Often it is the construction manager that takes the lead in introducing Lean practices to the building project. That means the project is in the construction phase before the first Last Planner System Weekly Coordination Meeting is held.

Even so, it is important to understand that the Weekly Coordination Meeting is a project meeting.

That means that in addition to trade foremen and construction management staff, people able to represent and make planning commitments on behalf of the owner, architect and consulting engineers need to be present and engaged in these meetings. And these people need to participate with the understanding that once the project is under construction this is the most important weekly meeting on the project.

It’s one project. So any work commitments for the following week made by the owner, architect or engineers need to find their way to the same Weekly Work Plan being used by the foremen and field crews. Rather than create a separate section for “office” work, integrate this work with the construction tasks to which it relates so people can easily see the relationships between promises and understand handoffs. And for team members that can’t physically participate in the daily coordination meetings (huddles), make sure the construction management team knows the status of work promised for the day by those team members.

It’s one project.