New approach to developing integrated milestones for planning and production control

Abstract

This paper examines the issue of bringing improved structure with integrated milestones into the project and production management process to handle progress and strategic coordination in complex AEC-projects. We address the phases between front-end planning and project execution. In terms of theory, we base our project on a concept of strategic milestone planning and we find inspiration in ideas from the practical world. The design research approach is applied, and our artefact is a proposed method by which to develop a network of pull-based integrated milestones. The proposal is verified by documentation of the application in a construction project. In this paper, we argue that the described method can be applied as an improvement of milestone planning both in Last Planner and in more traditional project management. The present study fills a gap in project management literature, which appears to address milestones in a superficial manner; this is partly the case for Last Planner System for production control. Our study contributes to theory and practice regarding development of milestones.