Interaction between different components of multiskilling

Twelve different forms of cross-training strategies, their context, benefits and collateral effects identified in this literature review are summarized in Table 2-7 to provide an appropriate basis for discussion. The table indicates whether an advantage in a specific context can be achieved from a cross-training strategy. Collateral effects are categorized as of low, medium and high effect. All cross-training strategies have potential to increase the productivity of construction. For example, chaining, direct capacity balancing, upstream, downstream, and in some cases full cross-

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training can be used to even out production flow by targeting bottleneck processes and feeding enough resource to over utilized locations, leading to reductions in production time and cost.

Table 2-7. Multiskilling comparison table

Cross-training strategy

Collateral effects Advantage Context

PE LFE RE TRC TGC ES SS MC or MT Safety OnC OfC RC

MSO L L L L L L      MSA - - - - L L       DS L L L L L L     CH L L L M L L     UP L-M L-M L-M L-M L-M L-M     DO L-M L-M L-M L-M L-M L-M     CC L-M L-M L-M L-M L-M L-M       DCB L L L L-M L L     FSH M M M L M M     FS M-H M-H M-H L M-H M-H     FC H H H H H H    CT L-H L-H L-H L-H L-H L-H      

L=Low effect, M=Medium effect, H=High effect, MSO=Multiskilling with soft skills, MSA=Multiskilling with safety DS= Dual-skill, CH= Chaining, UP= Upstream, DO= Downstream, CC=Customized cross-training, DCB= Direct capacity balancing, FSH= Four-skills-helpers, FS= Four-skills, FC= Full cross-training, CT= Cross-trained teams, PE= Psychological effects, LFE= Learning and forgetting effects, RC= Reduced efficiency, TRC= Transfer costs, TGC= Training costs, ES= Enhancement in salary, MC= Minimizing cost, MT= Minimizing time, SS= Social sustainability, RC=Repetitive construction, OfC=Off-site construction, OnC=On-site construction

Mastering more skills results in better employability and employment prospects (Detsimas et al. 2016). Dual-skill, four-skills-helpers and four-skills cross-training can be used to enhance employment duration because these workers have skill sets constructed to meet the needs of different stages of construction projects (Haas et al. 2001). Though the literature shows that dual- skill, four-skills-helpers and four-skills reduce the cost and time of a project (Burleson et al. 1998), they will not to be as efficient as chaining, direct capacity balancing, upstream, and downstream multiskilling strategies in dealing with bottlenecks. Customized multiskilling and cross-trained teams are pragmatic strategies to deal with both bottlenecks and social sustainability, according to the way the skill set is tailored.

Safety is negatively affected by an increase in worker turnover rates as most accidents involve newly hired workers, unfamiliar with site conditions (Haas et al. 2001). Therefore, since a

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multiskilled workforce is able to perform several tasks, it is expected to stay for longer periods of time at the construction site and become familiar with site conditions and hence decrease the rate of accidents occurring (CII 1998). Therefore, dual-skilling, four-skills-helpers and four-skills strategies, which enhance employment duration, lead to a safer workplace. Additionally, a stream of literature considers labor with one primary skill and one or more safety skills as multiskilled labor (BCA 2016; MOM 2016; Teizer et al. 2013).

Cross-training labor in extra skills leads to additional productivity, social sustainability, and collateral effects. Therefore, attention should be paid to choosing cross-training strategies to find the best compromise between advantages and collateral effects.

Training costs and enhancement in salary have a direct relationship with the number of extra skills to be trained in (Qin et al. 2015). Therefore, full cross-training should have the highest enhancement in salary and training costs followed by four-skills and four-skills-helpers. Costs associated with four-skills-helpers are less than four-skills because helpers are trained to a lower level. Dual-skill, chaining and direct capacity balancing have the lowest training costs and associated salary change since they involve learning just one extra skill. Depending on the number of extra skills to be learned, the costs of upstream, downstream, customized cross-training, and cross-trained teams vary between the costs of the strategies above. Psychological effects, reduced efficiency and learning and forgetting effects are expected to be similar to training and salary costs, having a direct relationship with the number of extra skills to be acquired (Qin et al. 2015). Dual-skill, Four-skills-helpers and four-skills strategies are associated with minimum transfer costs because movement of labor corresponds to alteration in four stages of construction including civil/structural, general support, mechanical, and electrical (Burleson et al. 1998). Meanwhile, chaining, upstream, downstream and direct capacity balancing are associated with higher transfer

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costs because they are designed to deal with bottlenecks, which can demand for hourly or daily substitutions (Arashpour et al. 2015). Transfer costs for customized cross-training, full cross- training, and cross-trained teams depend on the aim of multiskilling, which affects the combination of skills required (De Bruecker et al. 2015).

Generally, all multiskilling strategies, except full cross-training, can be advantageous in on-site construction. Full cross-training is not appropriate for on-site construction considering the high number of skills needed (Burleson et al. 1998). Dual-skill, four-skills and four-skills-helper training can be modified for repetitive and off-site construction (Arashpour et al. 2017). Customized cross-training is the most promising multiskilling strategy in all contexts, considering that each construction project is of a one-off nature with unique features (Haas et al. 2001). An important limitation on the expansion of customized cross-training is the lack of appropriate models which calibrate the skill configuration pertaining to the features of every project.