Crew Allocation System for the Masonry Industry

Florez, Laura (2017) Crew Allocation System for the Masonry Industry. Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, 32 (10). pp. 874-889. ISSN 1093-9687

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Abstract

Masonry construction is labor-intensive. Processes require a large number of crews made up of masons with diverse skills, capabilities, and personalities. Often crews are reassembled and the superintendent in the site is responsible for allocating crews to balance between the complexity of the job and the need for quality and high production rates. However, the masonry industry still faces increased time and low productivity rates that result from inefficiencies in crew allocation. This article presents a system for efficient crew allocation in the masonry industry formulated as a mixed-integer program. The system takes into consideration characteristics of masons and site conditions and how to relate these to determine the right crew for the right wall to increase productivity. With the system, superintendents are not only able to identify working patterns for each of the masons but also optimal crew formation, completion times, and labor costs. To validate the model, data from a real project in the United States is used to compare the crew allocation completed by the superintendent onsite with the one proposed by the system. The results showed that relating characteristics of workers with site conditions had a substantial impact on reducing the completion time to build the walls, maximizing the utilization of masons, and outlining opportunities for concurrent work.

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