MSI’s Touchplan Bridges the Gap Between Traditional and Collaborative Planning

MOCA Systems Inc. (MSI) has announced important enhancements to Touchplan. These improvements enable seamless synchronization with Oracle’s Primavera P6, a widely used project management and scheduling system. This powerful integration tackles the issue of “schedule drift,” a common problem where master schedules (often in P6) become disconnected from real-time field operations managed in Touchplan.

This disconnect can lead to increased costs and schedule delays for large, complex construction projects.

Understanding the Disconnect: CPM vs. LPS

Traditionally, project management relies on the Critical Path Method (CPM) – the foundation of P6. CPM provides a top-down view, focusing on timelines and identifying the longest chain of dependent activities (critical path) that dictate the project’s overall duration. However, P6 schedules require periodic updates to reflect actual workflow sequencing and task durations captured in the field.

Touchplan, on the other hand, leverages the Last Planner System (LPS) – a bottom-up, action-oriented approach. It empowers production managers and executives with detailed insights, facilitating collaboration, commitment, and accountability among workers through daily and weekly plan iterations. Touchplan’s production plan adapts to new project requirements, supply chain deliveries, and labor availability dictated by the master schedule.

A Human-Centered Solution

While both systems play crucial roles, their different data formats, logic, and user bases have historically made automated integration challenging. However, with the latest Touchplan enhancements, MSI presents a unique solution.

“Some planning software vendors have attempted to automate data and logic translation between the CPM system and LPS tools, resulting in a dissatisfying loss of control and autonomy for the users of both systems,” said Brett Adamczyk, MSI’s software division chief, adding “by contrast, with Touchplan we took a different, human-in-the-loop  approach to keep  experienced CPM and LPS experts in control of data selection and logic translation, while eliminating the drudgery of manually reformatting data and moving it between systems.”

Benefits for Construction Professionals

A panel of seasoned P6 and Touchplan users collaborated with the development team to refine this streamlined synchronization process. Its success has paved the way for all Touchplan users to leverage this innovative integration.

One of the inaugural users of the new capabilities is Utah-based Jacobsen Construction, a long-time P6 and Touchplan customer. According to Layne Hess, Corporate Director of Scheduling and Planning, “Combining the systems in this way is a boon to our planning productivity. It lets our experts spend more time managing project complexity, and less time managing project data.”

For an in-depth case study of CPM-LPS synchronization with Touchplan, please visit: https://touchplan.io/case-study/constructing-utahs-tallest-building/.