Removing Constraints to Make Tasks Ready in Weekly Work Planning

The Last Planner System (LPS) has been used on construction projects to improve reliable work planning. Lookahead planning is an intermediate process that connects the master or phase schedule to the weekly work plan. Construction teams employ lookahead planning to achieve various objectives including a breakdown down of activities into the level of operations, operations design, and constraint removal to make tasks ready for execution. Tasks Made Ready (TMR) measures the performance of lookahead planning in identifying and eliminating constraints to make activities ready for implementation. The purpose of this paper is to study through computer simulation the impact of TMR on task execution, reliability of weekly work planning, and project duration. Results show that TMR is a good predictor of project duration. These results advise planners on the importance of the constraint removal process, how it influences the reliability of construction planning, and its impact on project duration.