Evaluating multiskilling in residential construction projects using regional industry simulation

The Makerhoods project in Newark NJ, USA, is a planned affordable live/work development for low-income residents. With a background in Lean Manufacturing, and confronted with industry norms of low productivity, extensive subcontracting, unreliable plans, and incomplete information, the developer sought to ways to optimize construction cost, schedule and quality by and minimizing uncertainty and variation and by improving workflow. The developer sought to establish how Lean interventions might improve the performance of the production system that was being designed for the product. Specifically, the challenge was to determine how the concept of producing with laborers reorganized from trade-specific teams into multi-skilled work cells might impact the Makerhoods project, given the reality of the local construction market. To test these questions, Agent-Based Modelling was used. First, analogs of the local market and project of interest were recreated within the modeling environment. Next, the project delivery techniques were tested to find the highest probability of project success with the lowest band of outcome uncertainty. We hope the results will lead to new ways of approaching project management and potentially to establishment of new types of construction firms (i.e. the “finishing cells” composed of multi-skilled teams capable of completely building an apartment's interior).