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Last Planner Adoption – Three Strikes… You’re out?

In October 2015, I was asked by our leadership team, “Head East young man and bring back news of this thing we keep hearing about, Lean Construction.” That is how I ended up as a lone intrepid explorer at the LCI Congress (Annual Conference) in Boston. 

I emerged from the week mentally exhausted, and convinced that Lean Thinking would revolutionize everything we do. We were officially on our Lean Journey. 

Lean is a management philosophy that centers on respect for all people to work collaboratively on identifying and removing waste in a system to develop an optimal solution that brings value to the customer. In construction, there are a lot of great tools to put the philosophy in practice. 

The first couple years saw us focus on learning and engaging with early adopters to gain momentum. This was our “push” phase. 

The ensuing three to four years we could see steady adoption across our organization as people began to witness the benefits and the promotion was coming from within. 

On to today, I am pleased to say that Lean is not a foreign concept, at least to those that have been on the journey since the beginning. But if I’m being honest, we have somewhat stalled out. It continues to be a struggle to gain full adoption of the key lean tools. 

So I have to ask why. If implementing a lean philosophy bears such positive results, why is it so difficult to gain adoption? 

The core lean tool in construction is called Last Planner System ® (LPS). It is a method of planning a construction project that brings the trade foremen together on a daily basis to plan the work collaboratively as facilitated by the Superintendent. 

When done well, it asks the leader to foster an environment where people voice their problems, then facilitate a conversation with a group of people to resolve the problem constructively. The system is antithetical to the centuries ingrained command and control style of running a construction project. 

Lean and LPS requires people to lean into three things most people don’t like:

❌ Conflict Management

❌ Public Speaking

❌ Embracing Change *

As we continue on our lean journey, and we surely are, we must think about how to address these common challenges to reap the benefits of lean in construction planning. 

I wonder, are other companies struggling with adopting Lean practices on project sites? If so, what hurdles do you see or experience?