Description
The analysis presented in this paper was to demonstrate how the implementation of Last Planner® System (LPS®) impacted the College's construction, which included two buildings under the scope of work, and allowed the project team to overcome the inherent shortcomings caused by contractual arrangement and delivery method. The construction was commenced in February 2011 with the anticipated completion date of December 2012; however, by the end of 2012, it was behind the schedule without a completion date in sight. The project suffered from the following underlying issues: General Contractor's (GC's) inability to orchestrate the team, a lack of responsible parties, limited collaboration, and an invalid/unrealistic schedule. The owner hired a new GC along with the third party LPS® consultant to save the troubled project. The team was encouraged to participate in weekly pull planning sessions and to communicate issues directly to one another. This enforced each member of the team to collaborate and be accountable for promises that they made to each other and to the project. Percent Plan Complete (PPC) and root causes of broken promises or "variances" were recorded daily and compiled weekly to monitor how the project progressed. The data were then transformed into charts and graphs to analyze any trend occurred over the seven month period, from December 2012 to July 2013. This paper found that nearly 80% of variances for this project were: incomplete prerequisite work, bad planning, failing inspection, and design issues. They were due to a lack of collaboration that was originated from the project structure as discussed. It was unfortunate that there was no reliable data collected prior to the implementation of LPS® to conduct any analysis of before-and-after impact; however, the paper was able to conclude that PPC continued to improve as the team members accept the culture of LPS® and collaboration with a common goal of a successful finish.
