Measurement of Labour Productivity in Construction Projects
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Date
2006-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The research is about systematic measurement of labour productivity to indicate
whether construction labor productivity is low in the case of building projects in
Addis Ababa, and if it is; to assess productivity problems and their causes.
A review of other country studies, project reports and consultation with practitioners
were made to identify the productivity problem areas and process factors for inclusion
into the study instruments. A case study of seven projects on three construction trades,
namely concrete, steel reinforcement placing and masonry works, revealed that 11
front line factors are responsible for low productivity; the major ones in the order of
their rank are lack of materials, instruction delay, rework, change of workers, lack
of tools and less work load and congestion.
The research result showed that nearly all projects (except project 5) have a
productivity performance ability ratio (PAR) greater than one indicating that the
studied crews’ productivity performance was low. In addition opinion survey of
foremen on the amount of effective productive time of workers showed that on the
average the studied craftsmen spend only 56% of the total paid time.
An open system theory of management was applied to identify the major managerial
causes of productivity, which resulted in four factors contributory to low labor
productivity; these are: external precondition factors, technical management sub
system, managerial systems and organizational behavior factors. That is; The
causal problems for low productive performance was analyzed and it was found that
unfulfilled conditions from project site external bodies, lack of project management
systems, poor technical management in areas of developing productivity standards
and construction methods, average leadership efficiency and low project culture
towards workers satisfaction are responsible for low productivity performance.
Key words: process factors, open system theory, construction trades, performance
ability ratio (PAR)
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Keywords
process factors; open system theory; construction trades; performance ability ratio (PAR)