Hey Everybody, Dave Pray here. I’m the principal of PrayWorks. We are an owner’s representative firm helping owners throughout the country build their projects more effectively and efficiently.
I began my lean journey about a year ago when I attended the San Francisco conference of the Lean Construction Institute.
Here are the big points about the Last Planner System that were impressive to me:
First of all, through the daily huddle, which is the 10 minute trade huddle up, communication is facilitated and constraints are well managed. You have the opportunity to leverage real field knowledge. The process generally is an “asking” not “telling” process. So it allows the trade folks to get their fingerprints on the project which really helps during implementation. Two, there is the ability to get people out of their silos. In other words, it builds empathy with one another. So the plumber, electrician, and painter know what one another is doing and where they’re doing it so they can work not to get in each others’ way and to help each other succeed.
There are some changes to management skills needed for this process to be effective. As opposed to the command and control superintendent, fire-fighting guy, what we are talking about is more of a facilitator. Facilitation is in, command and control is out. Team participation is in and the general contractor taking the role of “This is what you will get done today” is out.
You can probably tell, or at least, I hope you can tell, that I’m excited about this. I’d like to bring this excitement to you. However I can respond to your inquiry, great. Email, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook. We’d love to hear your comments in the comments section at the bottom of the page.