INFLUENCE OF LAST PLANNER® SYSTEM ADOPTION LEVEL ON PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION

Construction projects require complex management of people, resources and goals. The Last Planner® System (LPS) provides a systematic framework based on short cycles of work preparation, commitment, and control to allow implementing corrective actions. Successful LPS implementations require the combination of homogeneous mature practices and efficient horizontal collaboration. Nevertheless, partial implementations prevent liking collaboration through mid-term planning, the make-ready process and short-term work-flow stabilization. Therefore, this study aims to assess the relationship and cross-impacts of LPS adoption levels, team collaboration and project performance through an in-depth comparison of two Chilean case-study projects. LPS adoption was measured through a 50 items survey applied to 10 key actors in each project and collaboration was captured through Social Network Analysis (SNA) applied to general interaction, planning, problem-solving, feedback, learning, and leadership surveys answered by all last planners in each project. Also, each project was monitored for at least 18 weeks to capture their Percent Plan Complete (PPC), Reasons for Noncompliance (RNCs) and Schedule Performance Index (SPI). The results, consistent with previous literature, showed that mature LPS adoption significantly aids collaboration and performance.