Crew Composition, Cost, and Optimization: A Critical Part of Work Planning

A construction work task is only as good as the crew assigned to perform it.

When planning a work activity, it is not enough to know what work needs to be done. The engineer also needs to determine:

• Who is needed to perform the work?
• How many workers are required?
• What equipment is required?
• What are the hourly labor and equipment costs?
• How many hours will the crew work?
• How much work should the crew produce in a day?
• What happens to cost and production if conditions change?

This is crew composition and optimization.

Consider a simple earthwork task: Doze and push topsoil to stockpile locations on site.

The crew might include a foreman, laborers, and a power equipment operator, along with a crawler dozer. Each person and piece of equipment has a cost, and the combination of labor, equipment, hours, and production determines the cost of performing the work.

But selecting a crew is only the beginning.

The real planning question is:

Can this crew produce the required quantity at an acceptable cost?

That is where crew optimization becomes important.

A field engineer can perform “what-if” analysis by changing equipment, hourly rates, crew size, hours worked, or planned daily production and then observing the effect on:

Production → Labor Hours → Cost → Gain/Loss

For example, what happens if a different dozer is selected?

What happens if the daily production changes from 2,000 CY to 2,500 or 2,800 CY?

What happens if the crew works fewer hours?

These seemingly small changes can have a significant impact on production and cost.

The goal is not simply to build the largest crew or select the most powerful equipment.

The goal is to develop the right crew for the work and understand how that crew is expected to perform under the planned conditions.

This is an important part of work planning and cost estimating because the estimate establishes expectations before the work begins.

Good planning allows the engineer to answer:

“What should this crew accomplish today, and what will it cost us to do it?”

Even better, it allows the engineer to ask:

“What if conditions change?”

That insight helps the engineer make better decisions before problems occur, not after the day’s production and costs have already been recorded.

Crew composition and optimization turn a construction estimate into an operating plan.

That is an important construction practice skill for anyone responsible for planning, estimating, and managing field operations.

Project Scenario: Take Over the Drilled Pile Concrete Placement Operation

You have recently joined a heavy civil construction company as a Project Engineer. The Superintendent assigns you responsibility for managing a portion of the foundation operation because the engineer who was previously managing the work has been promoted to Project Manager and reassigned to another project. The work currently involves Foundations – Drilled Concrete Pile, and your immediate responsibility is to prepare for the Place and Consolidate Concrete (Use Tremie Method as Required) work task.

Before the operation begins, the Superintendent asks you to use the Crew Assembly/Composition App to build an appropriate crew for the task. Using the available labor and equipment database, select the workers and equipment you believe are required to safely and efficiently perform the concrete placement operation. Consider the responsibilities of each crew member, the equipment needed, and how the crew must work together to maintain continuous concrete placement. Your challenge is to build the crew and determine whether your selected crew is the right crew for the work task.

Use the labor and construction equipment crew selection and optimization App/Form below to build a simple crew for the following:

• Unit of Work: Foundations
• Item of Work: Drilled Concrete Pile
• Work Task: Place and Consolidate Concrete (Use Tremie Method as Required)