Last Planner in a Social Perspective – A Shipbuilding Case

This paper addresses the implementation and use of Last Planner System for production control to improve workflow reliability in a Norwegian shipyard. The paper clarifies the adjustments made to adapt this system and particularly stresses the difficulties and challenges faced during the transformation from a rational operationoriented to a process-oriented approach to production planning and control. The paper suggests that to benefit from employing Last Planner, making a system of collaborative improvement must be part of it. More generally, the paper is a first step to a deeper understanding of why Last Planner works from a sociological point of view and in investigating its application to other types of project production.