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Optimal Assignment of Multiskilled Labor in Building Construction Projects

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Optimal Assignment of Multiskilled Labor in Building Construction

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Khalied Hyari a; Mohammad El-Mashaleh a; Amr Kandil b
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 International Journal of Construction Education and Research, 6:70–80, 2010
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ISSN: 1557-8771 print=1550-3984 online
DOI: 10.1080/15578771003590284

Optimal Assignment of Multiskilled Labor in

Building Construction Projects

KHALIED HYARI, PH.D. AND

MOHAMMAD EL-MASHALEH, PH.D.
The Hashemite University, Jordan

AMR KANDIL, PH.D.

Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA
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The utilization of multiskilled construction workers has increased in recent years in

order to improve the efficiency of resource utilization in construction projects. The
successful application of this strategy requires thoughtful assignments of available
multiskilled workers to appropriate tasks in construction projects. An optimization
model was developed to support field management personnel in this challenging task
in order to minimize the total labor cost of the project. The model was designed to
consider all practical constraints and limitations involved in this assignment problem,
including workers’ skill, productivity, and availability constraints. A spreadsheet
solver that comes bundled with Microsoft ExcelTM was used for the implementation
of the model due to its wide availability and ease of use. An application example was
analyzed to illustrate the performance of the present model relative to that of an
existing model obtained from the literature. The two models were compared with
respect to the quality of solutions obtained, and model computational complexity.

Keywords building construction, construction cost, construction workers,

multiskilled labor, resource utilization

Introduction
Attracting and retaining a skilled workforce is one of the greatest challenges facing
the construction industry (Ejohwomu, 2007; Kazaz & Ulubeyli, 2007; Srour, Hass, &
Morton, 2006; Goodrum, 2003; Kashiwagi & Scott, 2002; Rowings, Federle, &
Birkland, 1996). This shortage of skilled labor motivated construction firms to look
for ways to utilize their workforce more efficiently (Ejohwomu, 2007; Srour et al.,
2006; Cai & Li, 2000). Multiskilled labor is one of the strategies that have been
adopted to improve the efficiency of resource utilization in construction firms
(Ejohwomu, 2007; Goodrum, 2003). In this strategy, some workers in the company
are hired or trained to perform many types of work in construction projects. For
example, a marble installer can perform tasks such as brickwork or tiling in addition

Address correspondence to Khalied Hyari, Ph.D., Department of Civil Engineering, The

Hashemite University, P.O. Box 150459, Zarqa, 13115, Jordan. E-mail: hyari@hu.edu.jo

70
 Optimal Assignment of Multiskilled Labor 71

to his=her original area of specialization (i.e., installing marble). The multiskilled

workforce strategy has been widely adopted in both the manufacturing and service
industries (Tiwari, Patterson, & Mabert, 2009; Eitzen, Panton, & Mills, 2004; Brusco
& Johns, 1998; Morrison & Savery, 1996; Narasimhan, 1996; Loucks & Jacobs,
1991), and is sometimes also referred to as cross-trained employees or hierarchical
workforce (Sayın & Karabatı, 2007; McDonald, 2004). This shows the strong poten-
tial for the wide application of this strategy in construction markets where labor
union restrictions would permit.
The fluctuations of demand in the construction industry is another motivation
for the possible adoption of multiskilled labor strategies, since such fluctuations
make it difficult for small to medium-sized companies to retain a large permanent
specialized workforce that includes all the trades needed in their projects
(McGuinness & Bennett, 2006; Sutt & Lill, 1998). Another factor that makes this
strategy attractive is the nature of work cycles in construction projects, which often
creates large idle times for workers. These idle times increase the cost of labor signifi-
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cantly and decrease their productivity. These idle times, therefore, decrease the
efficiency of construction firms in a highly competitive industry.
The utilization of multiskilled labor strategy in construction projects is reported
to provide a number of advantages to both construction firms and their workforce.
The reported advantages to firms that adopted the multiskilled labor strategy include:
1) reducing the impact of labor shortages in the construction industry through a more
efficient utilization of present workers (McGuinness & Bennett, 2006); 2) increasing
the effectiveness and flexibility of construction firms in dealing with sudden demand
shifts among diverse tasks because multiskilled workers tend to have a better under-
standing of the overall production process and can cope well with extraordinary
changes in work conditions (Park, 1996); 3) decreasing the number of workers that
need to be hired for a project (Maturana, Alarcon, & Deprez, 2003); 4) increasing
the reliability of project time management and thereby increasing the possibility of
the timely completion of the work (Ballard, 2001); 5) reducing construction durations
due to more uniform and full working loads which in turn reduces costs and increases
profits generated by construction firms (Maturana et al., 2003; Lill, 2002); 6) increas-
ing the uniformity and fairness of work load assignments which tends to improve
worker moral and productivity (Sutt & Lill, 2002); 7) increasing the potential for
improving labor productivity (Hass, Rodriguez, Glover, & Goodrum, 2001); 8) reduc-
ing the costs of labor due to idle time and work overloads as well as costs connected
with transferring workers from one construction site to another (Sutt & Lill, 2002); 9)
enhancing the workers’ understanding of the overall production process and the exact
causes of job-related problems (Park, 1996); 10) enhancing the ability of small con-
struction firms to retain a skilled core workforce (Hass et al., 2001); 11) reducing
worker turnover and absenteeism (Burleson, Hass, Tucker, & Stanley, 1998); 12)
increasing the potential for innovations and technology implementation (Burleson
et al., 1998); and 13) enhancing safety at the jobsite (Burleson et al., 1998).
On the other hand, the reported advantages to the multiskilled workers them-
selves include: 1) increasing worker income since their training in multiple types of
construction work would raise their value on the market (Hass et al., 2001; Lill,
2002) 2) increasing worker employability and reducing their vulnerability to unem-
ployment (McGuinness & Bennett, 2006; Hass et al., 2001; Lill, 2002); 3) increasing
workers’ job satisfaction due to their skill development which also leads to higher
levels of commitment (Burleson et al., 1998; Morrison & Savery, 1996); and
 72 K. Hyari et al.

4) increasing the average employment duration of skilled workers at the project site
(McGuinness & Bennett, 2006).
The success of the multiskilling strategy in attaining the above mentioned advan-
tages depends on the ability of project management personnel to assign workers to
appropriate tasks and compose crews effectively during short term planning
(Gomar, Hass, & Morton, 2002; Hass et al., 2001). This task can be very challenging
due to the large number of possible alternatives in assembling crews and the many
constraints that should be taken into consideration in work assignments including
worker skills and availability. Despite the reported advantages of multiskilled work-
force in the construction industry, few models were developed to support site man-
agement personnel in assigning multiskilled workers to construction tasks. Hegazy,
Shabeeb, Elbeltagi, & Cheema (2000) developed a heuristic for assigning less utilized
multiskilled resources to other construction activities that suffer from insufficient
resources during their shortage period in order to reduce project duration. Tam,
Tong, Cheung, & Chan (2001) developed a genetic algorithm model for multiskilled
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workers’ assignment considering their productivity differences with the objective of

minimizing the total cost of labor. Gomar et al. (2002) developed a linear program-
ming model for assigning multiskilled workers from a pool of workers aiming at
minimizing worker’s turnover and switching from crew to crew. However, labor
productivity rates are not considered in the model.
This paper presents an alternative model for optimal assignment of multiskilled
labor to construction tasks that should be accomplished in a workday. The model
was designed to support project managers and=or superintendents in their effort
to assign available workers to the needed work in a way that minimizes the total
labor cost of the job. This model is intended for small to medium-sized contracting
firms that possess small groups of laborers that conduct their work as a team. The
present model considers all the practical constraints to this work assignment prob-
lem. The following sections of this paper present the development of the model
followed by an application example to demonstrate its capabilities.

Model Development
The primary purpose of this development stage is to formulate a simplified optimiza-
tion model that supports construction companies in their adoption of the functional
flexibility in human resources strategy (i.e., multiskilled workforce). The objective of
this model, therefore, is to find the optimal work assignment for a multiskilled labor
force while satisfying the practical constraints that are commonly involved in this
assignment problem. To this end, the present model is formulated in three major
steps: 1) formulating the objective function of this resource utilization problem; 2)
defining the practical constraints and considerations that need to be satisfied in
the developed optimization model; and 3) implementing the model using a simple
and easy-to-use optimization tool to ensure the practicality of the developed model.

Model Objective
The objective of this optimization problem is to minimize the cost of labor hours utilized
to perform the work as shown in Equation (1). However, the unit cost of performing
task (i) by worker (j) is a function of the hourly wage (Wj) of worker (j), and his=her pro-
ductivity (Prij) in performing task (i) as shown in Equation (2). Therefore, Equation (1)
 Optimal Assignment of Multiskilled Labor 73

can be rewritten as shown in Equation (3). It should be noted that worker (j) will be paid
the same hourly wage regardless of the task (i) performed by that worker. Obviously,
this hourly wage takes into account the multiskilling capability of the worker.

X
I X
J
Minimize cost of labor hours utilized ¼ Xij
Cij ð1Þ
i¼1 j¼1

where Xij ¼ Amount of work in task (i) performed by worker with skill type (j);
Cij ¼ Unit cost of work performed in task (i) by worker with skill type (j);
i ¼ Construction task (i ¼ 1 to I); and j ¼ Worker skill type (j ¼ 1 to J).

Wj
Cij ¼ ð2Þ
Prij
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where Wj ¼ hourly wage of worker with skill type (j); and Prij ¼ productivity rate for
worker with skill type (j) in performing task (i) in units per hour.

X
I X
J
Wj
Minimize cost of labor hours utilized ¼ Xij
ð3Þ
i¼1 j¼1
Prij

The number of workers assigned from each skill type (Nj) can be obtained by
dividing the amount of work assigned to worker with skill type (j) in each task (i)
over their corresponding productivity in that task as shown in Equation (4).

X
I
Xij
Nj ¼ ð4Þ
i¼1
Prij
D

where D ¼ number of working hours per day.

Model Constraints
The model is designed to ensure the consideration of all practical constraints that can
be faced by the decision maker in assigning multiskilled workers to the needed tasks
as follows:
1) Total work assigned to all workers in each task (i) should be equal to the amount
of work available in that task.

X
J
Xij ¼ Qi ð5Þ
j¼1

where Qi ¼ available work in task (i).

2) Workers assigned to do work in any task should be selected only from workers
who can perform that task. Amount of work (Xij) in each task (i) that can not be
performed by worker with skill type (j) is set to zero in the model.
Xij ¼ 0 for all tasks (i) that can not performed by worker with skill type (j).
 74 K. Hyari et al.

3) The number of workers assigned from each skill type (j) should be an Integer.
X
I
Xij
Nj ¼ ¼ Integer ð6Þ
i¼1
Prij
D

where Nj ¼ number of workers assigned with skill type (j).

This constraint is intended to ensure the minimization of labor idle times that may occur
when workers in some skill types are assigned less than D hours of work on any day.
This formulation will provide a more fair distribution of work among workers because
idle workers from any skill type can be utilized to help in other tasks.
4) Non-negativity constraint for all variables of the optimization model.
Xij  0 for all tasks (i ¼ 1 to I) and all workers’ skill types (j ¼ 1 to J).
5) The number of workers assigned from each skill type should not exceed the
maximum available number of workers. This constraint accounts for a practical
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limitation where limited supply of workers in some skill types may exist.
Nj  Uj ð7Þ
where Uj ¼ upper limit on the supply of workers from skill type (j).

Model Implementation
The simplified formulation of the developed model enables its solution using the mixed
integer linear programming method (MILP). This mathematical optimization method
is an extension of linear programming method, with an additional restriction that
some of the decision variables are constrained to have only integer values at the
obtained optimal solution. MILP is characterized by its small computation complexity
which allows it to be implemented using commonly available solvers. This intended sim-
plicity of the developed optimization problem formulation is needed to ensure the prac-
ticality of the developed model in supporting construction personnel in their selection of
short-term work assignments for their workforce (e.g., daily work assignments). The
Spreadsheet Solver that is included as a free add-in program in Microsoft ExcelTM
(i.e., Excel SolverTM) was selected to implement this model due to its availability in
any personal computer that has Microsoft Office installed. The solver has a user-
friendly graphical user interface and can be used easily by individuals who do not have
much experience or knowledge of mathematical solvers (Fylstra, Lasdon, Watson, &
Waren, 1998). The solution of an optimization problem using Excel SolverTM is
performed in the following four main steps: 1) specifying the cell which contains the
objective function, and creating a formula for the objective function in that cell; 2) stat-
ing the decision variables; 3) specifying the cells that define the constraints; and 4) indi-
cating the type of the model (i.e., linear, nonlinear, integer etc.). The interested reader is
referred to Flystra et al. (1998) for more detailed information on the use of Spreadsheet
Solver. The following section presents an application example that illustrates the use of
the present optimization model and demonstrates its capabilities.

Application Example
This application example optimizes work assignments on a finishes project that con-
sists of five tasks including tiling, brickwork, flooring screed, terrazzo, and marble
 Optimal Assignment of Multiskilled Labor 75

Table 1. Quantity of work and productivity rates for different tradesmen in different
tasks

i¼3 i¼5
i¼1 i¼2 Flooring i¼4 Marble
Finishing work (i) Tiling Brickwork screed Terrazzo fixing

Quantities in square
meters (m2) 300 400 500 300 310

Wj Hourly (Prij) Productivity rates in

(j) Tradesmen wage ($) m2 per trade working hour

j¼1 Tiler 50 3 2 0 0 2
j¼2 Bricklayer 40 1.5 4 2.5 0 0
j¼3 Screeding layer 48 0 2 5 2.5 0
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j¼4 Terrazzo layer 50 0 0 3 5 0

j¼5 Marble layer 60 2 2 0 0 3

installation. These tasks need to be performed by workers in a construction firm.

Available workers are multiskilled and can perform work in their main trades along
with some of the other tasks with varying levels of productivity. Table 1 shows: (1)
the required amount of work that needs to be accomplished by those workers in a
certain day in each of the five tasks; (2) the productivity of available workers in per-
forming the five tasks; and (3) the hourly wages that correspond to the workers’ line
of work. As can be seen in Table 1, each worker achieves the highest productivity
level in his area of specialization (i.e., main craft). For example, the hourly pro-
ductivity of the bricklayer in performing brickwork is 4 square meters (m2), while
other multiskilled workers who can perform brickwork produce 2 m2 per hour. This
example was originally presented by Tam et al. (2001), and the problem was initially
optimized using a genetic algorithm model (Tam et al., 2001). Three scenarios were
analyzed using this initial model. These scenarios modeled construction activities
with: 1) an unlimited amount of available labor resources in all skill types (crafts);
2) a constrained supply of labor resources in one or more skill types; and 3) an
increased amount of work in one of the work tasks that need to be performed.
The present model was utilized to seek an optimal assignment of workers to the
needed tasks considering the above three scenarios to enable the comparison of
the solutions produced by the present and the preceding models.

Scenario 1: Unlimited Labor Resources in All Skill Types (Crafts)

This scenario assumes an unlimited supply of workers from all skill types (i.e.,
constraint 5 is removed from the model). When labor resources are unlimited, it is
logical that most workers would mainly perform tasks in their primary area of spe-
cialization. Table 2 shows the results obtained utilizing the present model along with
the results obtained by the previous model (i.e., Tam et al., 2001) for the required
number of workers from each craft to perform the needed amount of daily work.
Also, Table 3 presents the assignment of work in all tasks to the workers from the
 76 K. Hyari et al.

Table 2. Number of different types of tradesman used when the supply is

unlimited (Scenario 1)

Number of workers

Tradesman Present Model (Tam et al., 2001)

Tiler 12 13
Bricklayer 14 13
Screeding layer 12 13
Terrazzo layer 8 8
Marble layer 13 13
Total number of workers 59 60
Total cost ($) 23,329.03 23,792
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different trades. As shown in Table 2, the present model yields a total labor cost of
$23,329.03 and a required total number of workers of 59. This obtained result is better
than that obtained by Tam et al., whose model determined the total labor cost to be
$23,792 and the required number of workers to be 60. The improvement in the results
obtained by the current model can be attributed to the utilization of the multiskilling
capability of workers who work less than a full day in their primary area of speciali-
zation by assigning them to other tasks for the rest of the working day as shown in
Table 3. The added benefit from this approach is that it ensures a more fair distri-
bution of work among workers from different crafts. The current model produces
the output in less than a second whereas a running time of 10 hours was reported to
be required for obtaining the solution in the previous model (Tam et al., 2001).

Scenario 2: Limited Supply of Labor Resources in Some Crafts

In this scenario, an upper limit on the supply of tilers was set to be 10 tilers. The
model was used to find the optimum assignment of workers while satisfying this con-
straint on the resource availability. Table 4 presents the required number of workers
from each craft to perform the needed daily work, and Table 5 shows the assignment

Table 3. Distribution of work among various tradesmen in Scenario 1

Daily output of workers

Total work Flooring Marble

quantity (m2) Tiling Brickwork screed Terrazzo fixing

300 400 500 300 310

Tiler 283.4 0 0 0 3
Bricklayer 13.2 400 8 0 0
Screeding layer 0 0 480 0 0
Terrazzo layer 0 0 12 300 0
Marble layer 3.4 0 0 0 307
Sum output 300 400 500 300 310
 Optimal Assignment of Multiskilled Labor 77

Table 4. Number of different types of tradesman used when the supply is

limited (Scenario 2)

Number of workers

Tradesman Present model (Tam et al., 2001)

Tiler 10 10
Bricklayer 18 18
Screeding layer 12 13
Terrazzo layer 8 8
Marble layer 13 14
Total number of workers 61 63
Total cost ($) 23,809.03 24,672
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Table 5. Distribution of work among various tradesmen in Scenario 2

Daily output of workers

Total work Flooring Marble

quantity (m2) Tiling Brickwork screed Terrazzo fixing

300 400 500 300 310

Tiler 235.4 0 0 0 3
Bricklayer 61.2 400 8 0 0
Screeding layer 0 0 480 0 0
Terrazzo layer 0 0 12 300 0
Marble layer 3.4 0 0 0 307
Sum output 300 400 500 300 310

of work in each task to the workers from the different crafts. Again the current
model produces better results than those obtained by Tam et al. (2001). The total
labor cost in the current model was $23,809.03 and the required total number of

Table 6. Number of different types of tradesman used in Scenario 3

Number of workers

Tradesman Present model (Tam et al., 2001)

Tiler 10 10
Bricklayer 18 17
Screeding layer 12 15
Terrazzo layer 13 12
Marble layer 13 15
Total number of workers 66 69
Total cost ($) 25,809.03 27,000
 78 K. Hyari et al.

Table 7. Distribution of work among various tradesmen in Scenario 3

Daily output of workers

Total work Flooring Marble

quantity (m2) Tiling Brickwork screed Terrazzo fixing

300 400 500 500 310

Tiler 235.4 0 0 0 3
Bricklayer 61.2 400 8 0 0
Screeding layer 0 0 480 0 0
Terrazzo layer 0 0 12 500 0
Marble layer 3.4 0 0 0 307
Sum output 300 400 500 500 310
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workers was 61 while the previous model reported a total labor cost of $24,672 and a
required number of workers of 63.

Scenario 3: Increased Amount of Work in Some Tasks

In this scenario, the amount of the needed terrazzo work was increased from 300 to
500 square meters (m2), in addition to the upper limit of 10 tilers used in the previous
case. As shown in Tables 6 and 7, the current model produces better results than the
previous model with a total labor cost of $25,809.03 rather than $27,000 and a total
number of workers of 66 rather than 69.

Conclusions
A simplified model was developed to solve the problem of assigning multiskilled
workers to daily construction tasks. The model was formulated as a mixed integer
linear programming model that can be solved easily using available solvers. The
model is implemented using Excel SolverTM which is bundled with Microsoft
ExcelTM to ensure the practicality of the model and the ease of its use. An appli-
cation example was analyzed to demonstrate the capability of the model and com-
pare it to a previously developed model. The present model was found to be
superior to the previous model in terms of: 1) quality of solutions since it utilized
a mathematical optimization method that is guaranteed to produce a global optimal
solution while the previous model utilized a genetic algorithm that yielded good solu-
tions that may not have been globally optimal (i.e., where no proof of convergence
exists); 2) great savings in time needed to yield solutions since the developed model
produces the solution in less than a second, while the reported time of the previous
model was several hours; 3) practicality and simplicity as the current model utilized
widely available solver which comes as a free add-in program to Microsoft ExcelTM;
and 4) eliminating the need for parameter settings that is needed in the previous
model which affects the quality of the obtained solutions. The model is expected
to help superintendents in their endeavor to assign workers to construction tasks
in a way that minimizes the total cost of labor by considering their skills, pro-
ductivity, and availability. One limitation that this model faces is a property of
 Optimal Assignment of Multiskilled Labor 79

the multiskilling strategy itself. The limitation is that multiskilling itself would not be
applicable in highly unionized labor markets that do not allow workers to perform
tasks outside their precisely defined trades or crafts.

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