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Takt and the Last Planner System

Cadence

Takt for the rhythm, Last Planner for the promises, running as one way of working on one live job.

For contractors who already know the problem is planning on site and want both halves of the answer rather than one. Neither half holds for long on its own: a takt plan with no promises behind it is a drawing, and promises with no pace behind them drift.

10 days Training Implementation Two return visits One live project
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Video coming soon

An explainer on how Takt and the Last Planner System fit together is being finished. Until then, the planning ladder below shows the same thing.

The problem it solves

Most sites are missing one of two things. Either there is no structure — nobody has decided where each trade works, in what order, at what pace — or there is no commitment, so dates get issued and quietly missed with nobody ever asked whether they agreed to them.

Fix only one and you get a familiar kind of failure. A beautiful takt plan on the wall that the site ignores by week three. Or a disciplined weekly meeting sitting on top of a programme that was never designed to flow, where everyone keeps their promises and the job is still late.

Takt provides the structure. Last Planner provides the commitment. Together they are a production system, and that is what this ten days installs.

One planning ladder

Every rung feeds the one below it. The top two are Takt, the bottom three are Last Planner, and the middle is where they meet.

  1. 1MilestonesThe dates the contract actually turns on
  2. 2Phase pull planBuilt backwards with the trades, in a room, from a real milestone
  3. 3Takt planZones, wagons and one agreed beat — the structure
  4. 4Six-week look-aheadConstraints found and cleared before the work arrives
  5. 5Weekly work planPromises, made by the people doing the work — the commitment
  6. 6Daily huddleFifteen minutes to keep the week honest

What happens, day by day

Two days learning both systems, three days building the plan with the people who will run it, then on site while it beds in.

  1. Days 1–2

    Train the team in both

    The planning ladder, and why each rung needs the one above it. Should, can, will and did. Zones, wagons and the beat.

    Everyone who will be in the weekly meeting is in the room, including the foremen.

  2. Day 3

    Pull-plan the phase

    With the trades, backwards from the phase milestone. What each one needs handed over, in what state, before they can start.

  3. Day 4

    Turn the sequence into a takt plan

    With the foremen. Zones drawn by the work in them, not by cutting the floor in half. The wagons in order. One beat everyone agrees to.

  4. Day 5

    Six-week look-ahead and the constraint log

    Built from the takt plan, so you are clearing constraints for work you know is coming and when. Every line gets a name and a date.

  5. Day 6

    First weekly work plan, and the huddle

    Each foreman makes promises for their wagon, in their zone. The daily huddle starts and your site manager runs it.

  6. Days 7–8

    On site through the first two weeks

    Two single days, one in each of the first two weeks of running — not a block. Watching the zone handovers actually happen, and the roadblocks actually get cleared. This is where a plan either becomes the way the job runs or becomes wallpaper.

  7. Days 9–10

    Two return visits, spaced apart

    One day about four weeks after go-live, and one about eight weeks after. The spacing is the point: one visit shows you a snapshot, two show you a trend.

    We measure three things each time: how many promises were kept, how many zone handovers were clean, and how long a roadblock takes to clear.

    If the trend says the beat or the zoning is wrong, we change it on that evidence. A takt plan defended against the facts is worse than no takt plan.

What you keep

Everything Commit leaves behind, and the Takt layer built on top of it.

  • The pull plan, look-ahead, constraint log, weekly work plan and daily huddle
  • The takt plan for the phase
  • The zone map
  • The wagon list, in sequence
  • Zone handover tracking
  • Three measures: promises kept, clean handovers, days to clear a roadblock

What we need from you

The same as Commit, with one addition, because a takt plan cannot be drawn from a desk.

  • You, or your MD, open the first session and close the last.
  • Subcontractors’ foremen are there for the pull plan, the takt plan and the first weekly plan — and at the weekly meeting afterwards.
  • One live job with a real milestone.
  • Drawings and quantities good enough to split the work into zones honestly.

Questions

About Cadence specifically. The questions about choosing between our four services are on the homepage.

How is this different from Commit?

Commit is the Last Planner System on one job, in a week. Cadence adds Takt, which is the structure underneath it — the zones, the sequence and the beat. More days, because there is more to build and more to watch bed in.

Already done Commit?

Then you do not need this. Pace adds the rhythm to what you are already running, in a week, and costs you less than starting again.

Can we do Takt without the Last Planner half?

You can, and it is Pace — but only if your site already runs weekly planning. Without promises behind it, a takt plan looks perfect on the wall and still fails on site.

What if the beat turns out to be wrong?

Then we change it, which is why the return visits exist. The zoning decision is a judgement made from drawings, and the site is the only thing that can tell you whether it was right.

Why two return visits rather than one?

Because one visit shows you a snapshot and two show you a trend. The first is about four weeks after go-live, the second about eight. What has drifted by the second visit is the thing that will not survive without a change.

Is this the same as what Blueprint teaches?

The two systems are the same; the context is not. Blueprint spends two weeks redesigning the business first and then teaches both on a live job. Cadence skips the business and installs them properly on one project.

Not sure if this is the right one? Let’s talk.

You tell me what keeps going wrong. I’ll ask how your jobs run from win to handover. Then I’ll tell you straight which of these is right for you, if any.

  • 30 minutes, by video call
  • With me, not a sales team
  • No slides, no pitch

Pick a time that suits you

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Other ways to work with us

Commit The Last Planner System on its own, on one live job, in a week plus a return visit. The lowest-risk way to see this working before committing further. Pace Takt on its own, in a week plus a return visit. The right one if your weekly planning already works and the trouble is sequence and pace. Blueprint The whole business, not one job. Two weeks on the operating model, then both systems taught on a live project. Four weeks.