Multiskilled human resource problem in off-site construction

Using multiskilled manpower refers to the ability of dynamically reallocate labour from one stage of production process to another one in response to bottlenecks configuration. This paper investigates improvements in tangible performance measures which can be achieved by incorporating multiskilled workforce in off-site construction. To this end, scheduling in off-site construction analysed in flowshop environment with multiskilled human resource in which operations processing time depends on the amount of human resource allocated to it. The objective of this optimisation problem is to minimise production makespan taking into account labour costs associated with different flexibility strategies. To this end, a mathematical framework incorporating flowshop principles developed, formulations coded in an open source programming interface and solved with a commercial solver providing free license to academic usage. Production data from a prefabrication factory based in Melbourne, Australia fed to the model providing a basis for comparison based on different indicators of productivity. The findings of this study are insightful for human resource development in off-site construction by providing cost and productivity corresponding to different multiskilling strategies.