Mastering the Production Plan in the First Planner System

In this blog, we’re diving into one of the most critical parts of Elevating Pre-construction Planning, the Production Plan.

This is where your lean project vision becomes an actionable, visual roadmap. If your team, trades, and supply chain aren’t aligned to a production rhythm, you’ll end up with chaos instead of flow.

The production plan is the backbone of the First Planner System. It’s more than a schedule, it’s the design of a living, breathing production system that aligns every moving part of your project from design through delivery.

Why a Production Plan Matters

Once you’ve built a strong, balanced leadership team with the capacity to implement lean, your next step is to make a production plan, align trades to it, and clear the path for flow.

Here’s the core difference:

• A schedule is just a prediction of what should happen.
• A production system transforms inputs into reality and determines what will actually happen and when.

A proper production plan answers these key questions:

• Do crews have the people, materials, tools, equipment, permissions, and information they need exactly when and where they need them?
• Are all supporting systems, design, fabrication, delivery, and hoisting aligned with the same rhythm?

When the answer is “yes,” you achieve production flow.

The Three Design Principles from Built to Fail

Todd Zebel’s Built to Fail offers three lessons that every planner should adopt:

1. Design a production system, not a schedule: Schedulers alone can’t connect the plan to field reality.
2. Control work in progress (WIP): Too much WIP will lengthen cycle times and delay your project.
3. Adding people won’t always make things faster: Focus on flow and coordination, not headcount.

And above all, remember: administration doesn’t build the project, crews in the field do.

Key Tools in Your Project Production Plan

A strong production plan integrates multiple planning layers, each serving a specific purpose:

1. Macro-Level Takt Plan (Master Plan)
   • Simulates the entire project based on available resources.
   • Sets milestones, intermediate targets, and procurement alignment.
   • Establishes the “big picture” rhythm.
2. Norm-Level Takt Plan
   • Pull plans one phase and one zone at a time.
   • Copies flow across all zones for that phase.
   • Builds in buffers to protect the schedule.
3. Six-Week Look-Ahead (Make Ready) Plan
   • Removes roadblocks early.
   • Aligns supply chains and specific dates to the plan.
4. Weekly Work Plan
   • Fine-tunes coordination with trades.
   • Locks commitments for the week ahead.
5. Day Plans
   • Details the next day’s work for precise execution.
6. Crew Plans
   • Defines exactly what each crew needs to complete their work package in their zone on time.
7. Team Scrum Board
   • Tracks roadblocks, constraints, and tasks.
   • Keeps leadership focused on supporting field flow.

The Takt Production System Advantage

The Takt Production System integrates:

• Takt (flow by time and location)
• Last Planner System (collaboration and commitment planning)
• Scrum (team alignment and task management)

This hybrid ensures:

• Phases are sequenced correctly.
• Buffers are built into the plan.
• Crews work at a sustainable pace.

KPIs That Keep Your Plan Honest

Tracking only PPC (Percent Plan Complete) gives you a narrow view. Add these to your dashboard:

• Perfect Handoff Percentage: Are crews starting work with everything they need?
• Remaining Buffer Ratio: Are you burning through your buffers too quickly?
• Roadblock Removal Average: How fast are constraints being cleared?

Reflection: Is Your Plan Production-Ready?

Ask yourself:

1. Do you have a macro-level takt plan with milestones?
2. Is your norm-level takt plan optimized for zones and takt time?
3. Are you planning every phase?
4. Do you use six-week look-aheads to make work ready?
5. Are you collaborating with trades on weekly work plans?
6. Are you day planning with trades?
7. Do you understand the takt system well enough to implement it?
8. Are you controlling WIP to maintain flow?

If your average score on these is below 80%, your production system needs work before you break ground.

Key Takeaway

A production plan isn’t just a schedule, it’s the rhythm that keeps your crews, trades, and supply chain in sync. Without it, you’re flying blind. With it, you have a roadmap for predictable, efficient, and profitable delivery.