What Is Pull Planning?
An alternative planning method is gaining mainstream popularity in the construction industry; pull planning. The rising substitute to CPM has been...
How Does Pull Planning Work?
Pull planning works as a scheduling tool for the Last Planner System (LPS), which is based on a collaborative approach to managing a project. As me...
How Does Pull Planning Improve Productivity?
Pull planning boosts your construction productivity in the following ways:Collaboration: The scheduling method encourages the whole team to work to...
What is pull planning?
It is a collaborative team approach involving those who are directly responsible for the completion of a project. This team of stakeholders starts with the end goal of the project and works backwards milestone by milestone. In doing this, a clear plan is laid out and the well-defined workflow of the pull planning is developed.
What is pull planning in construction?
Pull planning in construction is a planning process in reverse order, with a high degree of collaboration.
How often should pull planning be updated?
The pull planning schedule should be updated by the lead (usually the general foreman) on a weekly basis at a minimum and revisit the plan every other week together as a whole. This will ensure everyone is on the same page with the schedule and any delays that have happened, etc.
Why is the pull planning technique important in construction?
That is where the pull planning technique comes into play. This method is extremely effective in ensuring that everything gets completed on schedule.
What is the second rule of pull planning?
Pull planning requires the most amount of collaboration out of any construction method with everyone working together as a team so that each project agent understands what needs to be accomplished. Since everyone will be able to add their input at any time, the entire group will have an understanding of what steps need to be taken next.
What are milestones in a project?
Establish milestones that are critical to completing project phases that would ensure uninterrupted delivery of your project. Once they are in place, you can now plan out your phases and their workflows including tasks and activities geared towards the achievement of those milestones. Schedule your activities.
How to get everyone on board in a project?
Rally your team around and get everyone on board. Involve all important team leads and players with the goal that each one of them should contribute relevant data and milestones towards the completion of your project.
The origins of pull planning
The Lean Construction Institute (LCI) and its founders Glen Ballard and Greg Howell certainly deserve the credit for their work in suggesting that the concepts of the Pull System or Just in Time (JIT) used so successfully in manufacturing could be applied to construction projects to improve scheduling reliability.
Pull planning and the Last Planner System
In this video, LCI co-founder Greg Howell describes his experiences and research that led to the founding of LCI and the development of Last Planner™ System.
Push and pull planning in construction
For those of us who have been involved in larger complex projects, the idea that a scheduling technician can create a Master Schedule down to the Work Package level before the project starts, and that’s how the project will actually be executed, is not plausible. This would be an example of the “push” method of scheduling.
Who Needs to Participate?
The pull planning process requires several key individuals to be an effective process. The following participants should be invited to provide feedback:
What is a CPM schedule?
A traditional CPM schedule is usually only worked by a single person using his or her best knowledge. It then gets pushed into the project team as a document that needs to be followed. The CPM planning process is mostly based on duration and is a forward looking process, as opposed to pull planning that works in a backwards sequence.
How to improve a task?
Do not over commit. Be real and allow feedback from participants that have experience in the task. Be cognisant that altering one activity’s duration might affect a second of even a third task.
What is pull planning?
Pull planning is a collaborative process that can help to get buy-in from all project participants using a backward pass, pulling activities into the process. Pull planning is a lean process and is starting to substitute many scheduling techniques and works by identifying activities that are compressed to reduce overall activity duration.
How does pull planning improve safety?
The pull planning process reduces the need for re-work, minimizes risk and cost by having crews standing by waiting for their task to start.
Why is process important?
The process creates a good workflow and generates buy-in from task participants. It also serves as a tool to generate transitions between tasks, understanding in detailed the level of effort required to complete the work. Studies show that the process increases safety and quality when the right players are engaged.
Should you add crew leads to a meeting?
Having the right key members at the meeting is extremely beneficial, but be sure to add only the crew leads otherwise you will end up having difficulties of generating buy-in.
What is construction pull planning?
Pull planning is a collaborative approach to project scheduling, that takes a reverse approach to sequencing. This involves gathering team members to identify and isolate key project milestones. From there, the team works backward to add all details and requirements. Think of it as reverse-engineering the project.
What does "pull" mean in project management?
What does “pull” mean? Pull scheduling that is focused on the end goal and identifies each predecessor activity in the proper sequence of events. This helps to identify any trade or activity handoffs from the back end; allowing everyone on the project to know when and what needs to be done to keep the project rolling.
Why is the construction pull planning method so popular?
The construction pull planning method has been growing in popularity due to its ability to reduce any downtime and increase collaboration.
What is pull planning session?
A pull planning session starts with defining the phases or milestones of the project and the desired dates of completion. These milestones are then represented as a timeline on a whiteboard. Now comes the collaboration portion. The project manager or general contractor will gather a representative from each crew on the project. They’ll collaborate by using sticky notes to identify what they need in relation to each other, to complete the milestone. These sticky notes represent the task that needs to be completed, and what needs to be completed beforehand.
How long is a reading time?
Reading time: 3 minutes. Efficient planning and scheduling are essential to a project’s success. There are many different ways to plan a project, some of which are more effective than others. The construction pull planning method has been growing in popularity due to its ability to reduce any downtime and increase collaboration.
What are the benefits of pull scheduling?
Another advantage of pull scheduling is the resulting efficiency and reduced waste. By collaborating with all the specialty trades and close-out subs, risks can be minimized and potential obstacles are identified and avoided early. This reduces any extended lead times and work redundancies, allowing crews to start and finish their work as scheduled. The schedule can quickly identify what portions of the work should be done and when. This eliminates loss in productivity due to crew disruption, wasted time, or trade stacking.
What is the goal of pull planning?
The goal of pull planning, and lean construction in general, is to reduce waste while also streamlining work. What’s more, when lean construction processes are used, claims and payment disputes take place less frequently.
Why do project managers need meetings?
A meeting helps the project manager review work plans for the week and make necessary adjustments. Updates. The plan should update regularly based on the daily and weekly meeting outcomes to adjust the overall schedule. There are three simple and effective pull planning basics.
What is the best software for lean construction?
When it comes to the best pull planning software, Touchplan is the leader in several categories, including ease of use and set up, along with customer service and support. As the highest-ranked construction project management software on the market, Touchplan has earned accolades like a high performer, best relationship management, and a leader in momentum led by actual user reviews through G2 – a leading B2B peer-to-peer review site. Touchplan goes beyond pull planning and supports teams with insights and the ability to continuously improve as well.
What is CPM analysis?
Various projects, including the construction of a building or highway, use CPM; or planning and launching a new product. Analysis by CPM must have a few characteristics: The project must have well-defined activities that all lead to project completion.
What is pull planning?
Pull planning is a collaborative process that involves input from the entire team. It is a lean process that identifies activities to save time, resources, and money. A single person typically powers the CPM using their knowledge to develop a sequence of stages that determine the most efficient use of time.
Why is it important to set milestones?
Setting milestones are critical in pull planning construction as they assist in completing phases of the project that ensure uninterrupted delivery. With these milestones in place, planning effective workflows that include all the tasks and activities to achieve those milestones begins. Schedule your activities.
What should a facilitator do when a planner is a facilitator?
The facilitator should help trades post cards when needed, and make sure the last planners are interacting and verbally stating what handoff they need completed to begin their work. They should also be doing quality control to make sure the cards are correctly placed on the board. Finally, the facilitator should monitor the room to make sure everyone is engaged and that there is not a lot of unrelated conversation.
What is the role of facilitator in a trades meeting?
While trades are filling out cards, the facilitator’s job is to work their way around the room making sure that the last planner’s questions are being answered and the required information is adequate and legibly written.
What happens after a facilitator recaps a pull?
After recapping the pull, the facilitator will read through the constraint list. This is where they recorded items that will need to be resolved to allow the flow sequencing to occur. The facilitator will also read through the parking lot items (important side conversations that were not relevant to the pull plan but that were written down for further discussion), and make sure a champion is assigned to set up a future meeting to review.
What does a facilitator need to describe to the team?
The facilitator needs to describe to the team what pull planning is and make sure everyone understands that the team will work from the end milestone back to the starting milestone.
How long should a facilitator's handoff card be?
Make sure that no durations take longer than ten days.
What should facilitators do when filling out trade cards?
As trades begin filling out their cards, the facilitator should help the team think through their workflow in a push sequence, since it is sometimes difficult for last planners to think in a pull sequence when just getting started.
Why do trades use swim lanes?
The benefit of swim lanes is that it helps organize the information to make sure people do not get confused or lost in the planning process.
