Last Planner System and Social

Interaction Health Check: Applying

Social Network Analysis

Supervisor: Professor Farook Hamzeh

Master Student: Parastoo Eivazi Ziaei
Table of Contents

Introduction Research Gap Methodology

1 3 5

2 4 6

Current Problem Anticipated Contribution Timeline

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 Introduction

Last Planner System and Communication

• Since construction teams are multidisciplinary and temporary, having effective

communication to exchange the information and collaborate to reach the same
goal is crucial.
• Implementing the LPS not only improves production control, it also helps to build
relationships among construction team and strengthening social networks.
Besides, Gosh et al. 2019 stated that Participants involved in LPS projects have
smoother decision-making process (Priven, & Sacks 2019).

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 Current Problem

There is a lot of breakdown between people’s communication and

information transparency which may cause:
➢ Difficulty in the alignment of the high-level plan to the daily work
➢ Difficulty in constraint identification and removal
➢ Difficulty in exchange of communication
➢ Decreased participant involvement in decision making process
➢ Being behind of schedule because the parties were not able to finish
tasks on time.
(Priven, & Sacks 2016; Castillo 2018; Priven, Sacks 2019; Gosh et al. 2019)

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 Research Gap

➢ Previous researchers did some research about the effects of the last planner
system on social interaction. In these projects, some projects were compared to
find the effects of the LPS on parties’ communication. ( e.g. traditional project
planning and LPS; 12 LPS project with each other). (Priven et al. 2015; Priven
et al. 2016; Castillo et al. 2016; Daneil 2017; Castillo et al. 2018; Gosh et al.
2019).
➢ There is a lack of LPS social interaction health check method to
understand how strong is the participant network in one particular
project. To answer these questions that how people are interacting and how
strong the network, interviewing parties and SNA method would be helpful.

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Anticipated Contribution

The Specific aims of the research study are:

✓ Understanding network characteristics by quantitatively analyzing the

network metrics such as density, average centrality, and closeness by using
Gephi
✓ Interpreting each of the metrics and correlating it to the network structure
by examining communication patterns.
✓ Understand the process of leadership and management principles of the
project by listing the lean success factor and conducting a survey among
project participants.
✓ Finding the relationship between Lean/LPS success factors, social network
metrics, and performance in a construction project
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 Methodology

➢ Planning behavior is affected by communication and

interaction, so the potential of SNA will be studied and
assessed.
➢ Mixed method of qualitative and quantitative data analysis
will be considered in the research methodology:
▪ Qualitative: Structured Observation and Interview
▪ Quantitative data analysis: Social Network Analysis and actual
project performance data

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Process of research methodology

Preparing
Structured Data Prepration
1 Interview 2

Map and Create a Health

Analyze Social Check
3 Network (Gephi) 4 Dashboard

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Methodology

Input:
• Lean survey to understand where we are in lean implementation
• Social interaction survey result to find the interaction among team
members
• PPC and constraint information
Output:
• Find the relationship between the network and related metrics as well
as lean behavior and LPS metrics

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Output

Lean success factors

Respect for People, Teamwork,
Communication & Collaboration, LPS metrics
Transparency, Safety, Quality, Problem PPC
solving, Visual management, Change Constraint release
management, Consistency and Project Milestone
Standardization, Waste minimization/ Constraint released time information
consciousness, Innovation, Continuous
improvement, LPS

Social network metrics

Betweenness
Closeness
Path Length
Modularity
Density

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 Lean behavior
survey result

PPC and constraint

information based on Based on social
real data interaction survey
result.

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 Anticipated Timeline

Find a Proper solution & Data Collection &

Thesis Proposal Literature Review Method Data Collection Data Analysis Draft Analysis

JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN

Thesis Proposal Literature Review Data Collection Data Collection Data Analysis Final Submission

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Thanks for Your
Attention
Any questions?

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