An empowered collaborative planning method in a Swedish construction company: A case study

The construction industry has seen several takes on planning methods, both in theory and in practice. One such initiative is the planning part of the Last Planner System (LPS) of production control, which has both been theorized and implemented at various degrees. However, with new developments in e.g., Building Information Modelling (BIM), it is relevant to study how an LPS implementation can be supported and improved with help of BIM. In particular it is interesting how BIM can be used to facilitate and enhance LPS in the phase planning. Furthermore, it is relevant to explore how BIM can enhance the understanding of the project at hand. For this a study was conducted on how a method inspired by LPS planning currently is applied in one of the larger construction companies in Sweden. The aim of the research is to describe the utilized planning method and explore possibilities to enhance the method. The research was conducted through observations of three full day workshops utilizing the method, complimented with a number of interviews. Strengths and weaknesses as well as its current use were identified and analysed. The observations, interviews and literature confirmed that the method is effective as well as presented indications that the current implementation of BIM in parallel with the method leaves room for improvement.