The pulse of production: correlating PPC and team health

Within the Last Planner® System (LPS), Percent Plan Complete (PPC) is widely used as a quantitative measure of planning reliability; however, its relationship to qualitative factors of team culture remains underexplored. This paper examines survey data from a Southern California Integrated Project Delivery healthcare project that used the Team Health Assessment (THA) to investigate relationships between PPC and several qualitative indicators, including trust, participation, and commitment, as well as several operational and project controls measures. Using Pearson correlation analysis within an action research framework, the findings reveal a strong positive relationship between PPC and trust (r = 0.75), as well as moderate positive relationships with participation and commitment. Conversely, PPC was moderately negatively correlated with time management, visual management, and quality measures, suggesting a potential production–pressure pattern in traditional project controls measures that warrants further investigation.
These findings suggest that PPC functions not only as a measure of planning reliability, but also as a reflection of underlying team culture. The complementary use of PPC and the THA offers a more holistic lens for diagnosing and sustaining production system health, allowing PPC to function not only as a measure of planning reliability but also as a pulse check on the condition of the production system.