Beyond the jobsite: adapting make-ready logic to managerial decision-making in construction

Despite extensive advances in Lean Construction, particularly through the Last Planner® System (LPS), limited attention has been given to structuring managerial meetings as production systems for decision-making. As a result, managerial processes remain prone to decision latency, information variability, and unreliable commitments. This study addresses this gap by developing the Make-Ready Meeting (MRM) framework, which extends Make-Ready Planning logic from operational workflows to managerial decision contexts. Using a conceptual research approach supported by a narrative literature review, the framework integrates Lean Office (LO), Lean Governance (LG), and LPS into a unified model emphasizing information readiness, constraint management, and commitment reliability. A key contribution is the introduction of a filter gate mechanism that operationalizes shielding at the managerial level by screening decision inputs prior to execution. The framework repositions meetings as commitment-production systems and shifts cognitive effort upstream. This cross-level theoretical extension contributes to Lean theory by linking decision-making reliability with workflow performance, offering a pathway to reduce decision latency in construction projects.