Power, W., Sinnott, D. and Lynch. P. (2022). Scrum Complementing Last Planner System – A Case Study. Proceedings of the 30 th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC30), 175–186. doi.org/10.24928/2022/0120 Production Planning and Control 175 SCRUM COMPLEMENTING LAST PLANNER SYSTEM – A CASE STUDY William Power 1 , Dr Derek Sinnott 2 , and Dr Patrick Lynch 3 ABSTRACT Scrum emerged from the software sector and has been identified as a novel methodology that is radically different from traditional project management teaching. However, there is a paucity of data from real life case studies that affirm Scrum can benefit construction execution. This paper reports on a 20-week Scrum implementation across seven teams on a construction project that must achieve a critical building weathertight milestone. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach utilising case study design and data collected from a literature review, project documentation review, direct observation, purposeful semi-structured interviews, and a focus group workshop. Scrum complements Last Planner ® System (LPS) implementations and brings specific benefits at point of work execution by reducing weekly missed tasks resulting in increased and more reliable Planned Percent Complete (PPC). An 11 percent increase in average PPC accrued from utilising Scrum to complement LPS by reducing reasons for non- completion (RNC) of work tasks at crew level work interfaces. Additional softer benefits in the form of enhanced inter-trade communications and collaboration, as well as greater involvement of the entire crew in striving to achieve task execution. Further in-practice and academic research is required in aligning construction processes and methodologies with the concepts and definitions found in Scrum. KEYWORDS Lean construction, agile, scrum, last planner system, collaboration. INTRODUCTION AND LITERATURE REVIEW The basis of Lean thinking is the understanding and design of production processes (Koskela 1992, 2000) and Rooke (2020) asserts these processes depend on people to make them happen. While early Lean literature may have overly focused on the ‘hard’ tools and techniques at the expense of the ‘softer’ behavioural aspects (Hines et al. 2020), LC brings a balanced view of both people and production process into construction (Rooke 2020). The LC community has consistently sought learnings from other business sectors with a view towards enhancing construction’s performance. As early as 2002 Koskela and Howell expanded their earlier work on the theoretical foundations of project management 1 Productivity & Performance Manager, DPS Group, 4 Eastgate Avenue, Eastgate Business Park, Little Island, Co. Cork, Ireland T45 YR13 willie.power@dpsgroupglobal.com +353217305000 ORCID-0000- 0001-5791-846X 2 Senior Lecturer, South East Technological University, Waterford, Ireland, derek.sinnott@SETU.ie ORCID-0000-0003-3969-8699 3 Lecturer, South East Technological University, Waterford, Ireland, patrick.lynch@SETU.ie ORCID- 0000-0002-5406-3846