Knowledge and skill requirements in the installation of prefabricated members

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL and Technology (IJCIET), ISSN 0976 – 6308
International Journal of Civil Engineering OF CIVIL ENGINEERING AND
(Print), ISSN 0976 – 6316(Online) Volume 4, Issue 2, March - April (2013), © IAEME
TECHNOLOGY (IJCIET)
ISSN 0976 – 6308 (Print)
ISSN 0976 – 6316(Online)
Volume 4, Issue 2, March - April (2013), pp. 156-176
IJCIET
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KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL REQUIREMENTS
IN THE INSTALLATION OF PREFABRICATED MEMBERS

Phatsaphan Charnwasununth 1, TanitTongthong 2, Nobuyoshi Yabuki 3
1
(Department of Civil Engineering, Chulalongkorn University,
Bangkok, Thailand)
2
(Department of Civil Engineering, Chulalongkorn University,
Bangkok, Thailand)
3
(Division of Sustainable Energy and Environmental Engineering, Osaka University,
Osaka,Japan)

ABSTRACT

Nowadays, the competitive environment in construction industry increases the
popularity of prefabricated construction in Thailand and many other countries. The
prefabricated construction is expected for the advantages in terms of construction period,
cost, quality, or consistency of result. However, these expectations cannot always be
achieved. One of the reasons is the lack of personnel, especially knowledgeable and skilled
personnel. This problem leads to prolonged construction, cost overrun, and lower quality of
structure construction. Therefore, this study aims to explore the knowledge and skill
requirements in the installation of prefabricated members.From the explorations and analysis,
the installation of prefabricated members is performed by an installation group composed of
workers (stockman and erectors), a mobile crane operator, and a foreman. The process is
broken down into the three main steps, specifically, checking the available prefabricated
members, making a decision for an installation process, and installing the prefabricated
members. Each of which requires the different knowledge and skills based on the person’s
roles and responsibilities. In addition, the level of knowledge and skill requirements is
elevated by the changes and errors in the installation.

Keywords: Installation, Knowledge, Prefabrication, Skill

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International Journal of Civil Engineering and Technology (IJCIET), ISSN 0976 – 6308

1. INTRODUCTION

Today, the business environment of the construction industry has become increasingly
competitive due to the increasing number of local and foreign construction firms, higher
resource costs, and demand for speedier construction and lower prices from the owner. All of
these tendencies have influenced the construction firms in terms of contract awarding, project
delivery, profit generation, and survival tactics. Therefore, almost all construction firms must
improve their competitiveness by, for example, inventing new construction methods, creating
new materials, adapting better tools and equipment, improving productivity, and raising
collaboration efficiency. Prefabricated construction is a new construction method, which is
expected for the advantages in terms of construction period, cost, quality, or consistency of
result. However, these expectations cannot always be achieved because human resources still
plays a major role in the construction process and significantly affects the construction
outcome in terms of personnel availability and lack of knowledgeable and skilled personnel.

1.1 Prefabricated construction

Prefabricated construction has been widely used in residential construction because of
its advantages in terms of productivity and quality improvement as well as cost reduction [1].
In addition, several prefabricated constructions gain more benefits from just-in-time concept
[2]. However, the prefabrication needs the experts in design, manufacturing, and erection to
achieve the expectations. The following prefabrication’s characteristics increase the
importance of knowledge and skills: up-front design and production, high complexity, high
precision requirements, fragmentation, manually intensive, special technique usage,
sequential construction, and skilled labour requirement. In addition, the personnel have to
cope with some limitations such as traffic regulations of deliver trucks, lack of material, lack
of stocking area, and lack space for installation, which affect the installation process [3 –8].

1.2 Personnel availability

Construction is a labour-intensive industry [9], in other words, an industry that
requires a large number of workers, mainly depending on the economic conditions.
Generally, in good economic times, the demand for the construction of buildings and
facilities is high. Therefore, a considerable number of people working in construction
activities are required [10]. In contrast, during the recession period, the need of construction
structures is decreased and the construction activities are restrained. Thus, the required
number of human resource decreases. However, the construction sector is used for economic
crisis recovery, particularly by allowing the circular flow of spending through construction
activities. Both economic situations lead to the need of human resource in construction
industry. Therefore, the lack of human resource always occurs in the construction industry
and the labour availability is a critical issue for builders and the construction industry as a
whole [11]. The fluctuation of the required human resource does not depend only on the
changing economic condition. In Thailand, the change in workforce depends also on the
agricultural industry, i.e., some labours work in the agricultural sector during the certain time,
and temporarily work in the construction industry for other periods. Thus, the supply of
human resource especially labour drops in seedtime and harvest season.

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1.3 Lack of knowledgeable and skilled personnel

Construction is considered as a human-driven process. Thus, quality of human
resource directly affects the effectiveness and efficiency of the construction processes, which
reflect on construction duration, cost, and quality. According to the embedded knowledge and
intellectual ability in personnel, the personnel are referred as the greatest asset of any
organisation [12]. The quality of human resources is raising its importance since the industry
is considered as a knowledge-based industry and fall between the manufacturing industry and
service industry [13]. Therefore, activities of the construction industry demand an increased
level of knowledge, skills, and learning [14].
The lack of skilled personnel is of considerable concern to industry stakeholders [15].
A shortage of skilled labour is stated in several countries, such as the United States [11, 16],
Singapore [10], and South Africa [17]. The shortage of skilled labour in the North American
industry was predicted in the early 1980s and was confirmed by a survey conducted by the
Construction Users Roundtable (CURT) in 1996, which found that 60% of the respondents
faced skilled labour shortages and 75% of the respondents indicated that the shortage was
worse than the last five years [18]. In Singapore, the inefficient manpower deployment is
caused by a shortage of skilled workers and supervisors, a large unskilled foreign workforce,
and a weakening local workforce base. The most three concerned issues are (1) difficulty in
the recruitment of supervisors, (2) difficulty in the recruitment of workers, and (3) a high rate
of labour turnover [10].
Many reasons lead the construction industry facing a shortage of skilled workers,
namely low wages, the transient nature of work, poor industry image, lack of training, and
lack of a worker-oriented career path [15]. Makhene and Thwala studied the reasons for the
skilled labour shortage in South Africa. The reasons include the retirement of personnel in the
1950s and 1960s and the fact that young people are not interested in working in the
construction industry because of the work conditions, the hours of work, and the flexibility to
travel. In addition, the workers do not get enough training and continual development
because they are hired as temporary employees [17]. The lack of training and development
for personnel often leads to difficulty in closing the barrier between unskilled labour to
skilled labour and between inexperienced labour to experienced labour [19]. The shortage of
skilled workers tends to cause five categories of impact: (1) lower productivity, (2) higher
project costs, (3) lower safety, (4) lower quality, and (5) higher supervision requirement [16].
All of which could greatly affect the overall project performance.
The previous studies indicated the importance of personnel in the construction
industry, especially the knowledgeable and skilled personnel in the prefabricated
construction. For the prefabricated construction, the installation of prefabricated members is
important because it is a major critical path for construction [20]. A prolonged construction
schedule and improper installation of components can be caused by inexperienced labour
[19].However, the details of knowledge and skill requirementshave not been
explored.Therefore, this research aims to explore the knowledge and skill requirements in the
installation of prefabricated members.These requirements can be used for training and supply
the personnel to the industry or even to develop the automation system which reduces the
knowledge and skill requirements.

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2. CURRENT PRACTICES

In order to investigate the current practices, site observations, document reviews, and
interviews were employed in six construction projects. All of them are the residential construction
projects located in the Bangkok Metropolitan and nearby areas. The projects consist of single houses
or row houses with area from 150 to 250 square meters. The current practices focused in four
perspectives as follows: (1) the personnel in the installation process, (2) the installation process, (3)
the changes in the prefabricated member installation, and (4) the errors in the prefabricated member
installation.

2.1 The personnel in the installation process

From the observations and interviews, the installation processes of prefabricated members are
performed by a group consists of workers, a mobile crane operator, and a foreman. The number of
workers in a group varies from two to five workers. The organisation chart of an installation group is
shown in Fig. 1. The inspector and supervisor involve in the installation although both of them do not
supervise or perform the installation directly. They may perform their works with more than one
group during the installation. Each position is assigned the roles and responsibilities to perform the
work, which are summarised in Table 1.

Figure 1 Organisation chart of an installation group

Table 1 Roles and responsibilities of personnel
Position Roles and responsibilities
Worker (stockman) The person works at the stock location or on the delivery truck to find and
hook a prefabricated member.
Workers (erectors) The persons handle a prefabricated member, which is being lifted and moved
by machine, and install at the desired location.
Foreman The person supervises the installation, manages the related resources, and
provides the technical knowledge. The person must recognise the current
condition, perceive the change, and select the proper countermeasures in a
timely manner.
Mobile crane operator The person operates the mobile crane to support the installation and related
processes.
Inspector The person inspects, records, and provides the guidance for the quality of the
prefabricated member installation.
Supervisor The person plans and manages the construction schedule and the production
line to meet the expectations of prefabricated construction.

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2.2 The installation process

The installation process was investigated using site observations and interviews. The
overview of installation is as follows:
After the prefabricated members arrive at the construction site, the members are transferred to
the stock rack or left on the truck. These alternatives are selected based on the policy and management
principle of the supervisor. If the just-in-time concept is applied, the members are left on the truck and
directly installed without transferring to the rack. Or else, the members are transferred and stocked at
the rack.
Foreman begins the installation by checking the available prefabricated members. The related
resources, i.e., materials, tools, and equipment, may be checked for the availability and compared to
the resource requirements. Hence, the list of unavailable resources is perceived including the
unavailable prefabricated members. Next, a decision is made based on the current condition of the
installation process on whether to postpone or continue the operation. In the case of continuing the
installation, the sequence is generated. Then, the work location of the mobile crane is considered and
the machine is set up at the desired location. Next, the prefabricated members are installed by an
installation group based on the selected sequence. Finally, the installed members are inspected.
The process, as described above, was analysed and broken down to the work breakdown
structure. This structure was further categorised into three main steps and four supplementary steps as
shown in Fig. 2. The main steps are always performed in the installation of prefabricated members
while the supplementary steps may or may not be performed based on the practice of the particular
foreman and the installation group.
However, the changes and errors are always found in the installation process. The installation
group has to perform the additional works or adapt the process for coping with these changes and
errors using the additional knowledge and skills.

Figure 2 Work breakdown structure of the installation process
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2.3 Changes in the prefabricated member installation

From the site observations and interviews, many changes occur in the installation process.
Any such changes mean that the current condition at the construction site varies from the planned
condition or documents indicated by the designer or planner before the installation begins. The
personnel, especially foremen, have the responsibility to detect the changes and select the proper
countermeasure in a timely manner. The changes are described as follows:
Unavailability of prefabricated members; the unavailable prefabricated members affect the
installation significantly. Foreman has to decide whether to postpone or continue the installation. The
process is postponed to prevent the double moves of resources and to operate at the structure, which
has complete resources. If the installation process is allowed to continue, the new installation
sequence is considered to avoid the line-of-sight blocking and the difficulty to install a prefabricated
member between the installed members.
Shuffled location of prefabricated members in the rack; the location of each prefabricated
member in the stock rack is always shuffled because of the difficulty to fix the stock location of each
prefabricated member in the rack. The location depends on the delivery schedule, the order of delivery
trucks, the loading prefabricated members on the delivery trucks, the overlap of prefabricated
members on the truck, and the stability of the stock rack. This shuffled location increases the
difficulty for the foreman to check the availability of prefabricated members and for the stockman to
find the desired prefabricated member.
Irrelevant prefabricated members in the rack; various prefabricated members of the different
structures or houses are usually contained in a stock rack for a moment. Therefore, some of members
in a rack are irrelevant for the current installation. The foreman has to perceive the irrelevant members
to prevent the errors of the process.
Unavailability of installation resources; the installation requires the sufficient resources for
the operation. The unavailability of materials or tools always arises in the installation because of the
material shortage or the improper management by an installation group. The installation cannot be
operated or is cut off due to the unavailability of resources. Therefore, foreman has to detect the
unavailability of resources and select the right countermeasures. Otherwise, the installation is stopped
before the process is complete, which results in precious time, money, and effort wasted.
Relative location between house, mobile crane, and stock; this relative location affects the
installation sequence of prefabricated members significantly. The sequence mustbe considered to
avoid the line-of-sight blocking and the difficulty to install a prefabricated member between the
installed members. Moreover, the stock location always varies due to the space limitation and
accessibility at that moment. Thus, the installations are performed in the different sequence based on
this relative location although the installations are performed for the same type of house as shown in
Fig. 3.

Figure 3 Different installation sequences

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2.4 Errors in the prefabricated member installation

From the site observations and interviews, the errors in prefabricated member
installation are revealed as follows:
Errors in prefabricated member marking; these errors include damaged markings,
missing markings, and incorrect markings. The prefabricated member identification using
only the marking tends to be incorrect. With incorrect identification, the chance of error
installation increases.
Errors in the prefabricated member installation; the errors cause from the
manufacturing, transportation, or installation processes. The knowledge and skills are
required to perceive and correct these errors. However, the errors from the manufacturing
cannot be prevented and corrected immediately because the prefabricated members are
produced in advance. The errors are still found continuously and the correction has to be done
later until the backlog of prefabricated members are installed or corrected.
In addition, the installation errors are occurred because of the large quantity and
similar appearance of prefabricated members. Therefore, the foreman and an installation
group need the knowledge and skills to point out and correct the errors.

3. KNOWLEDGE AND SKILL REQUIREMENTS

For the analysis of knowledge and skill requirements, the installation process was
broken down to work breakdown structure. Next, the structure was further broken down for
activities and actions respectively as shown in Fig. 4. The knowledge and skill requirements
were analysed for each action from two parts: (1) the physical work or movements, and (2)
the related data and information. In addition, the requirements were revealed from the
interviews of personnel, who involved in each action. The changes and errors in the
installation were also considered for the analysis of knowledge and skill requirements as
shown in Fig. 5.

Figure 4 Breaking down of the installation process

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Figure 5 Analysis of knowledge and skill requirements

The details of each main step are as follows:

Step 1: Checking the available prefabricated members
The foreman considers the available prefabricated members by selecting the building
component to be installed and considering the list of prefabricated members in the selected
building component. At the rack or on the delivery truck as shown in Fig. 6, the foreman
identifies each prefabricated member by the prefabricated member’s appearance or marking.
In situations of uncertainty or doubt, construction drawings as shown in Fig. 7or
measurement tools are used for the identification of prefabricated members based on
knowledge and skills. After the identification, the available prefabricated member is recorded
and the list of available prefabricated members is compiled. Then, the foreman makes the
decision to stop this checking process in the case that all the prefabricated members have
been verified or cannot be found. The work breakdown structure of Step 1 is summarised and
shown in Fig. 8. According to the work breakdown structure, activities, and actions, the
requirements of knowledge and skills are analysed and shown in Table 2.

Figure 6 Prefabricated members at the rack and on the delivery truck

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Figure 7 Construction drawing

Figure 8 Work breakdown structure and actions of foreman in step 1

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Table 2 Knowledge and skill requirements for checking the available prefabricated members

Activities / Actions Knowledge and skill requirements
1.1 Consider the prefabricated members
1.1.1 Select the building component to be - Interpretation of construction drawings
installed - Prefabricated member identification
- Perception of prefabricated members in
each building component
- Consideration of building components for
the installation process
1.1.2 Consider the list of prefabricated - Perception of prefabricated members in
members in a selected building component to each building component
scope the prefabricated member checking - Interpretation of construction drawings
1.2 Identify a prefabricated member
1.2.1 Identify a prefabricated member by its - Prefabricated member identification
appearance or marking - Interpretation of construction drawings
1.2.2 In situation of uncertainty or doubt, - Usage of measurement tools
identify a prefabricated member by other - Interpretation of construction drawings
methods
1.3 Compile the list of available prefabricated
members
1.3.1 Record an available prefabricated - Data collection
member
1.3.2 Compile the list of available - Data collection
prefabricated members
1.4 Decide to stop checking
1.4.1 If the members in the selected building - Perception of prefabricated members in the
component are not complete, find another selected building component
prefabricated member by repeating activity - All knowledge and skill requirements,
1.2 or try to search at other possible which are required in activity 1.2 and 1.3
locations.
1.4.2 Decide to stop checking - Decision to stop checking

Step 2: Making a decision for an installation process
After discerning the list of unavailable resources and considering the lack of critical
resources, the foreman makes a decision about the installation process, namely, whether to
postpone or continue the process. The process is postponed if the unavailable resources
significantly affect the installation process or if the resources can be moved for use in another
building component with complete resources. The installation cannot be performed without
the complete of some critical resources such as mobile crane or driller.If the installation
process continues, the foreman considers other related factors that can affect the installation
sequence, i.e., the location of the mobile crane, house, and stock; the effect of unavailable
prefabricated members; and the effect of unavailable resources. Finally, the installation
sequence is generated by the foreman as shown in Fig.9. The work breakdown structure and
the knowledge and skill requirements of this step are shown in Fig. 10 and Table 3
respectively.

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Figure 9 Installation sequences generated by foreman

Figure 10 Work breakdown structure and actions of the foreman in Step 2

Step 3: Installing the prefabricated members
In step 3, the foreman recalls the installation sequence, which is generated from the
previous step. Next, the foreman provides the information to an installation group and
supervises the process while the prefabricated members are being installed based on the
selected sequence. The process in this step is a repetitive loop along with the cooperation of

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the mobile crane operator, stockman, and erectors. The stockman finds and hooks a
prefabricated member in the rack or on the truck and then the member is lifted and moved to
the desired location to be installed as shown in Fig. 11. The mobile crane operator operates
the machine to hook, lift, move, install, and unhook the prefabricated members. Next, the
prefabricated member is handled, installed, shored, and adjusted by erectors as shown in Fig.
12 and 13. Finally, erectors unhook the prefabricated member. These activities are repeated
until the last sequence member is installed. All the personnel in this step communicate and
cooperate with each other throughout the work being performed. The activities and actions of
foreman, mobile crane operator, stockman, and erectors are shown in Fig. 14 to 17
respectively. The knowledge and skill requirements of this step are summarised in Table 4.

Table 3 Knowledge and skill requirements for making a decision for an installation process
2.1 Perceive the list of unavailable
resources - Perception of unavailable resources
2.1.1 Recall the list of unavailable
resources

2.1.2 Consider the lack of resources - Consideration of the effects of resource
especially the resources that affect the unavailability on the installation process
installation significantly.

2.2 Make a decision
2.2.1 Make a decision whether to - Decision to postpone or continue the
postpone or continue the installation installation

2.3 Consider the related factors
2.3.1 Consider the location of house, - Consideration of the effects of the
mobile crane, and stock house, mobile crane, and stock locations
on the installation sequence

2.3.2 Consider the effect of unavailable - Consideration of the effects of the
prefabricated members unavailability of prefabricated members
on the installation sequence

2.3.3 Consider the effect of unavailable - Consideration of the effects of the
resources unavailability of resource on the
installation sequence

2.4 Generate the installation sequence
2.4.1 Generate the installation sequence - Generation of installation sequence

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Figure 11 Stockman finds and hooks a prefabricated member

Figure 12 Erectors handle and install a prefabricated member

Figure 13 Erectors shore and adjust a prefabricated member

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Figure 14 Work breakdown structure and actions of the foreman in Step 3

Figure 15 Work breakdown structure and actions of the mobile crane operator in Step 3

Figure 16 Work breakdown structure and actions of a worker (Stockman) in Step 3

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Figure 17 Work breakdown structure and action flow of workers (Erectors) in Step 3

Table 4 Knowledge and skill requirements for installing the prefabricated members

3.1 Recall the installation sequence by
foreman
3.1.1 Recall the selected installation - Perception of the selected installation
sequence from the previous step sequence

3.2 Supervise the installation process by
foreman
3.2.1 Perform the work based on an - Perception of details of the selected
installation sequence installation sequence

3.2.2 Inform the stockman to hook a - Perception of a prefabricated member to
prefabricated member be lifted and installed

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3.2.3 Inform the erector to install the - Perception of the location where the
prefabricated member prefabricated member is to be installed
3.2.4 Supervise and cooperate with the personnel - Perception of the installation procedure
in an installation group - Perception of the installation specifications
- Interpretation of construction drawings
- Identification of the prefabricated members
- Identification the resources
- Usage of materials
- Usage of tools
- Usage of measurement tools
- Usage of lifting tools, i.e., cable, shackles, and
hooks
- Communication using hand signals
3.3 Operate the machine by mobile crane operator
3.3.1 Control the machine to move between stock
and house - Operation of the mobile crane to swing between
the stock rack or truck and house
3.3.2 Control the machine to hook, lift, install, - Operation of the mobile crane to hook, lift,
and unhook the prefabricated member install, and unhook the prefabricated member
3.3.3 Cooperate with the personnel in an - Communication using hand signals
installation group
3.4 Hook the prefabricated member by stockman
3.4.1 Find a prefabricated member
- Identification of the prefabricated members
- Perception of the prefabricated member location
3.4.2 Hook the prefabricated member - Working at height
- Usage of lifting tools, i.e., cable, shackles, and
hooks
installation group
3.5 Install the prefabricated member by erectors
3.5.1 Handle the prefabricated member to the
location - Perception of the location where the
prefabricated member is to be installed
- Handling of the prefabricated member
3.5.2 Install the prefabricated member - Perception of the installation procedure
- Perception of the installation specifications
- Usage of materials
- Usage of tools
installation group
3.6 Shore the prefabricated member by erectors
3.6.1 Shore the prefabricated member - Usage of materials
- Usage of tools
- Shoring of the prefabricated member
3.6.2 Adjust the prefabricated member - Usage of materials
- Adjustment of the prefabricated member for
inclination, levelling, and alignment using
material, tools, and physical strength

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3.7 Unhook the prefabricated member by
erectors
3.7.1 Unhook the prefabricated member - Working at height
- Usage of lifting tools, i.e., cable,
shackles, and hooks
3.7.2 Cooperate with an installation - Communication using hand signals
group

4. EVALUATION

After getting the knowledge and skill requirements for the installation of prefabricated
members, the requirements were evaluated by experts with more than three years of
experience in prefabricated construction. The evaluation contained four parts as follows: the
suitability of the work breakdown structure, the importance of each step in the installation,
the completeness of knowledge and skill requirements in each step, and the importance of
each knowledge and skill. The five Likert scale was employed for the evaluations as the
meaning shown in Table 5.

Table 5 Meanings of each Likert scale

Scale Suitable Importance Completeness
1 Totally disagree Very unimportant Very incomplete
2 Disagree Unimportant Incomplete
3 Neutral Neither important or Neither complete or
unimportant incomplete
4 Agree Important Complete
5 Strongly agree Very important Very complete

4.1 The suitability of the work breakdown structure

The experts evaluated the suitability of the work breakdown structure. From the
results in Table 6, the average evaluation score was 4.5, which means the experts totally
agreed with the proposed work breakdown structure of the installation process.

Table 6 The suitability of the work breakdown structure

Evaluation Expert
Average
1 2 3 4 5 6
Suitability of the work breakdown 5 4 4 4 5 5 4.5
structure

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4.2 The importance of each step in the installation

In this part, the experts evaluated each step in the installation in terms of the importance
for installation duration and errors. The results are shown in Table 7 and 8, respectively. From the
results, the importance rankings of each step for both installation duration and errors are
corresponding.
4.3 The completeness of knowledge and skill requirements in each step

In this section, the experts evaluated the completeness of knowledge and skills in each
step of installation. The results are shown in Table 9. From the evaluations, all of the main
installation steps were evaluated above “complete” scale. The experts did not recommend for
additional knowledge and skills for each person in each installation step.

Table 7 The importance in terms of installation duration
Importance of each step Expert

Average

Rank
in the installation process
for installation duration 1 2 3 4 5 6

Step 1: Checking the available 5 5 5 4 5 5 4.83 1
Step 2: Making a decision for an 5 5 3 5 4 4 4.33 3
installation process
Step 3: Installing the prefabricated 5 4 5 5 5 4 4.67 2
members

Table 8 The importance in terms of installation errors
Importance of each step Expert Average

Rank
in the installation process
for installation errors 1 2 3 4 5 6

Step 1: Checking the available 5 5 5 4 5 5 4.83 1
Step 2: Making a decision for an 5 3 3 4 5 5 4.17 3
Step 3: Installing the prefabricated 5 3 5 4 5 4 4.33 2
members

Table 9 The completeness of knowledge and skill requirements in each step
Completeness of Expert
knowledge and skill requirements 1 2 3 4 5 6
Average
in each step of
(1) Checking the available prefabricated members 5 4 4 5 5 4 4.50
(2) Making a decision for an installation process 5 3 4 4 5 4 4.17
(3) Installing the prefabricated members 5 4 4 4 5 3 4.17

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4.4 The importance of each knowledge and skill
The experts also evaluated the importance of a knowledge and skill of each person in
each step. From the results, the knowledge and skill requirements were ranked. The most
three important knowledge and skills can be summarised as shown in Table 10.

Table 10 The most important knowledge and skill requirements in each step
Installation steps The most important knowledge and skills
Step 1: Checking the available - Interpretation of construction drawings
prefabricated members by foreman - Prefabricated member identification
- Perception of prefabricated members in each
building component
Step 2: Making a decision for an - Decision to postpone or continue the installation
installation process by foreman - Generation of installation sequence
- Consideration of the effects of resource
unavailability on the installation process
Step 3: Installing the prefabricated - Interpretation of construction drawings
members by foreman - Perception of the location where the
prefabricated member is to be installed
- Perception of the installation procedure
- Communication using hand signals
Step 3: Installing the prefabricated - Communication using hand signals
members by mobile crane operator - Operation of the mobile crane to hook, lift,
install, and unhook the prefabricated member
- Operation of the mobile crane to swing between
the stock rack or truck and house
Step 3: Installing the prefabricated - Communication using hand signals
members by stockman - Usage of lifting tools, i.e., cable, shackles, and
hooks
- Working at height
Step 3: Installing the prefabricated - Perception of the installation procedure
members by erectors - Perception of the installation specification

5. CONCLUSION

Although the prefabrication seems simple and easy to install, its advantages cannot
always be archived. One of the reasons is the lack of personnel, especially knowledgeable
and skilled personnel. The prefabrication requires knowledge and skills for some special
features such as the sequential work, the usage of special materials and tools. In addition, the
requirements are increasingly important in the changed situation because the provided
information may not appropriate for the personnel in order to perceive the actual condition,
make a decision, and select the countermeasure in a timely manner. This issue is of
considerable concern to industry stakeholders and leads to low productivity and errors.
Therefore, the knowledge and skill requirements have to be revealed in order to train the
personnel, increase productivity, increase the number of qualified personnel, and supply
personnel to the industry.

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From the study, the installation of prefabricated members is performed by a group of
installation which consists of workers, a mobile crane operator, and a foreman. The
installation is broken down into three main steps, i.e., (1) checking the available prefabricated
members, (2) making a decision for an installation process, and (3) installing the
prefabricated members. The work breakdown structure is further broken down into activities
and actions. Thus, the knowledge and skill requirements are analysed individually for each
person in each action. In addition, the changes and errors increase the knowledge and skill
requirements in the installation. Therefore, the knowledge and skill requirements are different
among the personnel and the installation steps based on the person’s roles and
responsibilities.
The knowledge and skill requirements were evaluated by the experts in terms of
importance and completeness. For the importance, the most important step in terms of
installation duration and errors were ranked as follows: checking the available prefabricated
members, installing the prefabricated members, and making a decision for an installation
process. This ranking for both installation duration and errors are corresponding. For the
completeness, all experts evaluated that the lists of knowledge and skill requirements in each
installation step are complete. The experts also evaluated the importance of each knowledge
and skill for each person in each step. However, all knowledge and skills are crucial and
required to complete the installation effectively. The results of this research will be used as
the fundamental in order to train and supply the personnel for prefabricated construction and
develop the automation approach, which reduces the dependency of the personnel’s
knowledge and skills and increases the automation degree in the construction process in the
future.

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