INTRODUCTION TO PULL PLANNING

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Current Scheduling Process

  Work expands to fill the time allowed   Work flow (hand-off) is not reliable   Work production is not steady   Dates and durations are determines by few   Traditional methods of how work, information and

material are processed needs to change

What is Pull Planning?

Working from a target completion date (milestone) backward, tasks

are defined and sequenced so that their completion releases work

How does Pull Planning Work?

 Work tasks, information flow, and material deliveries are planned based on the request (or “pull”) of downstream customers

 Pull scheduling will often expose the need for smaller batches, just in time delivery, improved leveling of resources, and reduced lead times

 Workflow becomes more reliable and efficient as the waste of waiting, redundancy, and over-processing are eliminated

Pull Planning Step

1.  Define the phasing of the work 2.  Determine completion dates for the phases (or

milestones) 3.  Using team scheduling and sticky’s on a wall, develop

the network of activities required to complete the phase working backward from the completion date

4.  Apply durations to each activity with no contingency or float in the estimates

5.  Re-examine logic to try to shorten the duration 6.  Determine the earliest practical start date

Pull Planning Step continued

7.  Decide what activities to buffer or pad with time contingency   Which activity durations are most fragile?

  What are the risks?

  Rank order by degree of uncertainty

  Allocate available time to the fragile activities in rank order

8.  Is the team comfortable that the available buffers are sufficient to assure completion within the milestone? If not, either re-plan or shift milestone as needed and possible

Milestone or Phases

Sticky Format

Sticky Wall

Pull Planning Rules

  All work shall be clear as to content, sequence, timing and outcome

  Every connection (hand off of work) in the work stream must be direct and there must be a clear way to request action and receive a response

  The pathway for production must be simple and direct   Tasks and completion dates must be negotiated with

“performer” and “receiver”   No one can assign or move another persons sticky

Now What?

  Transfer sticky’s and commitment dates to:  Work Register (design phase)  Last Planner System (construction phase)  Other specialized software available

  Monitor progress and task completion through Check-In sessions or Daily/Weekly meetings

  Adjust commitments or tasks as needed by Re-Pulling if needed

Work Register

Last Planner System

Questions?