce variables and constraints affecting the
with the support of the plan percent completion (PPC) design process and cycle time, which can be considered
calculation, performed in Microsoft Excel, together with the
Lean principles [3]. In addition, a variety of BIM-based
animation capabilities of Synchro software.
software has been developed to simulate the construction
Keywords – Last planner system, Lean construction sequence/scheduling. For instance, Synchro is a 4D BIM
approach, building information modelling (i.e. 4th dimension includes scheduling) and Virtual Design
and Construction (VDC) software platform [4], which can
INTRODUCTION be used for such purposes. Hence, LPS can be implemented
by collaborating with 4D BIM software, which enables
Lean thinking started in the Toyota production factory productivity to be improved.
to improve quality and productivity. Toyota found an easier This paper discusses a case study of a construction
and faster way of mass-producing vehicles. Focusing on the project in Norway, which investigates the use of Lean
sources of waste and flow, they continuously improved methods in the project planning phase. The project consists
their product. Problems were found early in the production of two buildings: one rehabilitated and one new building.
systems; therefore, there were never any defects when the The project managers are using Lean methods to increase
product was completed [1]. Over the years, many industries productivity. Furthermore, the extent to which Lean
have adopted Lean thinking to improve productivity. For thinking could be implemented in the project is discussed
instance, the construction industry is discussing Lean and improvements for current practices are proposed.
construction, with reference to how Lean methods can be
used in the industry. In Norway, a few companies have PROBLEM BACKGROUND
started implementing Lean into their construction projects.
In construction, Lean thinking can help find the source of Research carried out by SSB (Statistics Norway) shows
wasted resources, such as human potential, material waste that industries in Norway have had a 30 percent increase in
and time. productivity, while that in the construction industry has
First introduced by Glenn Ballard in 1993, the Last fallen by 10 percent [4]. Fig. 2 shows the development in
Planner System ® (LPS) is a planning, monitoring and productivity of the construction industry compared to other
control system that follows Lean construction principles industries on mainland Norway, from 2000 to 2016. This
[2]. The last planner is the person responsible for the work indicates a need to carry out research on why the
done in one section of the production (e.g., it could be the productivity of the construction industry has experienced
person responsible for the electrical system). LPS has four such a fall and how it can be increased, using existing
mechanisms; these are: what should be done, what can be knowledge. Various researches are discussed in the
literature, suggesting that the implementation of Lean
thinking could be helpful for raising productivity [5].

978-1-7281-3804-6/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE1139 1139

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Canberra. Downloaded on June 07,2020 at [Link] UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE IEEM

Hence, in order to improve productivity, the construction Park project consists of two buildings, one rehabilitated and
industry should change its traditional practices. Moreover, one new building. In this project, the master- and phase
the Norwegian construction industry has been trying to use schedules are included on the same document sheet, which
different Lean tools in their construction projects. is named the Lean plan. The master plan included the start
However, it could be seen that it is still a challenge for them date and the date of the final delivery of the project. The
to implement Lean tools (i.e. LPS) effectively. Therefore, milestones have been revised through the project, as
to understand how Lean is used in the construction contractors have been added to the project and as the
industry, a case study is performed, which will examine customers have changed their mind. Because the project is
how far a Norwegian company has come and propose in an early phase, a lookahead plan is not used. At the
future improvements. beginning of the project, the company is only using the
detailed Lean plan. When the project starts with the takt
plan, it will try to use a three-week lookahead plan. Other
documents used are a duration matrix, to find the takt plan
for the projects, a sheet explaining the zones and activities
in each phase of the project and a flow chart of the tasks.
The Ledaal Park project uses both push and pull
planning. A pull plan was developed at the project’s
starting point. However, a combined push and pull plan was
later created in order to meet the promised delivery date.
The plan calculates what needs to be done and how much
is needed to push the work from its current place.
The project manager writes down constraints during
Fig. 2. Productivity development. the progress meeting. The constraints are divided into the
responsible companies. Delays caused by the constraints
METHODOLOGY are also included in the document sheet. The project
manager uses an Excel sheet to describe the constraints that
A qualitative research method is chosen to understand occur in the project. New notations are marked in red. The
and analyze the case study. Because the subject in this case project manager does not record the reason for constraint in
is a small-scale study and the researcher is involved in the a Pareto chart. The informant believed a Pareto chart would
project, triangulation is used for the report, to overcome take up too much time to fill out during the meetings. The
weaknesses in some of the chosen methods. The following informant explained that some Backe projects use the
methods were used: Pareto chart by having the contractors write the information
• Case study Empirical data is gathered to down on sticky notes during the meeting. Afterwards the
understand the case and to project leader can gather the notes and transfer the
develop an understanding of information to the other documents. The problem with this
how the company performs. is that information might be interpreted wrongly or there
might be a need for more information. Ledaal Park marks
• Unstructured Flexible and open for the delays in the project in red in the Lean plan. The current
interviews interviewer to ask status of the task is marked in the Lean plan, and finished
supplementary questions, work is struck through.
helping the interviewer to get to The project controls how much has been done, by
the depth of the case. checking the budget. Every trade has a financial budget. If
• Non-participant Observed meetings to concrete has used 30 % of its budget, then 30 % of the
observation understand the current planning concrete work should be done (i.e., if 30 % of the budget is
process. used but only 20 % of the concrete work is done, the
concrete is running over budget and should be
• Document study Support observation and investigated). Fig. 3 shows the current planning process in
understand the early planning Backe Rogaland AS. The current status will start the
process. planning process of the project. The project team uses
Excel to make a Lean plan and a takt plan. The project team
• Digital tools Excel and Synchro are used to
will then move on to the next project with the same
simplify the planning process.
planning process as before. Although the project managers
use LPS, it can be seen that projects are delayed due to lack
CURRENT SITUATION of communication, lack of update of design changes,
technical difficulties in the excavation of soil and poor
Backe Rogaland AS is part of the Backe group, exchange of information.
recognized as one of Norway’s 10 biggest construction
contractors in 2017 [6]. Backe has been implementing Lean
in all their projects to improve their execution. The Ledaal

978-1-7281-3804-6/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE1140 1140

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Canberra. Downloaded on June 07,2020 at [Link] UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE IEEM

diagram gives an indication of the reason why a constraint

occurs the most times in the project.
The Lean plan is redesigned for the project. Today’s
date will change, depending on the date. The project
timeline dates are dependent on the task’s dates in the
project and will change when they are changed. The earliest
task given will also be the project’s start date, and the latest
task is the end of the project. The phase dates will change
according to the tasks in the phases. The tasks in one phase
are grouped together to make it easier to look at one phase.
When a task is given a start and finish date, the calendar
will mark the original plan in dark blue with number 2. The
actual dates, if they are different from the original plan, will
be lighter blue and with number 1 in the cell. The status of
the task can be changed, to record: “Not started”, “On
track”, “Delayed” or “Finished”.
Fig. 3. Flow chart of current situation.
The takt plan template is used to find the takt time in
SUGGESTED IMPROVEMENTS the project. The contractor states how many labor hours
each task will take. The bar chart gives a visual image of
The project leader wants the meetings to run the labor days. Seeing the average labor days helps the
efficiently; using many different Microsoft Excel (Excel) planner to find the takt time. The make-ready plan is filled
documents that do not work together is a waste of time. out by the responsible person in the company. The person
Collecting all these Excel documents into one makes it responsible for the tasks is named in the information box.
easier to stay updated on the development of the project. In the checklist, the person will mark with their initials the
The document can be shared, via an Internet link. In this condition that prevents the task from being ready. When a
way, any updates are easily shared with everyone in the cell is marked with initials, the ready column will
project. The document contains a Lean plan, takt plan, automatically change from “yes” to “no”. In the ready
lookahead plan, constraint log and percent plan complete column and the finished column, the cell will change color
(PPC). The sheets are connected, making it easy to plan the accordingly (i.e., green means “yes”, and red means “no”).
project. If a task has a constraint, it can be marked with an This will provide a clearer visualization of whether tasks

Fig. 4. Lean plan.

“x” in the Lean plan column, “Constraint”. When a task is are healthy to start or not.
marked, it will automatically be transferred to the constraint PPC is calculated from the number of finished tasks
log. In the constraint log, reasons for constraints are divided divided by the number of planned tasks for each contractor
into columns. The reason for the constraints can be marked in the make-ready plan. The average PPC is calculated and
with an “x”. In the sheet for the Pareto chart, each reason visualized in a diagram (Fig. 5).
for constraint is counted and displayed in a diagram. The

978-1-7281-3804-6/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE1141 1141

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Canberra. Downloaded on June 07,2020 at [Link] UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE IEEM

Fig. 7. Make ready plan.

Synchro can make a video animation of the

construction. To do so, elements in the building must be
Fig. 5. PPC diagram. connected to the corresponding task, meaning that a slab in
the first floor is connected to the task where the slab is
Synchro software is a computer program which has made. When all the elements in the construction are
been made to improve the construction industry. It is a connected to a task, the video is made. The video will
Building Information Model (BIM) software platform [7]. follow the schedule of the tasks, and the elements
The software is a connection for programs that can export connected to the task will appear. At the start of the video,
IFC (Industrial Foundation Classes) files. Connecting only the elements that are not attached to a task are shown,
drawings from the various components in a building, the such as landscape and surrounding buildings. A video
software will make a model of a project. The components animation will help the workers see which task prevents
can be connected to the tasks set in the Gantt chart. This another task from starting. The video animation made for
can be used to visualize the construction sequence. the Ledaal Park project is shown in a picture collage in Fig.
Synchro project planning gives more information on 8, while Fig. 9 shows a flow chart of the improved planning
the project (see Fig. 6). The columns can be customized, process. The current status of the planning process will

Fig. 6. Gantt chart with schedule.

depending on what information is needed. If a task is begin the project. Then, the project team can decide to use
delayed, it is easy to change the duration and see how the Excel and/or Synchro. The different plans and tools are
other tasks will be affected by the change. described earlier in the chapter. After the project is finished,
Synchro has an option called “task filters”. Tasks can the project team should go over what they learned in the
be shown, depending on whether they have started, finished project. The lessons learned will find solutions for
or if there is a need to look ahead in the schedule. A problems the team have had. The solutions will improve the
lookahead plan can show planned tasks for either one or status in the planning process and be used in future projects.
two weeks ahead in the schedule of the chosen time. The
critical path is also accessed here and will show the tasks
that are in the critical path. The scheduling report will show
a summary of the project and the tasks: how many tasks are
planned, in progress or complete. This can be used to make
a PPC.
The Gantt chart can be customized with columns in
Synchro. A make-ready plan can be constructed in these
columns, by adding a constraint in each column. The
corresponding cell has a number, according to whether the
conditions for the task are met or not. If a task is ready, all
constraints will have the number 1 and the task can be
started. See Fig. 7 below for an example.

978-1-7281-3804-6/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE1142 1142

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Canberra. Downloaded on June 07,2020 at [Link] UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE IEEM

Fig. 8. Video animation in Synchro.

978-1-7281-3804-6/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE1143 1143

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Canberra. Downloaded on June 07,2020 at [Link] UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
 Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE IEEM

REFERENCES
[1] J. Womack, D. Jones, and D. Roos, The Machine that
Changed the World. New York, NY: HerperPerennial,
1991.
[2] R. Davidson, “Lean construction,” 22 June 2006. [Online].
Available:
[Link]
israel/Last_Planner_System_Business_Process_Standard
_and_Guidelines.pdf. [Accessed 4 February 2019].
[3] B. Dave, L. Koskela, A. Kivinimi, R. Owen, P.
Tzortzopoulos, et al., Implementing Lean in Construction.
Researchgate, 2013.
[4] Statistics Norway, “Statistisk sentralbyrå,” 19 January
2018. [Online]. Available: [Link]
bolig-og-eiendom/artikler-og-
publikasjoner/produktivitsfall-i-bygg-og-anlegg.
[Accessed 16 May 2019].
[5] I. M. Dimitrov, F. D. Firte, and D. G. González, "Aalborg
Universitet - project library," Aalborg University, 05
January 2016. [Online]. Available:
Fig. 9. Flow chart of suggested improvements.
[Link]
ful-application-of-last-planner-system-combined-with-
CONCLUSION location-based-management-system-divergences-
between-theory-and-practice(a5723fbe-eff0-4a6c-aa29-
In the Lean plan made by the company, it is harder to 83cfc8d47aa0).html. [Accessed 07 March 2019].
change the start and finish dates of the task compared to in [6] Byggeindustrien, "100 Største, 2017," 2017. [Online].
the improved Lean plan. The improved Lean plan Available: [Link] [Accessed 29
highlights the master plan and divides the task into phases, April 2019].
making the plan clear and easy to adjust. The improved [7] Synchro software, [Online]. Available:
Excel document has gathered the different sheets the [Link] [Accessed 04 April
company uses and included a PPC, Pareto chart and make- 2019].
ready plan. Having it all together will improve
communication between the documents and help the users
stay updated on the plan. To further improve productivity
in the company, it is important that the project team learns
from its problems. The updated constraint log with reasons
will help to understand which problems are occurring most
often. If the project team discovers the causes of the
problems, solutions can be found, to avoid making the same
mistake again. To find the problem, both the PPC and the
Pareto chart can be used.
Synchro helps the contractors, subcontractors and
customer to visualize the project plan. Problems can be
detected early and avoided by looking at the model and
seeing whether planned tasks can go ahead as planned. The
software can make a lookahead plan with the decided
number of weeks. Adding the make-ready columns to the
schedule makes it easy to make the task ready and healthy
to perform.
Productivity in the planning process will improve with
better communication through Excel and the use of BIM
software such as Synchro.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank Backe Rogaland AS,

which has supported the research with information and
made the case study possible. The authors would like to
specially thank Alisa Nilsen, for sharing her time and
knowledge.

978-1-7281-3804-6/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE1144 1144

Authorized licensed use limited to: University of Canberra. Downloaded on June 07,2020 at [Link] UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.