About Production Planning
BIM 360 Plan is a construction planning cloud service based on Lean Construction concepts such as the Last Planner System™.
The Last Planner™ concept was developed by Glenn Ballard in 1994 to increase the reliability of construction plans. Ballard's concepts have been applied and extended in a practice called Production Planning. The goals of Production Planning are to:
- Improve planning accuracy and reliability.
- Eliminate waste by understanding task handoffs and avoiding overproduction.
- Build a culture of commitment and accountability.
- Establish an environment of open and honest communication.
- Identify and manage roadblocks.
- Learn from experience and improve as a team.
Production Planning Process
The basic concept of Production Planning is to break the work down into small tasks that can be reliably planned and executed. The key is to engage the experts (trade partners) and use the knowledge gained from all stakeholders involved in the completion of a work plan that the team (general contractor and trade partners) commits to.
BIM 360 Plan is designed to be used by the "Last Planners™" ; the construction team that makes the final decisions about coordinating and sequencing work tasks that will be completed in upcoming weeks and days (Look-Ahead, Weekly & Daily plans).
Production Planning and the Master Schedule
Key milestones are identified from the master schedule and brought into the production plan. Updates to the milestones in the production plan are reflected back into the master schedule. The team should not try to put the detail of the production plan back into the master schedule. The master schedule should summarize the project at a high level; it should not contain all of the production planning details.