Project Production Planning Through Last Planner System Intensive Course

Course Introduction

Project Production Planning Through Last Planner System Intensive Course provides a practical and structured approach to improving project delivery through collaborative planning, reliable work commitments, and continuous production control. The course introduces participants to the principles of the Last Planner System (LPS) as a production management framework that connects milestone planning, phase planning, lookahead planning, weekly work planning, and daily coordination. Participants learn how to move beyond traditional schedule-driven management toward a collaborative system that makes work ready before execution, reduces workflow variability, and improves the reliability of construction and project delivery processes.

The programme examines the relationship between project master schedules and the operational planning systems used by project managers, construction managers, planners, site engineers, trade contractors, and frontline supervisors. Participants explore how production plans can be translated into coordinated work packages with clear prerequisites, realistic durations, defined handoffs, and measurable commitments. Particular attention is given to the practical challenges of fragmented subcontracting, incomplete design information, material shortages, equipment constraints, labour availability, and workface congestion. The course demonstrates how the Last Planner System can strengthen coordination across project teams while improving visibility into the actual conditions governing production performance.

A central component of the course focuses on collaborative phase planning and pull planning techniques. Participants learn how to work backward from defined milestones, identify the sequence of activities required to achieve project objectives, and coordinate the contributions of different trades and disciplines. The programme explores how teams can establish realistic handoff conditions, identify interdependencies, negotiate workable sequences, and expose planning conflicts before they disrupt field operations. Through practical planning exercises, participants develop the skills required to facilitate effective planning sessions, align stakeholders around shared production targets, and create plans that reflect the knowledge of those responsible for executing the work.

The course also develops advanced capabilities in lookahead planning and constraint management. Participants learn how to identify upcoming work, evaluate its readiness, assign responsibility for removing constraints, and maintain a reliable backlog of executable activities. The programme addresses common constraints involving design approvals, permits, procurement, labour, equipment, access, preceding work, inspections, and information flow. Participants examine how constraint logs, make-ready reviews, and weekly coordination meetings can be integrated into routine project controls. By establishing clear accountability for removing obstacles, teams can reduce avoidable interruptions, improve the flow of work between crews, and increase the proportion of planned activities that can be completed as committed.

Another important focus is the development of reliable weekly work plans, daily coordination routines, and meaningful production performance measures. Participants learn how to formulate sound commitments, assess workforce capacity, define completion criteria, and monitor whether planned activities are completed as promised. The course introduces Percent Plan Complete (PPC) and systematic variance analysis as tools for identifying recurring causes of planning failure rather than merely reporting missed targets. Participants explore how to distinguish between planning deficiencies, resource limitations, coordination failures, and unexpected site conditions, then convert these findings into corrective actions. This approach supports a learning-oriented production environment in which teams continuously improve planning reliability and execution performance.

By the end of the programme, participants will be equipped to design, facilitate, and improve a Last Planner System suited to the scale, complexity, and contractual structure of their projects. They will understand how to connect strategic milestones with phase plans, lookahead schedules, weekly commitments, daily work coordination, and continuous improvement practices. The course emphasizes practical implementation, stakeholder engagement, transparent communication, and measurable outcomes, helping organizations reduce workflow disruption, improve schedule predictability, strengthen trade coordination, and create safer, more productive working environments. Participants will leave with a structured framework for embedding collaborative production planning into project management and site operations.

Duration

10 days

Who Should Attend:

• Project managers responsible for coordinating project delivery, schedule performance, resources, and stakeholder commitments.

• Construction managers overseeing daily production, subcontractor interfaces, work sequencing, and site productivity.

• Project planners and schedulers seeking to connect baseline schedules with reliable short-term production plans.

• Site engineers responsible for workface readiness, technical coordination, inspections, and execution sequencing.

• Planning engineers developing lookahead schedules, phase plans, constraint logs, and weekly work programmes.

• Lean construction managers implementing collaborative planning and continuous improvement practices.

• General contractors and subcontractor managers coordinating trade activities, labour deployment, and work handoffs.

• Project controls professionals monitoring schedule variance, production reliability, progress, and performance trends.

• Quantity surveyors and commercial managers interested in the relationship between production flow, rework, and cost performance.

• Procurement and materials coordinators responsible for ensuring that required materials and equipment are available when needed.

• Design managers and technical coordinators managing approvals, information release, design interfaces, and construction readiness.

• Project directors and senior construction leaders seeking improved predictability, accountability, and delivery performance.

• Foremen, trade supervisors, and frontline team leaders responsible for making and fulfilling weekly work commitments.

• Health, safety, and quality professionals coordinating inspections, safe work prerequisites, and compliant production processes.

• Public infrastructure programme teams managing complex interfaces across contractors, disciplines, locations, and delivery milestones.

• Consultants and advisers supporting lean project delivery, production management, and construction process improvement.

Course Objectives:

• Explain the principles, terminology, and operating logic of the Last Planner System and its contribution to reliable project production planning, collaborative decision-making, and improved delivery performance.

• Translate project milestones and master schedules into coordinated phase plans that identify critical handoffs, production sequences, work packages, and responsibilities across participating teams.

• Facilitate collaborative pull planning sessions that bring together the people responsible for executing work to establish realistic sequences, durations, dependencies, and completion conditions.

• Develop practical lookahead planning processes that identify upcoming activities, assess readiness, expose constraints, and maintain a reliable backlog of executable work.

• Establish systematic constraint identification, ownership, escalation, and closure procedures for resolving design, procurement, resource, access, approval, and information-related barriers.

• Prepare weekly work plans containing clear commitments, achievable quantities, defined completion criteria, responsible individuals, and realistic resource assumptions for each planned activity.

• Implement daily coordination routines that improve communication between crews, address emerging production issues, confirm work readiness, and maintain continuity across work areas.

• Calculate and interpret Percent Plan Complete and related production indicators to evaluate commitment reliability, identify performance trends, and support evidence-based operational decisions.

• Conduct structured variance analysis to determine why planned work was not completed, distinguish root causes from symptoms, and implement corrective actions that prevent recurring disruptions.

• Integrate the Last Planner System with Primavera P6 or comparable scheduling tools, project controls processes, progress reporting, and contractual milestone management without confusing planning levels.

• Strengthen collaboration between general contractors, subcontractors, designers, suppliers, and client representatives through transparent commitments, coordinated handoffs, and clearly assigned planning responsibilities.

• Design an implementation and continuous improvement framework that establishes governance, meeting routines, performance reviews, capability development, and measurable production planning outcomes.

Comprehensive Course Outline:

Module 1: Foundations of the Last Planner System

• Define the Last Planner System and explain its role in lean construction, production management, workflow reliability, and project delivery improvement.

• Examine the relationship between project milestones, phase planning, lookahead planning, weekly work planning, and daily coordination.

• Differentiate traditional push-based scheduling from collaborative planning that emphasizes readiness, reliable commitments, and continuous workflow.

• Identify the responsibilities of project leaders, planners, trade supervisors, subcontractors, and frontline personnel within the planning system.

Module 2: Construction Production Systems and Workflow Fundamentals

• Examine construction as a production system involving people, materials, equipment, information, workspaces, and interdependent operations.

• Identify workflow variability, waiting time, overproduction, rework, congestion, and other conditions that undermine production reliability.

• Evaluate how trade handoffs, resource continuity, workface availability, and sequence stability influence overall project performance.

• Apply flow-based thinking to identify opportunities for improving work continuity, reducing interruptions, and increasing productive time.

Module 3: Integrating the Master Schedule with Production Planning

• Review project master schedules to identify contractual milestones, key dates, major deliverables, and principal sequencing requirements.

• Translate milestone commitments into operational planning horizons that connect strategic objectives with field-level production activities.

• Establish alignment between baseline schedules, phase plans, lookahead plans, and weekly work commitments while maintaining consistent assumptions.

• Identify discrepancies between scheduled dates and practical execution requirements, then establish procedures for resolving planning conflicts.

Module 4: Collaborative Phase Planning and Pull Planning

• Define phase boundaries and develop milestone-focused plans for major project stages, work zones, systems, or construction packages.

• Facilitate pull planning by working backward from milestone requirements to identify the activities and handoffs needed for completion.

• Use sticky-note planning, collaborative planning boards, or digital tools to visualize activity sequences, dependencies, and responsibility.

• Validate proposed sequences with trade representatives by testing durations, resource assumptions, access conditions, and practical execution constraints.

Module 5: Work Breakdown and Production Package Definition

• Break down project scope into executable work packages with clearly defined locations, quantities, deliverables, and acceptance conditions.

• Establish activity descriptions that communicate what must be completed, where the work occurs, and how completion will be verified.

• Coordinate work packages across trades and disciplines to prevent scope gaps, duplicated effort, and poorly defined responsibility boundaries.

• Develop production package registers that connect planning commitments with schedule activities, resource requirements, and progress measurement methods.

Module 6: Lookahead Planning and the Make-Ready Process

• Establish rolling lookahead planning windows appropriate to project complexity, procurement lead times, design development, and site conditions.

• Review upcoming activities to confirm whether design information, materials, labour, equipment, access, permits, and predecessor work will be available.

• Differentiate between activities that are merely scheduled and activities that are genuinely ready for execution under agreed conditions.

• Maintain a make-ready process that prioritizes constraint removal and protects the reliability of future weekly work plans.

Module 7: Constraint Identification and Removal Management

• Classify constraints involving design, approvals, materials, labour, equipment, access, permits, inspections, preceding activities, and technical information.

• Create constraint logs that record the issue, affected activity, responsible owner, required resolution date, status, and escalation pathway.

• Evaluate the effect of unresolved constraints on downstream trades, milestone commitments, resource utilization, and workface continuity.

• Conduct regular constraint review meetings to confirm closure evidence, escalate overdue actions, and prevent unready activities from entering weekly plans.

Module 8: Weekly Work Planning and Reliable Commitments

• Develop weekly work plans based on ready activities, realistic crew capacity, resource availability, workface conditions, and agreed priorities.

• Define commitments using measurable outputs, clear completion criteria, named owners, and appropriate coordination with preceding and succeeding trades.

• Test planned workload against actual production capacity to avoid overcommitment, excessive work in progress, and unreliable delivery promises.

• Establish commitment review procedures that confirm readiness, resolve conflicts, communicate changes, and maintain a dependable short-term plan.

Module 9: Daily Huddles and Field-Level Coordination

• Design concise daily coordination meetings that confirm priorities, readiness, safety conditions, resource availability, and workface interfaces.

• Use visual planning boards and field observations to communicate progress, identify emerging barriers, and coordinate changes across work teams.

• Establish clear procedures for reporting disruptions, reallocating work, communicating revised sequences, and protecting downstream operations.

• Strengthen communication between supervisors, engineers, subcontractors, and project controls personnel through timely and actionable field information.

Module 10: Production Reliability Metrics and Percent Plan Complete

• Define Percent Plan Complete and calculate the proportion of planned commitments completed within the agreed reporting period.

• Establish consistent rules for counting planned tasks, assessing completion, recording evidence, and treating partially completed activities.

• Interpret PPC trends alongside reasons for variance, production quantities, milestone performance, and relevant project-specific indicators.

• Develop visual performance reports that help teams distinguish improving commitment reliability from apparent progress caused by changing plan definitions.

Module 11: Variance Analysis and Root Cause Problem-Solving

• Classify reasons for non-completion, including design delays, material shortages, labour limitations, equipment failure, access conflicts, and sequencing errors.

• Apply structured root cause analysis to distinguish immediate events from underlying process weaknesses and recurring organizational barriers.

• Prioritize corrective actions according to recurrence, operational impact, controllability, and potential to improve future planning reliability.

• Maintain a learning register that links identified causes to assigned actions, completion dates, verification methods, and subsequent performance reviews.

Module 12: Resource, Materials, and Workface Readiness Coordination

• Align labour deployment, equipment allocation, material deliveries, and workface availability with the sequence and volume of planned production.

• Coordinate procurement lead times and delivery schedules with lookahead reviews to reduce shortages, premature deliveries, and site congestion.

• Assess workspace access, storage limitations, lifting requirements, temporary works, and shared resources before committing activities to execution.

• Integrate quality inspections, permits, safety controls, and technical approvals into readiness criteria so that production commitments remain executable and compliant.

Module 13: Trade Coordination and Multi-Contractor Integration

• Establish common planning conventions that enable different subcontractors and disciplines to coordinate activities using consistent definitions and expectations.

• Map interfaces between trades to identify handoff conditions, shared work areas, access conflicts, and dependencies requiring joint resolution.

• Facilitate commitment discussions that balance individual contractor priorities with the overall production sequence and project milestone requirements.

• Define escalation procedures for unresolved interface disputes, competing resource demands, and repeated failures to meet agreed commitments.

Module 14: Digital Tools and Integration with Project Controls

• Evaluate digital planning boards, collaborative scheduling applications, spreadsheets, and construction management platforms for supporting Last Planner workflows.

• Connect phase plans, lookahead activities, constraint registers, weekly work plans, and production metrics with the relevant master schedule structure.

• Establish data ownership, reporting frequencies, activity identification conventions, and change-control rules that preserve consistency across planning tools.

• Use dashboards and trend reports to communicate production reliability, constraint status, overdue actions, and schedule risks without replacing field collaboration.

Module 15: Implementation Governance and Continuous Improvement

• Develop a Last Planner implementation roadmap covering leadership sponsorship, pilot selection, stakeholder engagement, training, and progressive rollout.

• Establish meeting calendars, role descriptions, facilitation standards, documentation requirements, and escalation pathways for each planning level.

• Assess implementation maturity through observable practices such as commitment quality, constraint closure, trade participation, and consistency of performance reviews.

• Apply continuous improvement cycles to test corrective actions, measure their impact, standardize effective practices, and strengthen planning discipline over time.

Module 16: Applied Last Planner System Simulation and Action Planning

• Construct an integrated project production plan linking milestone requirements, phase planning, lookahead reviews, constraint removal, and weekly commitments.

• Conduct a simulated planning workshop in which participants negotiate trade sequences, test readiness, identify interfaces, and resolve resource conflicts.

• Analyze a production performance scenario using PPC, non-completion reasons, constraint status, and milestone implications to determine corrective priorities.

• Prepare a practical implementation action plan with assigned responsibilities, performance indicators, review dates, and measures for sustaining improvements.

Training Approach

This course will be delivered by our skilled trainers who have vast knowledge and experience as expert professionals in the fields. The course is taught in English and through a mix of theory, practical activities, group discussion and case studies. Course manuals and additional training materials will be provided to the participants upon completion of the training.

Tailor-Made Course

This course can also be tailor-made to meet organization requirement. For further inquiries, please contact us on: Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com Tel: +254 721 331 808

Training Venue 

The training will be held at our Upskill Training Centre. We also offer training for a group (at a discount of 10% to 50%) at requested location all over the world. The Onsite course fee covers the course tuition, training materials, two break refreshments, buffet lunch, airport transfers, Upskill gift package, and guided tour.

Visa application, travel expenses, dinners, accommodation, insurance, and other personal expenses are catered by the participant

Certification

Participants will be issued with Upskill certificate upon completion of this course.

Airport Pickup and Accommodation

Airport pickup and accommodation is arranged upon request. For booking contact our Training Coordinator through Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com, +254 721 331 808

Terms of Payment:

Unless otherwise agreed between the two parties’ payment of the course fee should be done 3 working days before commencement of the training so as to enable us to prepare better.