The people who do the work plan it together, week by week, and commit only to tasks that are ready. The model's job is to show what is ready and what is still blocking.
A programme says what should happen. On a busy site, what actually happens depends on whether each crew can start: are the drawings approved, is the material here, is the work before theirs finished? The Last Planner System is a lean planning method built on that question. The people who direct the work, the "last planners", plan it together and commit only to tasks that are ready.
Lean construction applies ideas from lean manufacturing to building: make work flow, remove waste (waiting, rework, moving material twice) and make handoffs between crews reliable. The Last Planner System, developed by Glenn Ballard and Greg Howell, is its best-known planning method.
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