Improving the Use of Information for Continuous Improvement in the Last Planner System

Abstract

Recent investigations carried out by the Production Management Centre of the Catholic University of Chile (GEPUC) show that some fundamental components of the Last Planner System such as constraints analysis, causes of non-compliances and corrective actions, are still poorly implemented. Therefore, it could be inferred practitioners have not been able to understand how weekly Information can be used to continuously improve project performance. In order to create a metric regarding those three subjects, Last Planner practitioners were asked to develop a qualitative tool to assess information generated by the methodology in terms of data collection, use and analyses performed. Once the assessment tool was validated, twenty construction projects were assessed using the tool. The results were divided into two groups, according to the use of IT to support the implementation. The results showed that the group using IT Systems had access to more information and performed better analyses. The survey also identified some analyses that were not performed in both groups and opportunities to create improved reports based on a better use of information. Additionally, it was possible to identify information not gathered in any of the assessed projects, providing opportunity to generate new reports and perform more complex analyses. In this way, a series of reports based on information collected automatically by IT systems were proposed to better manage collected data and to allow continuous learning from its analysis. These reports were grouped into three dashboards, specifically created to fulfill the gaps detected in the present research. Finally, new data fields to be included in softwares designed to manage LPS are proposed, to produce improved reports.