Improve Construction Productivity Research Articles

A STUDY ABOUT TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNING FOR RECONSTRUCTION OF PRECAST CONCRETE TO SUPPORT QLASSIC ASSESSMENT

Abstract. Nowadays, terrestrial laser scanning shows the potential to improve construction productivity by measuring the objects changes using real-time applications. This paper presents the process of implementation of an efficient framework for precast concrete using terrestrial laser scanning that enables contractors to acquire accurate data and support Quality Assessment System in Construction (QLASSIC). Leica Scanstation C10, black/white target, Autodesk Revit and Cyclone software were used in this study. The results were compared with the dimensional of based model precast concrete given by the company as a reference with the AutoDesk Revit model from the terrestrial laser scanning data and conventional method (measuring tape). To support QLASSIC, the tolerance dimensions of cast in-situ & precast elements is +10mm / -5mm. The results showed that the root mean square error for a Revit model is 2.972mm while using measuring tape is 13.687mm. The accuracy showed that terrestrial laser scanning has an advantage in construction jobs to support QLASSIC.

Modular Buildings in Modern Construction

The article considers temporary methods of using modular units in construction. The advanced world experience in the construction of modular buildings is analyzed. It is emphasized that modular construction has the potential to shorten project design and engineering time, reduce costs and improve construction productivity. The installation of modular buildings is cost-efficient, safe and eco-friendly. Modern modular systems are based on using not only large elements such as «block rooms» but various small 3D building elements. The analysis result of Russian developments in the construction of modular buildings proves that Russia has great experience in the development of 3D reinforced concrete modules. As the research results the article shows promise for developing of modern modular construction systems in order to provide the population with affordable, comfortable and eco-friendly housing. The paper describes the prospects and relevance of introducing modular prefabricated units not only into low-rise but into multi-storey and high-rise construction as well.

Measuring the impact of BIM on labor productivity in a small specialty contracting enterprise through action-research

Abstract Productivity in the construction industry is a well-documented and expansive field of research. It benefits from over four decades of research that have developed models and methods for evaluation and identified multiple factors that influence it. In parallel, building information modeling (BIM) has emerged as a disruptive innovation, showing great potential to mitigate many of the factors negatively affecting construction productivity. Indeed, studies are increasingly looking into the impact of BIM on project performance. Improving construction productivity, labor productivity in particular, is one of the widely reported benefits. For organizations looking to transition to BIM, being able to grasp these benefits and quantify their impact is extremely important to ensure the viability of the BIM implementation process. This article presents the findings of an action-research project undertaken with a small mechanical contractor which investigates the impact of BIM on labor productivity on a large commercial project. The objective of the action-research was to assist the organization in reconfiguring its performance measurement practices in light of the transition to BIM and prefabrication. The article discusses the challenges of this reconfiguration and presents the findings from the performance measurement process which was put in place. The findings suggest a clear positive impact of BIM on labor productivity on the project studied: the areas that were modeled and prefabricated showed an increase in productivity ranging from 75% to 240% over the areas that were not modeled. More importantly, however, the article operationalizes a strategy allowing organizations to consistently assess their performance relating to labor productivity.

Method to Assess the Level of Implementation of Productivity Practices on Industrial Projects

AbstractBased on observations of industrial construction sites, it is evident that most industrial projects do not effectively implement historically successful management practices that have the potential to improve construction productivity. Also, these practices are seldom implemented consistently from project to project. To help address this problem, the authors identified essential management practices for productivity improvement and developed the Best Productivity Practices Implementation Index for Industrial Projects (BPPII Industrial) based on these practices. The BPPII Industrial is a method and metric for assessing the planning and implementation levels of key practices needed to ensure high levels of labor productivity. The practices included in the proposed method are those that are widely accepted in academia and industry to have a positive impact on labor productivity. This paper presents the development, verification, and validation of the BPPII Industrial. This paper’s primary contributio...

Improving construction productivity: a subcontractor's perspective

Purpose – Surprisingly, given the prominence and front-line role of subcontractors in the construction industry, their perspective is almost completely absent from construction productivity literature. Existing research in this area presents a highly one-sided principal contractor perspective and there are very few insights into what subcontractors think. The purpose of this paper is to address the imbalance by investigating the determinants of construction productivity from a subcontractor's perspective. Design/methodology/approach – Focus groups with 71 of Australia's leading tier-one subcontractors were conducted with the aim of exploring their insights into the productivity challenge. Findings – The findings indicate that the main determinants of productivity for subcontractors are: the quality of relationships with principal contractors; opportunity for early involvement in design; transparent tender practices; growing administration and document control; design management; project management and supervisory skills, particularly in planning, scheduling and coordination; risk management and; industrial relations (IR). Research limitations/implications – This research was conducted in Australia and similar research needs to be conducted in other countries to cross-reference and validate the results more widely. Practical implications – In practical terms, a “culture” of productivity improvement will need to be “nurtured” across the business and supply chain if productivity is to be improved. In particular contractors should avoid bid shopping, respect subcontractor IP and talk to subcontractors earlier in a project. Social implications – By respecting the opinions of subcontractors who employ the vast majority of workers in the construction industry, productivity and employment can be increased. Originality/value – The focus group results add significantly to a more balanced understanding of what has hitherto been a one-sided principal contractor focused debate.

Framework for enhanced progress tracking and control of linear projects

Purpose – This paper aims at improving progress tracking and control of repetitive projects by developing a novel framework that automates the documentation of as-built information directly into the project schedule and also introduces enhanced linear scheduling formulation to support project control decisions. Design/methodology/approach – The proposed framework uses e-mail technology to facilitate detailed tracking of daily as-built events of all parties through bidirectional communication between site and head office. It also provides a new formulation for more accurate critical path and linear scheduling computation to accurately update the project's time and cost during construction. Findings – Using a case study of a road project, the paper proves that the proposed framework reduces as-built documentation effort and its schedule updates are more responsive to all as-built events than traditional scheduling techniques. Research limitations/implications – The proposed method applies to linear projects (e.g. highways) and can be extended to other repetitive projects such as high-rise buildings. It can also be extended to include voice features and procedures for forensic schedule analysis. Practical implications – The developed methodology presents a low-cost approach to document timely progress information for decision makers of massive linear projects (often associated with infrastructure) to have better control over the execution of projects, save documentation time and cost, and avoid disputes and problems. Originality/value – This research contributes in improving construction productivity by collecting timely as-built information using affordable communication technologies. It also presents novel advancements to the existing scheduling and control techniques to suit linear projects, which are most challenging.

Flexible management of repetitive construction processes by an intelligent support system

Constant advances in construction planning and site management are crucial to improving construction productivity. This paper presents an intelligent system MoCCAS (a monolithic construction computer aided system), which is a comprehensive decision support tool for flexible construction site management in repetitive projects. MoCCAS aids the construction site manager in developing optimal and attainable execution scenarios by providing contextualized variants of construction strategies. The discussion is centered on the modeling procedures of repetitive processes with the special focus on the synchronization of resources and workflow continuity, which is crucial in scheduling and managing repetitive projects. The paper introduces an innovative conceptualization of the construction process and presents a dynamic three-dimensional construction process model in a temporal perspective. How the system synchronizes the work of resources combined into a balanced production sets and also supports the decision maker in creating what-if scenarios in designing execution strategies is discussed.

An Automated Progress Tracking System for Industrial Facility Construction Projects

As amount of information in construction industry is growing, the role of information system in project management is becoming increasingly important. With the emerging IT application to the advancing construction industry, construction project management system with advanced technology has been progressed vigorously to improve construction productivity and management efficiency. Recently, a web-based Project Management Information System (PMIS) is developed to support decision-making process by efficiently managing project related information generated from various discipline. Many firms are in the process of developing the PMIS system or already have been applied the system to various projects. However, PMIS is still in its early stage of development to be applied at industrial plant construction projects. With the complexity of the industrial plant projects, the industry practitioners need to be able to visualize the construction schedule information to manage the project efficiently. This study suggests methodologies for improving PMIS specialized for industrial plant piping construction projects to estimate the baseline schedule and performance measurement more accurately by developing a framework for the piping construction projects. By using this developed system, the researchers expect that piping construction projects will be more efficiently managed on a real-time basis through measuring progress of piping at each and every state of progress milestone and provide management with opportunities to forecast the level of efforts required to execute the remaining work scope in a timely manner.

Comparison of the Factors Improving Construction Productivity between Korean and Chinese Laborers in Korea

Over last 40 years, productivity improvement has been a critical goal for the successful completion of projects in the construction industry. Recently, in Korea, foreign laborers, particularly Chinese laborers, have substituted domestic laborers. To improve construction productivity, an understanding of the characteristics of Chinese laborers is essential. Therefore, this study identified factors influencing the construction productivity of Korean and Chinese laborers, and compared their importance. Through the questionnaire survey, the importance and the ranking in three categories (economic, social, and psychological factors) were evaluated. This result will be useful for project managers to develop strategies to improve construction productivity.

Development and implementation of a benchmarking and metrics program for construction performance and productivity improvement1This paper is one of a selection of papers in this Special Issue on Construction Engineering and Management.

To improve construction productivity and performance, it must be measured. The Construction Sector Council (CSC) has started a Labour Productivity and Project Performance Benchmarking Program for the infrastructure sector of the construction industry in Canada. Metrics were developed for project cost, time, safety, and quality performance; labour productivity; rework; project conditions; and management practices related to health and safety. Data from 19 projects located in different regions of Canada were collected and analyzed. Based on the results and on industry feedback, additional metrics for practices related to project planning, materials management, and construction supervisory skills development were developed. This paper describes the development of the program. Lessons learned during the development and implementation of the benchmarking and metrics program are summarized and steps to establish a sustainable program are identified. It is concluded that a successful program is feasible and has the potential to have broad impact.

Streamlining the Construction Productivity Improvement Process with the Proposed Role of a Construction Productivity Improvement Officer

Construction productivity improvement has become a key area of focus among academia and industry over the last decade attributable to its strong potential in benefitting the construction industry. Despite its high impact on the construction industry, productivity improvement is still an area in which much research work needs to be done to explore its true potential in a practical industry context. Today’s construction industry seems to adopt productivity improvement initiatives to gain a competitive edge in the global market place; however, systematization of these approaches is still an area of concern. This paper discusses a framework for the implementation of productivity improvement activities on a construction site, making the process more systematic, accountable, and sustainable with the creation of the construction productivity improvement officer (CPIO), a dedicated position, on construction sites.

Model to Predict the Impact of a Technology on Construction Productivity

Although some new technologies promise to improve construction productivity, their ability to deliver is not always realized. Building on a great deal of prior research, a four-stage predictive model was developed and validated to estimate the potential for a technology to have a positive impact on construction productivity. The four stages examine the costs, feasibility, usage history, and technical impact of a technology. The predictive model combines results from historical analyses to formalize how selected technologies with improved construction productivity can be used as a predictor of how future technologies might do the same. Each of the stages of a predictive model was subdivided into a series of categories and questions, which were weighted by importance by using the analytic hierarchy process and historical analysis to generate a performance score for the analyzed technology. The predictive model was then validated by using 74 previous and existing construction technologies. Statistical analysis confirmed that average performance scores produced by the model were significantly different across the categories of successful, inconclusive, and unsuccessful in the actual implementation experience of technologies.

A novel solution for construction on-site communication – the information booth

A recent study on construction productivity improvement at the University of Calgary revealed the direct tool time (working time) of Alberta’s commercial construction to be about 51%. This study exposed inadequate communication and unavailability of required information as the main causes for a relatively lower tool time. Use of information technology (IT) to overcome widely visible communication issues was extremely limited at the construction site level. Construction companies’ hesitation to adopt new technologies was well noted whereas construction workers expressed their willingness and ability to use IT at the site level. The objective of this paper is to discuss the concept and the application of a novel communication tool (called an information booth) developed and pilot tested at a construction project. The concept and the technology presented in this paper have been tested at an actual construction project resulting in improvements in construction productivity, worker satisfaction, and efficiency. This paper also elaborates the rationale for a new technological framework (and the information booth), barriers for technology implementation, research objectives, methodology, and data analysis.

Relationship between Changes in Material Technology and Construction Productivity

There have been substantial changes in both material technology and construction productivity over the past several decades. By analyzing the changes in both material technology and productivity among 100 construction activities from 1977 to 2004, this research examines the strength and types of relationships that exist within these two occurrences. Through analysis of variance (ANOVA) and regression analyses, the researchers found that activities experiencing significant changes in material technology have also experienced substantially greater long-term improvements in both their labor and partial factor productivity. The research did find that a stronger relationship exists between changes in material technology and partial factor productivity than in labor productivity. The research also found that changes in the unit weight of materials had a significant relationship to labor productivity, while changes in installation and modularity had a significant relationship to partial factor productivity. The research findings will help industry practitioners to better understand how they may leverage technology to improve construction productivity, while also helping researchers understand the theoretical relationships between technology and construction productivity.

In Memoriam—Diego Echeverry

Diego Echeverry, founder and director of the Construction Engineering and Management Graduate Area in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Universidad de los Andes, Bogota, Colombia, was killed by a stray bullet on August 24, 2008, as he drove home from the University. This tragedy came as a shock to many of us who had worked with Diego over the years, had simply been associated with him in some way, or had just had a chance to know him as a person. Dr. Echeverry earned his bachelor of science in civil engineering from the Universidad de los Andes in 1980. He then came to the United States and completed both a master of science 1985 and Ph.D. 1991 in civil engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. After graduation from Illinois, he returned to Colombia to accept a position as an assistant professor of civil engineering at the Universidad de los Andes. In 1994, he was appointed as an associate professor at the Universidad de los Andes. He maintained his relationship with the University of Illinois by returning in the summers of 1996, 1997, and 1998 as a visiting associate professor. In 1998, he founded and became the leader of the Construction Engineering and Management Research Group CIGEC at his University. The CIGEC center was dedicated to low-income housing research and various areas related to improving construction productivity. In 2007, Diego was invited to submit a paper about the work of this center for the special 50th anniversary issue of the Journal see “Affordable Housing in Latin America: Improved Role of the Academic Sector in the Case of Colombia,” Vol. 133, No. 9, pp. 684–689 . Professor Echeverry was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and had served as a reviewer for the Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering and the Journal of Infrastructure

Application of AHP in improving construction productivity from a management perspective

Poor productivity of construction workers is one of the major causes of cost overruns and schedule slippages in construction projects. Anecdotal evidence suggests that workers' attitudes towards higher productivity may not be limited to purely financial rewards, but inherently linked to many other latent factors. Some building construction projects in Melbourne are compared to each other to ascertain the factors that influence productivity. The factors and their relative importance impacting on workers' productivity are investigated by using a structured questionnaire survey approach. The survey was formulated with 72 questions covering three broad categories, namely (1) project planning; (2) incentives/disincentives; and (3) job satisfaction. Perceived best practices that impact on improvement of productivity on site were identified from 19 targeted experts. Analytical hierarchy process shows that the biggest influences on productivity are planning and programming. The outcome of this study should assist management decisions in determining the effect on productivity and suggest possible improvements to establish the appropriate management procedures for most productive use of labour resources in construction projects.

Carpentry workers issues and efficiencies related to construction productivity in commercial construction projects in Alberta

For decades, many researchers have reported the decline in construction productivity, but it is impossible to generalize the productivity problems due to issues such as geographical differences, weather changes, skill level differences in the labour force, and workload demand. There are currently approximately 160 000 construction workers in Alberta, and the value of ongoing and future projects in the oil and gas sector alone is over Can$200 billion. Because of the high demand and necessity for a comprehensive research study for Alberta to improve construction productivity, a 2 year study commenced with the collaboration of four eminent contractors to investigate human, management, and external issues. Under human issues, 101 construction workers in the carpentry trade were observed, interviewed, and surveyed by questionnaire. This paper discusses the research method, results, and recommendations of the productivity research specific to the human issues. These recommendations were communicated to the contractors for improving the human issues by developing and analyzing a new expectancy model considering construction workers' effort and performance and the tool times observed to mitigate the reasons for non-tool time.Key words: construction productivity, worker motivation, expectancy theory, tool time, construction workers.

An analytical method to predict soil types for underground construction operations

Modeling uncertainty is generally considered to be a challenging task due to the nature and occurrence of unforeseen events. The prediction of soil types between the boreholes of a tunnel construction project is very uncertain in the current practice. The successful implementation of a special purpose tunneling simulation template for project planning and decision making for tunnel construction projects identified that the modeling of uncertainties such as soil conditions could provide better results. The prediction of soil types along the tunnel trajectory is discussed in this paper using an analytical method for construction purposes. The prediction of soil types and the combinations of soils from the surficial soil layer to the bottommost soil layer along the tunnel path has been successfully validated by applying the modeling concepts during geological exploration of an actual tunnel construction project in Edmonton. The modeling concept also assists in reducing the uncertainty between boreholes, thereby allowing prediction of the transitions of soils in the tunnel trajectory that are then implemented within a special purpose simulation template for tunnel construction operations to improve construction productivity assessment accuracy.

Improved productivity using a modified table formwork system for high-rise building in Korea

Recently, construction of high-rise buildings in Korea has increased. However, the traditional formwork has disadvantages, such as low productivity, labour intensiveness, and long cycle times. Formwork is one of the largest cost components of a concrete building's structure, and is a factor with significant impact on construction duration. This paper proposes a modified table formwork system (MTFS) that can improve construction productivity, reduce labour requirements, accelerate construction schedules, and significantly reduce construction costs. A case study was performed to verify the validity of the MTFS by comparing schedules and costs of the MTFS with those of the traditional formwork system (TFS).

Total factor productivity in Singapore construction

This study uses the Tornqvist index to estimate the total factor productivity (TFP) for the Singapore construction industry between 1980 and 1996. Throughout the period, the main contribution to real construction output growth was capital accumulation. TFP was found to be negative, indicating that construction productivity growth has not been spectacular, even in a dynamic and rapidly growing economy such as Singapore. The result is in broad agreement with previous estimates of TFP for the entire Singapore economy. A lot needs to be done to improve construction productivity, as the industry cannot continue to grow by increasing factor inputs indefinitely without an accompanying rise in efficiency.