Builders will at times lament the quality of drawings given them to construct a building (yes, that really happens). Before throwing rocks, builders ought to be looking at the quality of their plans for constructing the project.

Construction plans built by first planners identifying thousands of detailed activities assembled in a critical path method are often about as useful as sheets of architectural details that are either too generic to be useful or unrelated to the project.

That is why Last Planner System phase plans and weekly plans need to consider the quality of detail included in both kinds of plans. Is the detail enough to inform project team members of the work to be accomplished at any given time during the week and following five weeks? Does the detail clearly show the handoffs between the work so the project team understands the promises being made as part of the planning?

And importantly – are phase plans and weekly plans being posted in the field? Those phase and weekly work plans are just as vital to the people constructing the building as the drawings!