Pull Planning Workshop Ireland: A Practical Guide to Collaborative Construction Scheduling

Q: How does Lean Touch Solutions facilitate a Pull Planning Workshop?

We follow a simple, proven process: Before: We meet with your team to understand the project, programme and key risks. During: Our facilitator guides all trades through the pull planning process — surfacing constraints, building the phase schedule and getting genuine commitments from every team. After: We help you set up weekly work planning and PPC tracking so the momentum from the workshop continues on site. We can run sessions in person or digitally, depending on your needs.

Transform how your construction teams plan, communicate, and deliver.
Lean Touch Solutions brings proven Pull Planning methodology to Irish construction sites — reducing delays, eliminating waste and building genuine team ownership.

“Construction projects in Ireland are under more pressure than ever — tighter budgets, labour shortages, and demanding programme requirements. Pull Planning Workshops offer a structured, collaborative approach to scheduling that puts your team — not the software — back in control.”

What Is Pull Planning in Construction?

Pull Planning is a core component of the Last Planner® System (LPS), a lean project delivery methodology developed to improve workflow reliability on construction sites. Unlike traditional push scheduling — where a master programme is handed down from above — pull planning works backwards from milestones, asking each trade to identify what they need from upstream teams in order to complete their tasks reliably.

In a pull planning session, all key subcontractors, site managers, and trade supervisors gather around a wall of sticky notes (or a digital equivalent) to collectively build a phase schedule that everyone has contributed to and genuinely believes in. The result is a schedule that reflects what will actually happen on site, not what looks good on a Gantt chart.

“When trades build the schedule themselves, they own it. We consistently see higher reliability, earlier problem identification and stronger inter-trade relationships on projects that use pull planning from day one.” — Lean Touch Solutions Limited

Why Pull Planning Matters for Irish Construction Right Now

The Irish construction sector is navigating a perfect storm: record housing demand, major infrastructure investment under the National Development Plan 2021–2030, and significant skills and supply chain pressures post-Brexit and post-pandemic. In this environment, schedule overruns are not just costly — they’re reputationally damaging and commercially devastating.

Pull planning directly addresses the root causes of schedule failures common across Irish sites:

Trades working in isolation with poor communication
Master programmes that bear no relation to on-site reality
Reactive fire-fighting rather than proactive constraint removal
Weak accountability when commitments are missed
Late identification of design, procurement and access issues

Lean Touch Solutions has worked with Irish main contractors, specialist subcontractors and public sector clients to implement pull planning on projects ranging from social housing schemes to large-scale commercial developments and healthcare facilities.

How a Pull Planning Workshop Works: Step by Step

A well-facilitated Pull Planning Workshop typically runs over one or two days, depending on project complexity. Here is what a Lean Touch Solutions workshop looks like in practice:

Define the Milestone

The workshop begins by agreeing on the end goal — typically a project milestone or phase handover. Everyone in the room must understand and commit to this shared target.

Reverse-Sequence the Work (Pull)

Working backwards from the milestone, each trade identifies what must be complete before they can start their work. This exposes interdependencies that are invisible in traditional scheduling.

Surface and Remove Constraints

Teams openly identify blockers — design information, procurement lead times, access, inspections — and assign ownership for removing each constraint before work begins.

Build the Phase Schedule Together

With constraints identified, the team builds a realistic, agreed phase schedule using sticky notes on a wall or a digital collaboration tool. Everyone sees the full picture.

Commit and Measure (PPC)

Short-interval planning (weekly work plans) and Percent Plan Complete (PPC) measurement are established to track reliability and drive continuous improvement throughout the phase.

Construction productivity in 2026 is under increasing pressure. Despite rapid advances in technology, the industry continues to lag behind others in output per worker. While sectors like manufacturing have significantly improved efficiency over the past three decades, construction productivity has remained largely stagnant.

This widening gap is not just a performance issue—it is now a business risk. Labour shortages, rising costs, and increasing project complexity are forcing companies to rethink how work gets done. Understanding the root causes of low productivity, and more importantly, how leading contractors are addressing them, is essential for staying competitive.

Key Benefits of Pull Planning Workshops for Irish Projects

The evidence from Irish and international projects is clear: when implemented well, pull planning delivers measurable improvements across every dimension of project performance.

What Irish Construction Teams Report After Pull Planning

Significant reduction in schedule delays and unplanned downtime
Higher Percent Plan Complete (PPC) — a direct measure of schedule reliability
Improved relationships and communication between trades and the main contractor
Earlier identification of procurement and design information gaps
Greater team accountability — people commit to what they know they can deliver
Reduced RFI backlogs and fewer reactive design changes
More motivated site supervisors and foremen who feel heard and involved

Who Should Attend a Pull Planning Workshop?

The power of pull planning comes from genuine collaboration. For a workshop to succeed, it must include the right voices. At a minimum, Lean Touch Solutions recommends the following attendees for an Irish construction pull planning session:

Main contractor project manager and site manager
Key subcontractor supervisors (structural, mechanical, electrical, finishing trades)
Design lead or design manager where design is ongoing
Procurement lead if significant material or package lead times apply
Client representative where client decisions impact programme

Lean Touch Solutions facilitators are experienced in managing large, multi-trade groups and ensuring every voice is heard — including trades that are traditionally less confident in formal planning sessions.

Pull Planning and the Last Planner® System in Ireland

Pull Planning is one of the five core components of the Last Planner® System developed by the Lean Construction Institute. The five levels of LPS planning are:

Master Schedule — The overall project programme
Phase Schedule (Pull Planning) — Collaborative milestone-to-milestone scheduling
Lookahead Planning — (4 to 6) week rolling constraint removal
Weekly Work Plans — Reliable commitments for the coming week
Learning (PPC & Root Cause Analysis) — Continuous improvement based on what was and wasn’t completed

Lean Touch Solutions is one of Ireland’s most experienced providers of full Last Planner® System implementation, supporting Irish construction teams at every level — from a first pull planning session to full programme-wide lean rollout.

→ Read our full guide: The Last Planner® System Explained for Irish Construction Teams

Why Choose Lean Touch Solutions for Your Pull Planning Workshop in Ireland?

There are many consultants who can run a meeting with sticky notes. There are very few who can facilitate a genuinely transformative pull planning session that changes the way your team collaborates for the rest of the project. Lean Touch Solutions is different because:

We are Ireland-based — we understand Irish construction culture, procurement norms and site realities
We have facilitated pull planning on projects of every scale and type across the island
We are committed to building your team’s capability, not creating dependency on consultants
Our facilitators hold internationally recognised lean construction qualifications
We offer post-workshop coaching and mentoring to embed the practice on site

“Our goal is always to leave your team capable of running pull planning independently. The workshop is the starting point, not the destination.” — Lean Touch Solutions Limited, Ireland

Digital Pull Planning Tools: Do You Need Them?

A common question from Irish construction clients is whether pull planning requires specialist software. The honest answer is: no, but digital tools can help at scale. For most Irish projects, a well-organised physical session with sticky notes, coloured markers and a capable facilitator is the most effective format.

Lean Touch Solutions has experience facilitating both in-person and digital pull planning workshops and can advise on the best approach for your specific project context.

→ Explore our full lean construction services for Irish projects

Frequently Asked Questions: Pull Planning Workshops in Ireland

Why is construction productivity so low?

A Pull Planning workshop is a structured, collaborative session where all key trades build a phase schedule together, starting from a milestone and working backwards. Unlike a traditional programme review — where a planner presents a schedule and others listen — pull planning gives every trade an active voice. The result is a schedule everyone has contributed to and is committed to delivering.
Learn more about how pull planning works →

How long does a Pull Planning Workshop take?

It depends on the size and complexity of your project. As a general guide:
Half a day — smaller residential or single-phase projects.
Full day — medium-sized commercial or mixed-use schemes.
Two days — large, multi-trade or multi-phase projects such as hospitals or infrastructure.
Lean Touch Solutions will recommend the right format after a short initial conversation about your project.

Does pull planning work for smaller Irish construction projects?

Yes — Pull Planning is fully scalable. You do not need a large or complex project to benefit. Even on a small housing scheme with four or five trades, a focused half-day pull planning session will improve coordination, reduce clashes between trades, and give everyone a clear, agreed programme they actually believe in.
Many Irish SME contractors are surprised by how much value they get from even a short session.

How does Lean Touch Solutions facilitate a Pull Planning Workshop?

We follow a simple, proven process:
Before: We meet with your team to understand the project, programme and key risks.
During: Our facilitator guides all trades through the pull planning process — surfacing constraints, building the phase schedule and getting genuine commitments from every team.
After: We help you set up weekly work planning and PPC tracking so the momentum from the workshop continues on site.
We can run sessions in person or digitally, depending on your needs.

What is PPC and why does it matter after a pull planning session?

PPC stands for Percent Plan Complete. It is a simple weekly measure — out of all the tasks your team planned to complete this week, how many were actually done?
A high PPC means your planning is reliable. A low PPC signals something is going wrong — and gives you the chance to fix it before it becomes a major delay.
After a pull planning workshop, tracking PPC week by week keeps teams accountable and drives steady, continuous improvement throughout the project.

How much does a Pull Planning Workshop cost in Ireland?

The cost varies depending on a few factors — project size, number of trades attending, session length, and whether you need pre-workshop preparation or post-workshop follow-up support.
What we can say is that the return on investment is significant. Avoiding even one week of programme overrun on a typical Irish construction project far outweighs the cost of a workshop.
We offer a free initial consultation to understand your project and provide a clear, tailored proposal with no obligation.

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