83%
Plan Reliability
Design teams running lean planning sustained 83% of their weekly commitments across 3,289 work plans.
Production Control for Engineering Design Teams
Design Delivery,
Made Reliable.
Dexec applies production control principles inspired by the Last Planner System® to the design phase — aligning teams, surfacing blockers early, and turning plans into reliable outcomes.
The Evidence
Measured, not promised.
Independent research on lean planning in design and construction shows what happens when a team plans together, surfaces blockers early, and keeps its commitments.
63%
Delays You Can Fix
Internal causes accounted for 35% (team) and 28% (company) of missed design commitments — 63% within the firm's control.
−7%
Resource Savings
A lean design/construct alliance came in ~7% under its design labour budget, delivering a gain over planned profit margin.
~⅓
Blockers Found Late
Waiting on prerequisite work caused 36% to 38% of missed design commitments — the constraint that lookahead and make-ready planning exist to clear.
Figures drawn from peer-reviewed and IGLC-refereed lean design management research, 1997–2023. Results reflect lean design management programmes in which the Last Planner System was the planning method.
The Problem
Looks precise. Ignores reality.
Traditional CPM scheduling pushes forward from day one — activities linked by hard logic, marching toward the milestone regardless of what's actually happening on the ground. It can't tell the difference between what should happen and what your team, your information, and your real constraints can actually deliver. By the time that gap shows up, the delay's already done.
- Plans built without the people doing the work
- Constraints missed until it's too late to fix
- Progress reported as a feeling, not a fact
The Solution
Three zones. One connected plan.
No more juggling a milestone tracker, a planning spreadsheet, and a separate execution board. It's all one place.
Execution
The Beach
Committed work, tracked to real, earned progress.
Pull Planning
The Sea
Deliverables sequenced together, discipline by discipline.
Milestones
The Horizon
The fixed points your team plans backward from.
app.dexec.com.au / board / northern-interchange
SureLine
The Beach
The Sea
Geotechnical
Structural
Civil
HVAC
MEP
The Horizon
Milestone
THE METHOD
Five conversations, one plan.
Every plan answers four questions in order. Most design programmes collapse them into one — a date is set, and everyone hopes. Last Planner keeps them separate, so a commitment only gets made once it can actually be kept.
- Should —
- What the programme calls for. Milestones and phase handoffs, pulled backwards from the date that actually matters.
- Can —
- What is genuinely possible. Work only becomes available once its constraints are cleared: drawings, decisions, approvals, upstream inputs.
- Will —
- What the team commits to. Promises made for the week ahead, and only for tasks that are already sound.
- Did —
- What actually happened. Completion measured against commitment, with the reasons recorded rather than guessed at.
Adapted from the Last Planner System®, developed by Glenn Ballard and Greg Howell. Last Planner System® is a registered trademark of the Lean Construction Institute.
LEARN
SHOULD
CAN
WILL
DID
- 1
Milestone Planning
Set the fixed points
- 2
Phase Pull Planning
Work backwards from each milestone
- 3
Design Cycle Planning
Clear constraints before work starts
- 4
Weekly Work Planning
Commit only to sound tasks
- 5
Learning & Improving
Measure what held, and why
THE COMPARISON
Not just another planning tool.
Legacy CPM tools run most design programmes today — but they try to fit design work into a shape they weren't built for. Here's why that gap actually matters.
Traditional CPM
Primavera P6, MS Project, etc.
- Schedule set before the team has a say
- Progress reported by estimate or feel
- No structured way to flag constraints before they cause delay
- Developed and maintained by planners, not the engineers doing the work
Dexec
Pull planning for the design phase
- Plans built backward from milestones, together
- Progress earned through ROC-weighted activities
- Constraints flagged and routed while there's still time
- Shared accountability, visible to the whole team
Who It's For
Built for design teams on complex, multi-discipline projects.
Dexec is made for Engineering Design consultancies running multi-package programmes — where a dozen disciplines, several packages and a hard milestone date all have to line up at once.
StructuralCivilMEPFacadeGeotechnicalArchitectureFire & Life Safety
Beta Program
Join the beta
Full access is free during the beta, and founding users lock in a 50% lifetime discount when commercial pricing launches.
FAQ
Common questions
Does Dexec replace our programme in P6 or MS Project?
No. Your contractual programme stays where it is. Dexec is where the design team plans and runs the work week to week, so what you report upward is grounded in something real.
How long does it take to get a project running?
Most teams have their first board planned in a single session. Beta participants get personal onboarding to set the first programme up with us.
Is this only for lean-experienced teams?
No. Teams new to pull planning use Dexec as their way in — the board guides the conversation, so you don't need prior training to get value.
What does it cost during the beta?
Nothing. Full access is free through the beta, and founding users lock in a 50% lifetime discount when commercial pricing launches.
Is our project data kept private?
Yes. Each organisation's data is fully separated, with role-based access inside your own organisation. See our Security & Trust page for detail.