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In this blog, we’re going to explore why, despite my love for the Last Planner System (LPS), it might be holding you back—especially if you’re pairing it with Critical Path Method (CPM). We’ll dive into specific reasons why this combination could be limiting your project success and how you can fix it.

Understanding the Last Planner System
The Last Planner System operates on a series of steps:

Master Schedule: Usually, this is a CPM schedule.
Milestone Planning: Pull key milestones from the master schedule.
Pull Planning: Create a detailed sequence with your trade partners.
Look-Ahead Planning: Typically, six weeks in advance.
Weekly Work Planning: Coordinating the upcoming week’s tasks.
Day Planning: A daily check-in with your trade partners.
Percent Plan Complete (PPC): Track performance by measuring how well commitments are kept.
The structure sounds great, but here’s the catch: if your master schedule is based on CPM, the entire system can break down. Here’s why.

The Master Schedule Problem
When using CPM, the master schedule often becomes either too aggressive or too lenient. This leads to oversized zones and inaccurate durations, ultimately wasting weeks, if not months. The milestone dates become unrealistic, meaning the subsequent pull plans are set up for failure. This misalignment starts a chain reaction, where every step down the line—from look-ahead planning to daily huddles—gets misaligned.

The Pull Plan Breakdown
When the milestone dates are inaccurate, it’s impossible to create an effective pull plan. Teams end up batching large areas instead of focusing on smaller, more manageable zones, leading to significant inefficiencies. Even if you try to incorporate the pull plan back into the CPM-based schedule, it often becomes too detailed to be useful.

Some teams attempt to separate the pull plan into a different format or software, but this creates another problem: misalignment between the master schedule and the pull plan. The lack of vertical alignment means changes in one schedule aren’t reflected in the other.

The Look-Ahead Plan Fails to Simulate Flow
Because CPM doesn’t account for trade flow, the look-ahead plan becomes chaotic. It lacks the zone-by-zone sequencing necessary for smooth project execution. Weekly work plans then suffer the same fate—without a flow-based schedule, commitments are difficult to manage, leading to confusion and frustration for trade partners.

The Daily Plan Becomes Reactive
By the time teams reach the daily planning phase, they’re often just scrambling to get through the day. Without a solid weekly plan based on flow, daily huddles turn into reactive sessions rather than proactive planning. This impacts the entire system, including Percent Plan Complete (PPC) scores, which dip below the critical 80% mark necessary for successful project execution.

Why CPM is the Root Cause of LPS Failures
The real issue with the Last Planner System isn’t the system itself—it’s the reliance on CPM. CPM creates unrealistic milestones, and when milestones are inaccurate, the entire LPS process becomes ineffective. Pull plans don’t align, look-ahead miss key roadblocks, and weekly and daily plans fall apart.

The Solution: Takt Planning
All of these problems can be avoided by replacing CPM with Takt Planning. With Takt, milestones are realistic, pull plans are accurate, and trade flow is prioritized. Your trade partners can make meaningful commitments, and the entire project benefits from a system based on flow rather than arbitrary timelines.

If you want to learn more we have:

-Takt Virtual Training: (Click here)
-Check out our Youtube channel for more info: (Click here) 
-Listen to the Elevate Construction podcast: (Click here) 
-Check out our training programs and certifications: (Click here)
-The Takt Book: (Click here)

Discover Jason’s Expertise:

Meet Jason Schroeder, the driving force behind Elevate Construction IST. As the company’s owner and principal consultant, he’s dedicated to taking construction to new heights. With a wealth of industry experience, he’s crafted the Field Engineer Boot Camp and Superintendent Boot Camp – intensive training programs engineered to cultivate top-tier leaders capable of steering their teams towards success. Jason’s vision? To expand his training initiatives across the nation, empowering construction firms to soar to unprecedented levels of excellence.

On we go!