Identifying factors affecting construction labour productivity in India and measures to improve productivity

Abstract

The construction industry is one of the largest industries in India. But the majority of the construction projects have suffered from delays. Lower than expected labour productivity has been a frequent cause of delay in construction projects. Although measuring labour productivity is easy and straightforward, controlling it is often not so. This study makes an attempt at identifying top factors that influence labour productivity. The uniqueness of this research is that it is one of the very few attempts in capturing the perception of construction workmen directly, instead of managers or supervisors. The results should be useful for construction project managers in improving labour productivity at their sites. A survey of construction workmen has been conducted to gauge their perception of what influences their efficiency at work. The factors identified this way were ranked using the Relative Importance Index (RII) method from the level of importance assigned by the respondents on a 0–3 scale. Furthermore, a survey of managing engineers, who are involved directly with construction labour in producing construction works, has been used to identify the measures to improve labour productivity at the site. These factors were also ranked based on their effectiveness rated by the participants of the survey using RII. These measures identified in the second phase of the study were mapped with the factors they mitigate. These results should assist project management teams to extract the optimum amount of work from construction labour. They can use the measures recommended in this study proactively to keep productivity at optimum levels and also identify the early signs of deteriorating productivity.