THE LAST PLANNER SYSTEM OF PRODUCTION CONTROL

by

HERMAN GLENN BALLARD

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Engineering

of The University of Birmingham

for the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

School of Civil Engineer

ing

Faculty of Engineering

The University of Birmingham

May 2000

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many individuals and companies contributed to this research. To name a few:

q

David Seymour, my thesis advisor

q

Anne Seymour, for giving me a home in Birmingham

q

David

Hoare and Peter

Deasley, thesis examiners

q

Greg Howell, business partner and co-thinker

q

Lauri

Koskela, for his example and inspiration

q

Todd

Zabelle and the Pacific Contracting team for their willingness to try new

ideas

q

Leo

Linbeck III, Ed Beck and Kathy Jones of

Linbeck Construction for sharing

opportunity and data (3 of the 5 cases were

Linbeck projects)

q

Norm Barnes and the Barnes Construction team for access to projects

q

Iris

Tommelein, external thesis advisor and colleague at UC Berkeley

q

Jeanne Ballard, my wife, for putting up with me, especially my absences from

home

ABSTRACT

Project controls have traditionally been focused on after-the-fact detection of variances.

This thesis proposes a control system, the Last Planner

system, that causes the

realization of plans, and thus supplements project management's concern for management

of contracts with the management of production.

The Last Planner system has previously been successively applied by firms with direct

responsibility for production management; e.g.,

speciality contractors. This thesis

extends system application to those coordinating specialists, both in design and

construction, through a series of case studies, one of which also explores the limits on

unilateral implementation by specialists.

In addition to the extended application, two questions drive this research. The first

question is 1)

What can be done by way of tools provided and improved implementation

of the Last Planner system of production control to increase plan reliability above the

70% PPC level?

Previous research revealed substantial improvement in productivity for

those who improved plan reliability to the 70% level, consequently there is reason to

hope for further improvement, possibly in all performance dimensions, especially with

application across an entire project rather than limited to individual

speciality firms. That

question is explored in three case studies, the last of which achieves the 90% target.

The second research question is

2) How/Can Last Planner be successfully applied to

increase plan reliability during design processes

1

?

That question is explored in an

extensive case study, which significantly contributes to understanding the design process

from the perspective of active control, but unfortunately does not fully answer the

question, primarily because the project was aborted prior to start of construction.

However, it is argued that the Last Planner system is especially appropriate for design

production control because of the value-generating nature