TY  - CONF
TI  - Work skills required for success as a frontline supervisor
C1  - Singapore, Singapore
C3  - Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34)
SP  - 1312
EP  - 1322
PY  - 2026
DO  - 10.24928/2026/0302
AU  - Sultan, Suliaman Al
AU  - Becker, Timothy
AU  - Eiris, Ricardo
AU  - Parrish, Kristen
AD  - Independent Consultant, Kuwait, salsulta@asu.edu
AD  - Eminent Scholar, Del E. Webb School of Construction, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA, timothy.becker2@asu.edu, orcid.org/0000-0002-1153-8282
AD  - Assistant Professor, Del E. Webb School of Construction, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA, reiris@asu.edu, orcid.org/0000-0001-6904-5352
AD  - Professor, Del E. Webb School of Construction, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA, Kristen.Parrish@asu.edu, orcid.org/0000-0002-3307-4693
ED  - Hamzeh, Farook
ED  - Poshdar, Mani
ED  - Garcia-Lopez,, Nelly P.
AB  - Frontline supervisors (FLS), commonly referred to as foremen or forepersons, play a critical role in the construction industry and lean project delivery as they direct the craft workforce and oversee production at the workface. FLS are responsible for ensuring that construction scopes are completed on time, safely, and to the required quality standards, as such, they are often the last planners for construction projects. For the purposes of this paper, an FLS is defined as “a person that is competent in their trade and leads a team of craft personnel and directs them in their day-to-day activities.” The authors conducted focus groups to elucidate the key work skills required for success in the FLS role. The analysis identifies a total of fourteen (14) work skills required for success. The findings can help construction organizations assess whether they are equipping FLS appropriately to successfully deliver projects. Moreover, the lean construction community can consider how to embed lean principles into existing or developing training materials to empower FLS to support lean project delivery at the workface.
KW  - Work skills
KW  - frontline supervisor
KW  - foreperson
KW  - Last Planner.
PB  - 
T2  - Proceedings of the 34th Annual Conference of the International Group for Lean Construction (IGLC 34)
DA  - 2026/06/22
CY  - Singapore, Singapore
L1  - http://iglc.net/Papers/Details/2579/pdf
L2  - http://iglc.net/Papers/Details/2579
N1  - Export Date: 19 June 2026
DB  - IGLC.net
DP  - IGLC
LA  - English
ER  -