Factors Affecting Workers Productivity in Building Projects
CHAPTER ONE
- Objectives of study
The objective of this study focuses on views from the construction industry about various factors affecting worker productivity, analyzes factors affecting the worker productivity impact, and suggests appropriate measures that can be taken to improve worker productivity. The aim is supported by the objective stated below.
- Study and discuss various factors affecting worker productivity in construction industry.
- Analyze and calculate the Relative Important Index (RII) of those factors affecting worker productivity.
- To statistically analyze the factors affecting worker productivity.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Background about Productivity
Productivity is generally defined as the average direct worker hours required to install a unit of material. It is said that perfect productivity (1.0) can be achieved with a 40-hour work week, with people taking all the holidays and vacation days as planned all of the engineering drawings would be 100% complete there would be no delays of any kind during construction; everyone would work safely; everything would fit perfectly the first time; the weather would be 70o F; and there would be no litigation at the end of the project (Rowlinson and Proctor, 1999).
Definition of Productivity in Construction Industry
The term “productivity” expresses the relationship between outputs and inputs (Borcherding and Liou, 1986). Output and input differ from one industry to another. Also, the productivity definition varies when applied to different areas of the same industry. Worker is one of the basic requirements in the construction industry. Worker productivity usually relates manpower in terms of worker cost to the quantity of outputs produced (Borcherding and Liou, 1986). In other words, the definition of worker productivity is the amount of goods and services produced by a productive factor (manpower) in the unit of time (Drewin, 1982).
In 1883, Littre defined productivity as the “faculty to produce,” that is, the desire to produce (Jarkas, 2005). In 1950, the Organization for European Economic Cooperation (OEEC) introduced the definition of productivity as a quotient obtained by dividing the output by one of the production factors (Sumanth, 1984). Depending on measurement objectives and the availability of data, several productivity definitions are encountered. The U.S. Department of Commerce defined productivity as “dollars of output per person-hour of worker input” (Adrian, 1987).
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
“Survey research is defined as collection of different data by asking people questions” (Fowler, 1993). The data collection process used in this research had the option of two basic methods: questionnaires and personal interviews. A questionnaire was preferred as the best effective and suitable data-collection technique for the study. It was concluded that the questionnaire was described as a self-administered tool with web-design questions, an appropriate response. A questionnaire in a web-survey format comparatively requires less duration and saves cost for the researcher while permits respondents to response the questionnaire at their personal ease. However, for this approach the reply rate is usually lower as compared to face-to-face interviews. Data was collected from literature reviews from books, journals, articles, seminar conferences, and websites which emphasize building construction’s worker productivity. A survey was given to employees from different trades involved with the construction project.
CHAPTER FOUR
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
Data Collected from the Web Survey
In successfully achieving main objective of the study, one of the most important phase is collection of accurate data. Data collection is a procedure of collecting crucial data records for a certain sample or population of observations (Bohrnstedt and Knoke, 1994). A total of 255 questionnaires were sent to construction professional through e-mail in early October 2009. By the due date, a total of 54 questionnaires were received, resulting in a nearly 21.17% reply rate (Table 3.1). Missing data frequently occur after the respondent chooses not to response a question or when the respondent rejects to answer the question. (Kim, 1993). The most serious concern presented in the responses was some missing data. Some of the unclear response was clarified over the phone. A total of 26 (i.e., 10.19%) invalid data received were deleted from research study. The reason to discard the data was incompleteness and invalid responses.
CHAPTER FIVE
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
Recommendations
Construction tasks are expensive and frequently cause in arguments and claims, which generally affects progress of construction projects. The environment of construction organizations should be suitable to implement projects with successful completion. In the construction industry, it is necessary to find the weaknesses of particular task in order to solve and overcome them. Mentioned below are the recommendations which were found to be important factors for improving worker productivity in the construction industry.
- A detail schedule of material supply schedule for each project should be provided by the contractors. It should contain the time required to supply materials and the availability of the local market to furnish the required materials in time. Extra attention is required on quality of construction materials and tools used in their projects because using suitable materials and tools reduces both the time taken to finish the work and wastage of materials. Using suitable materials and tools also has a positive effect on the task and thus, better worker productivity can be achieved.
- Organizations should make sure there is enough lighting present at the construction sites which can indirectly reduce the number of accidents. Continuous safety training and meetings should be arranged to achieve better performance in worker productivity.
- Purchased material should be stored at appropriate location and should be easily accessible and close to constructed buildings to avoid wasting worker time for multiple- handling materials.
- Recruiting manager and project managers should recruit appropriate candidate to particular task. Friendly relations should be maintained with workers and made aware of their importance to the organization To achieve desired results, time required to implement change orders and to make corrections in drawings and specifications should be estimated and scheduled without affecting the project-time completion. Regular meetings should be arranged with the project authorities.
- Various external and natural factor risk should be considered in the budget estimation to minimize delays due to closures and material shortages. There should be suitable emergency budget to cover cost of increased material.
- A financial incentive in the form of best employee of the year should be implemented to create competition among the employees, thus achieving better productivity.
Conclusion
In today’s world, the construction industry is rated as one of the key industry. It helps in developing and achieving the goal of society. Study and knowledge of construction productivity are very important because they cause losses to the governing agencies and also influence the economics of the construction industry. Prior knowledge of worker productivity during construction can save money and time. Investments for these projects are very high and because of the complexity in construction, various factors can highly affect overall productivity, thus the project can end up adding even more time and money in order to be completed. This research is intended to identify the causes of probable factors affecting worker productivity in building construction. This study investigates all possible factors through a structured questionnaire administered all over Nigeria. The survey results are subjected to analysis, and the ranking of factors is calculated using the Relative Important Index. The basic ideas of the research is to study various factors affecting worker productivity on construction.
REFERENCES
- Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE), International Recommended Practice No. 25R-03 (2004). Estimating Lost Worker Productivity in Construction Claims
- Abdul Kadir, M. R., Lee, W. P., Jaafar, M. S., Sapuan, S. M., and Ali, A. A. (2005). “Factors affecting construction worker productivity for Malaysian residential projects.” Structure Survey, 23(1), 42-54.
- Adrian, J. (1987). Construction Productivity Improvement. Elsevier Science Publishing, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
- Adrian, J. (1990). Improving Construction Productivity Seminar, Minneapolis, MN. The Association of General Contractors of Nigeria.
- Alarcon, L. F Borcherding, J. D., and. (1991). “Quantitative effects on construction productivity.” The Construction Lawyer, Nigerian Bar Association, 11(1), 35-48.