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

Christopher Görsch, Olli Seppänen, Antti Peltokorpi and Rita Lavikka

Construction Management and Economics, 2024, vol. 42, issue 5, 431-450

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.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01446193.2023.2270080 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:42:y:2024:i:5:p:431-450

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RCME20

DOI: 10.1080/01446193.2023.2270080

Access Statistics for this article

Construction Management and Economics is currently edited by Will Hughes

More articles in Construction Management and Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().