First Planner System®️ – 19 – Weekly Meetings

The Meetings That Power the Trade Partner Preparation Process

In this blog, I’m going to talk about the meetings that go along with the Trade Partner Preparation Process.

We’re in the TP3 component, weekly meetings. These meetings are part of the First Planner System and continue the process of preparing trades for their work.

The Two Core First Planner Meetings

1. Team Weekly Tactical
   • Who Attends: Superintendents, Project Engineers, Field Engineers, Project Managers
   • Purpose: The team comes together to review workload, ensure coverage, and balance responsibilities. With a united and balanced team, project needs are tackled effectively.
   • Tools Used:
     • Team boards with meeting cadence, owner’s conditions of satisfaction, accountability chart, site coverage schedule, PTO calendar, focus/hot items, and KPIs.
     • These visual tools help the team confirm coverage, manage PTO, and maintain functionality.
2. Strategic Planning & Procurement
   • Who Attends: Superintendents, Project Engineers, Project Managers
   • Purpose: Long-term planning, master schedule updates, and making work ready per the look-ahead schedule. Procurement is intentionally managed to align with the production plan.
   • Discussion Points:
     • How production is tracking
     • End buffers and milestone status
     • Risks and upcoming challenges
     • Procurement alignment to plan
     • Leadership support actions
   • Keys to Success:
     • Coordinate PTO and coverage
     • Validate the master schedule
     • Track procurement against required dates
     • Ensure trades are ready on time, the right way

The Daily Huddle, The “Cap” on the System

The Team Daily Huddle is also a First Planner meeting, but it happens at the end of the Last Planner sequence. It focuses on removing roadblocks daily, using a Scrum framework to:

• Prioritize tasks
• Resolve constraints
• Deliver materials and information
• Solve design conflicts
• Secure permissions

Attendees: Supers, PEs, FEs, PMs. The goal is alignment, task organization, and unblocking field progress.

How It All Connects

• First Planner Meetings:
  • Team Weekly Tactical
  • Strategic Planning & Procurement
  • Team Daily Huddle
• Last Planner Meetings:
  • Trade Partner Weekly Tactical
  • Foreman Daily Huddle
  • Worker Daily Huddle
  • Crew Preparation Huddle

The First Planner System sandwiches the Last Planner System, ensuring the office supports the field at every stage. Without a strong First Planner process, the Last Planner process cannot function effectively.

Why These Meetings Matter

When these weekly and daily meetings are run well, they increase productive time in the field by proactively removing obstacles and aligning resources. If you skip them, trades will face delays and roadblocks at every turn.

Scoring Yourself:
Rate from 1–100% on these:

• Do you have a Team Weekly Tactical for balance and coverage?
• Do you have a Strategic Planning & Procurement meeting with an accurate master schedule and aligned procurement?
• Do you have a Daily Huddle that consistently clears the path for the field?

If you score below 80%, identify the actions needed to elevate your team’s performance.

Key Takeaway

A strong First Planner meeting structure ensures that the right people, plans, resources, and environment are in place for trade partners to succeed. These meetings aren’t overhead, they’re the engine that drives productivity, flow, and on-time delivery in construction.