The initial kickoff Design Planning sessionshall occur as soon as everyone, or nearly everyone, who will be on the design team is under contract. This includes architect, engineers, consultants, design-assist trade contractors, etc. If there is a bifurcated period when only designer and early consultants are working, then there should be two Design Planning kickoffs.The kickoff Design Planning session is mandatory for all design team members;attendance shall be recorded.

An internal planning facilitator shall be designated from the team members. This person needs to be trained in the Last Planner® System (LPS) and have facilitation skills which permit the facilitator to remain a neutral party in the planning sessions. It is recommended that at the initial kickoff session and at some follow-up sessions an outside LPS coach assist the facilitator in training the team and getting the system implemented properly.

The initial kickoff session shall be 4 hours with the goal of identifying –in the first hour –all deliverables (represented as milestones but clearly defined on accompanying notes) working backward at the 30,000’ level. These deliverables/milestones and accompanying definition notes shall be prepared in advance of the Kickoff Planning session and provided as handouts to the participants.

Then the team shall pull a detailed schedule from the nearest major deliverable/milestone at the 10,000’ level (phase pull plan) using 4" tags in the"I Will Give This (activity/work product) when I Get That (predecessor)” format. Use blank multi-color tags (one color for each entity) and specify “I Give”on top and “I Get”on bottom (with a line through the middleof the tag). At the bottom ofeach tag, add duration in working days (so team members don’t have to relearn the format during Last Planner®sessions during the constructionphase) but expect the design pull planitselfto be in weeks, not days. Once the initial major deliverable/milestone has been pulled, the team shall pull from each succeeding major deliverable/milestone until the entire design process has been pull planned.

The last hour of the kickoff session shall be devoted to clarifying which tasks get done in which week for at least the next six weeks –this is when dates are put to activities and sequences are refined, clarified and often more tasks are added to flesh out details needed. The format for this can be Weekly Work Plan boards (with 4” grids) or plotter paper divided by weeks.

If the team is co-located in a Big Room, the Weekly Work Plan boards/plotter-paper-by-weeks format should be a sufficient schedule from which to work. If the team is not co-located, the data on the tags should be entered into an Excel or similar format to be shared with all participants.

Follow-up meetings shall be facilitated weeklyon the day agreed to by the team. These weekly follow-ups shall be held in the Big Room or in a virtual Online Big Roomwith each team membercrossing off his/her promises completed for the prior week and adjusting and recommitting promises for current and future weeks. All parties must attend this 1-2 hour weekly session to assure full and thorough communication and timely handoff issue resolution. The weekly follow-up Design Planning sessions aremandatory for all design team members; attendance shall be recorded. The team facilitator shall count and display the team’sweekly Percent of Promises Complete (PPC) and reasons for Variance (missed promises). The team leader will maintain records of PPC and Variance Causes and work to resolve recurring variance causes to reduce unreliabilityand improve workflow.

Records of these weekly follow-up meetings shall be kept in the leanest possible manner, either high-definition photographs of the boards or saved weekly updates in Excel or equivalent format.