Improving Commissioning and Qualification Delivery Using Last Planner® System

This study evaluates the implementation of Last Planner® System (LPS) in the Commissioning and Qualification (C&Q) phase of a pharmaceutical construction project utilising the Engineering, Procurement, Construction Management and Validation (EPCMV) delivery model. C&Q is the ultimate and most critical phase of capital project execution however, the importance of this phase is often underestimated as it commonly accounts for only 3-5% of project costs. The study utilised a mixed-method, qualitative, action-research approach and highlights the challenges to the introduction of LPS in C&Q, project execution issues, and improvements to the existing planning process. Introducing planning metrics like Planned Percent Complete (PPC) to the weekly C&Q planning process resulted in increased stability over the 40-week implementation period. However, the greatest benefits emerged from weekly collection and examination of the Reasons for Non-Completion (RNC) of task data allowing the identification and implementation of improvement mitigations. Other key findings include enhanced delivery in the form of greater collaboration, increased visibility of workflow, and the resulting productivity, schedule alignment, safety, cost, and client value-add benefits from the implementation. Clients should adopt Lean thinking and practices to provide added value on capital projects and should mandate LPS implementation across the entire project, end to end, as opposed to individual phases. Future studies should examine LPS extension to planning the entire project.