Applying Organizational Hierarchical Constraint Analysis to Production Planning

Yong-Woo Kim1 & Jin-Woo Jang2

1Assistant Professor, Construction Management & Wood Product Engineering Department, 153 Baker Lab, State University of New York, Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210, Phone +1 315/470-6839, [email protected]
2Ph.D Candidate, Construction Management & Wood Product Engineering Department, 160 Baker Lab, State University of New York, Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210, Phone +1 315/470-6831, [email protected]

Abstract

Construction management has de-prioritized production planning and control, especially crew- level management while great emphasis has been placed on project management. It is often found that each employee (or the Last Planner) in charge of the constraint removal tends to conceal the information (or problem) until the last responsible moment (L.R.M.) passes. This may happen because that the employee does not want to reveal that he/she has an unresolved constraint fearing that it will be interpreted as incompetence. There are times when the Last Planner is not in an ultimate position of authority, thus sometimes he/she is expected to solve constraints over which he/she has no control. When this arises, there is often an inefficient attempt by the Last Planner to eliminate these constraints, thus making the situation worse. Greater informational transparency would help to solve this problem. Due to a movement that focuses on crew-level planning and control, the authors suggest in this paper that responsibility be assigned to, or shared with, the appropriate level of organizational management as constraints are identified in the look-ahead window. The organizational hierarchical constraint analysis is defined in this paper as submitting problems to the level of management best suited to solving specific constraints. By using organizational hierarchical constraint analysis, the make-ready process is improved. This paper is followed by a case study in which organizational hierarchical constraint analysis has been applied, the results of which have been discussed with project participants.

Keywords

The Last Planner System, organizational hierarchical constraint analysis, make-ready process, informational transparency

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Reference

Kim, Y. & Jang, J. 2006. Applying Organizational Hierarchical Constraint Analysis to Production Planning, 14th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction , 371-382. doi.org/

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