34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34) - Singapore, Singapore - 2026

https://doi.org/10.24928/2026/0270

Carpenters’ workday: Between value-adding work and physical strain

Fillip Holth1, Roar Fosse2 & Frode Drevland3

1M.Sc. Graduate, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, [email protected], orcid.org/0009-0009-0637-877X
2Chief Advisor, Operational Excellence, Skanska Norway, Oslo, Norway, [email protected], orcid.org/0009-0005-9374-7326
3Associate Professor, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, [email protected], orcid.org/0000-0002-4596-1564

Abstract

Productivity improvement efforts in construction often rely on Work Sampling (WS) to increase Direct Work (DW) and reduce Wasted Work (WW). Such time-based metrics rarely account for how shifts in activity change workers’ physical workload. This study examines the descriptive relationship between work categories and observed physical workload in a carpentry team on a Norwegian project. Over five workdays, a dual-coding WS protocol recorded activity type (DW, Indirect Work (IW), WW) and workload. Overall, DW accounted for 41.31% of observations, IW 47.89%, and WW 10.80%. Workload was predominantly Moderate (45.79%), with substantial shares in High (29.39%) and Low (24.83%). Descriptive linear fits showed a positive association between DW and High workload shares (R² = 0.28), and an inverse association between WW and High workload shares (R² = 0.36). Daily questionnaires indicated mental load peaked on the day with the highest WW, linked to organisational challenges. Findings suggest efforts to increase DW may create a denser physical workload profile for carpenters, requiring parallel ergonomic and work structuring measures.

Keywords

Work structuring, waste, value, work sampling, ergonomics.

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Reference in APA 7th edition format:

Holth, F., Fosse, R. & Drevland, F.. (2026). Carpenters’ workday: Between value-adding work and physical strain. In Hamzeh, F., Poshdar, M., & Garcia-Lopez,, N. P. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34) (pp. 1265–1275). https://doi.org/10.24928/2026/0270

Shortened reference for use in IGLC papers:

Holth, F., Fosse, R. & Drevland, F.. (2026). Carpenters’ workday: Between value-adding work and physical strain. IGLC34. https://doi.org/10.24928/2026/0270

 

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