Source: Untar Public Relations – CS
Dr. Saut Batara Siahaan developed an adaptive model for planning the allocation of skilled professionals in construction projects through his dissertation titled “Modeling Risk- and Effectiveness-Based Multi-Project Skilled Workforce Allocation Using a System Dynamics Approach,” which he defended during the open examination of the Doctoral Program in Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Tarumanagara (Untar), on Tuesday (30/06/2026) at Campus I of Untar.
The model was designed to help companies allocate skilled professionals more accurately across multiple concurrent construction projects by taking project risks and implementation effectiveness into account.
The research was motivated by the challenges of managing skilled professionals in industrial facility construction projects carried out simultaneously. Such conditions often lead to imbalances in workforce demand, resulting in project delays, increased costs, and reduced implementation effectiveness.
Using a system dynamics approach, Saut developed a model that integrates project risk, multi-project risk, and implementation effectiveness to dynamically predict the demand for skilled professionals. The model enables companies to adjust workforce requirements according to changing project conditions, thereby improving the accuracy of resource planning.
The study found that the demand for skilled professionals changes in response to project risk levels and different phases of project implementation. The proposed model consistently captures these changes while providing estimates of the additional workforce capacity required to respond to project dynamics.
“When workforce requirements can be planned more accurately, the development of industrial facilities and infrastructure can be completed on time, allowing their benefits to be delivered to the public more quickly,” said the Balige, North Sumatra-born researcher.
The dissertation also introduces a novel contribution by integrating project risk, multi-project risk, and implementation effectiveness into a single system dynamics model for skilled workforce planning in multi-project environments. The findings are expected to serve as a reference for the construction industry in developing more adaptive workforce management strategies while contributing to the advancement of project management research based on system dynamics.
At the conclusion of the examination, Saut was declared to have successfully completed the program and was officially conferred as the 112th doctoral graduate of Untar’s Doctoral Program in Civil Engineering. (CS/YS)