Researchers find qualified cross-trade work can keep crews moving through handoffs, with implications for data centers and other megaprojects
A nationwide field study released Sept. 2 found construction crews spent more time directly advancing work and less time idle when qualified workers performed selected tasks outside their primary trades, a strategy researchers call “multiskilling.»
The study by the nonprofit Simplar Foundation, a Tempe, Ariz.-based applied-research organization, addresses a persistent question for contractors: how much more construction capacity can an already constrained workforce provide?
Simplar defines multiskilling as keeping workers grounded in a primary craft while training and qualifying them for selected work across another trade, craft or skill classification. The strategy relies on verified capabilities rather than informal switching among unfamiliar tasks.
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Multiskilling Knowledge Center
Researchers observed 644 workers in 60 multiskilled crews during 40 site visits covering 36 projects in 24 states. Workers spent an average 36% of observed crew time performing tasks outside their primary trade.
Compared with the same work sequence if workers were restricted to their primary trades, direct-work time increased 13 percentage points, or 39%, while idle time fell 31 percentage points, or 68%.
Joel Dutton, a preconstruction manager focused on advanced technology at Alpharetta, Ga.-based Evans General Contractors, said the results reflect how he used multiskilled crews as a piping foreman. Evans builds data centers, advanced manufacturing plants and other technically intensive facilities.
Dutton said multiskilled crews could complete related tasks without waiting for separate crews to cycle through an area.
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“All that downtime spent on moving around the job site gets erased,” he said during an Associated Builders and Contractors webinar Sept. 2.
ABC funded the six-report research program and received advance review rights, while Simplar retained control over the research and its conclusions.
Simplar found the largest gains where trades had interdependent scopes and frequent handoffs. Continuous or highly specialized work offered less opportunity.
“That close overlap is where you really can find that sweet spot,” Dutton said, citing pipefitting and pipe welding.
Outcomes Are Crew-Dependent
Multiskilling produced the largest gains where crews had frequent opportunities to cross trade lines, while more continuous work showed smaller effects. Click to enlarge.
Graphic courtesy Simplar Foundation
The results varied sharply. A seven-worker concrete crew that also performed formwork, rebar, welding and equipment operation gained 63 percentage points in direct-work share under the study’s comparison. An electrical crew gained 22 points and a mechanical piping crew gained 8.
Lines said the strongest opportunities occur “anywhere that you have trades who are working in sequence and handing off work to one another,” allowing qualified workers to pick up adjacent tasks instead of waiting for another trade.
Researchers also calculated that work covered by 10 multiskilled workers would require roughly 14 to 17 workers if each were limited to one trade.
The comparison did not use matched single-skilled crews; researchers calculated what would happen to the same work sequence if cross-tasking were removed. A forthcoming report will test productivity directly by having multiskilled and single-skilled crews perform the same 11-activity sequence across seven trades.
“We had a multi-skilled crew of two perform everything, and then we had individual … single-skilled crews come through and perform the same work sequence,” Lines said.
Data Center Handoffs
Greater cross-tasking was associated with larger reductions in idle time and staffing requirements and increased direct-work time across the crews studied. Click to enlarge.
Graph courtesy Simplar Foundation
Simplar does not break out data-center results, but Lines said the projects illustrate where multiskilling can matter on megaprojects. Large scopes may keep individual trades working continuously for weeks, while handoffs between them can create waiting.
Researchers followed an electrical contractor with data-center projects in the Midwest and outside Atlanta operating under different work rules. At one site, its electricians could not unload materials shipped from the company’s own prefabrication operation before installation.
The result was “awkward handoffs and some waiting around that probably didn’t need to occur,” Lines said.
Researchers also observed multiskilling on substations, and Lines pointed to power infrastructure serving data centers, semiconductor plants and battery factories as other potential applications.
Dutton said those interfaces can affect estimating before construction begins.
“If you can look at a set of plans and look at an area, and you know your crew mix and what your level of multiskilling abilities are,” he said, “you can be more aggressive in how much labor hours you’re going to put towards a specific system or area.”
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He cited a piping crew already installing its own hangers that could also handle plumbing hangers in the same area, allowing the contractor to account for that overlap when pricing labor.
ABC President and CEO Mike Bellaman said the association expects to use the findings to challenge policies it believes restrict multiskilling. He said ABC previously had largely anecdotal evidence for its position.
