Task planning and control in construction: revealing workers as early and late planners

Abstract

Production planning and control are critical to project success. They are conventionally understood as linking planning and production by coordinating tasks prior to installation work. However, research has highlighted workers as autonomous and decentralized planners of installation work, which challenges conventional management perspectives. Performing task-level planning and control requires resources and effort, reducing the time spent on installation work. This study explores workers’ planning practices by examining the use of higher-level plans and other information sources and by analyzing workers’ information needs and the factors determining them. A survey of Finnish construction workers was conducted. The results show that some workers prefer planning tasks before arriving at the construction site, while others prefer planning tasks during on-site work preparation. Trade- and crew-specific factors influence planning earlier or later and determine the extent to which centralized and decentralized sources and practices are used. Decentralized sources and practices are most often used to meet workers’ information needs, although centralized sources and practices are also used. These findings may help construction stakeholders better understand the information sources and practices used by workers. Thus, task planning and control activities can better meet workers’ information needs, allowing for more time for installation work.

Keywords:

• Task planning and control
• lean construction
• information needs
• production planning and control
• decentralization
• survey
• worker

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Lauri Vittala and Juho Saranpää for their assistance during the data collection and Ergo Pikas and Juho Lahtinen for their assistance in translating the survey. We would also like to acknowledge the contributions of the editor and the anonymous reviewers to the paper’s peer review, which allowed it to be improved significantly.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Due to the nature of the research, due to [ethical/legal/commercial] supporting data is not available.

Additional information

Funding

This study was conducted as part of a survey funded by the Finnish associations of electrical and telecommunication companies STUL, HVAC and plumbing/HVAC technical companies LVI-TU, and electrical employers STTA.