ALIYU ADAM MIKAIL

UM69444SCI78578

Civil Engineering
Productivity in Civil Engineering Construction

ATLANTIC INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

HONOLULU, HAWAII

September, 2023
Introduction
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First of all this assignment is going to look at how beneficial productivity is to the
civil engineering. Productivity as an integral part of civil engineering, is very
important aspect that becomes indispensable to the discipline.

This assignment will also give an insight into what productivity is all about.
Productivity can simply be defined as what was produced at a particular time.

The assignment will also elaborate on nine factors that are affecting productivity
these factors include: Labor, Management, Materials, Regulatory issues,
Engineering, Construction technique, financial, Equipment and Environment.

The assignment will also look at the concepts of waste in construction industry,
which is all about something that does not add value to the production process; this
has two stages which include design and implementation.

Lastly the assignment will explain measurement of construction site, which is

aimed at determining, whether the guidelines are adhered to as required by the
client.

Productivity in civil engineering construction

The construction industry has an important role to play in developing

countries like: Nigeria which is struggling to provide the basic infrastructure
needed for development. The oil boom years of 1970 brought about a rapid
increase in construction activities, with resultant expansion in the numbers of
contractors and consultants. The Federal Government of Nigeria has continuously
been investing in infrastructure, in all its budgetary allocation. According to
Zakariyya (2008), construction activity is an integral part of a country's
infrastructure and industrial development. It includes: hospitals, schools, township-
offices and other buildings. Covering as it does such as wide spectrum. Building

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construction becomes one of the basic inputs for economic development. It
generates substantial employment and provides a growth input to other sectors. It
becomes essential therefore, that this vital activity is nurtured for the healthy
growth of the economy.

The importance of productivity in any firm or organization cannot be

overemphasized. The production process involves: the coefficient utilization of
various forms of resources which include human, materials, equipment, capital,
land, time and labor. The benefits that are derived from the production activities
can be measured only by the productivity. Increased productivity can lead to
increased production and hence higher profits. Improvement in living standards of
workers can enable the construction industry to provide the additional houses and
roads required by the nation; assist the contracting companies to meet the ever
increasing competition. A major problem with the terms 'productivity' is that it
means different things to different people. Economists determine it from gross
national product (GNP), accountants view it in terms of financial ratios or
budgetary variances while the engineers considers it in terms of the relationship
between goods and services produced and the resources employed in their
production. On the other hand, Pilcher (1992) viewed productivity as the rate of
production.

Meaning of productivity

The term "productivity" is viewed in terms of labor utilization i.e. man-hour

per day and capacity utilization i.e. production or per man power efficiency.
According to Telsang (2002), the engineers think of the term productivity in terms
of more output per hour, but simply put productivity is the rate of production.
According to Adrian (1976), Productivity is the efficiency with which people

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transform materials through labor and equipment into a final project. Akpujiha
(2004) however viewed productivity as doing things at the right at the least
possible cost, in the least possible time, with the highest possible quality and to
level of satisfaction of the customer and employees. To Akpujiha (2004),
productivity actually means producing better and not necessarily more and that
productivity should not be equated with quality rather, quality is an important
condition for productivity. This is in the sense that with high quality, we would
have fewer rejects, less work, less wastages, better sales and hence higher
productivity.

According to Nwachukwu (1988), productivity is the output resulting from a

given resource input at a given time. Nwachukwu (1988) viewed a good definition
of productivity to include three major elements - output, resources committed, and
or time.

Telsang (2002), gave a general view of productivity as the relationship

between goods and services produced and the resources employed in their
production i.e. the arithmetic ratio of amount produced (output) to the amount of
resources (input). Thus, Telsang (2002) gave a mathematical relationship for
productivity as;

Amount produced (output)

Productivity = _____________________
Amount of resources (input)
Pilcher defined productivity as the rate of producing (1992). To Pilcher,
productivity refers to the rate at which resources are utilized. This is further
supported by Telsang (2002) where he viewed productivity as an indicator of how
well the factors of production i.e. land, capital, labor and energy are utilized.

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 Calvert (1986), differentiated between industrial and building productivity
ratios where he stated that:

"Industrial productivity is the arithmetic ratio between the work produced and the
total resources used where as a building productivity ratio is the measured value
of construction divided by the total cost of labor, plant and materials".

From the various definitions of productivity, it can be inferred that the term
'productivity' cannot be separated from the idea of measurement which according
to Okechukwu (1983), to be able to identify changes in productivity; we must
establish standards against which standards must be measured.

Akpujiha (2004), classified productivity measures into single factor of

productivity (SFP) and total factor of productivity (TFP). According to Akpujiha
(2004), the productivity of a resource say labor, measures only the efficiency and
effectiveness with which that single resource is used to produced output and this is
the single factor of productivity whereas the total factor of productivity (TFP) is a
measure of all resources. Akpujiha (2004) considered the total factor of
productivity measure to be the most accurate but most difficult to measure.
Resource input at the project site includes: co-workers, materials, machineries and
the budgeted money upon which the success of a project depends on the
performance of these resources. According to Chitkara (1998), productivity
provides a scale to measure the performance of these input resources. Depending
upon the individual resource input, the single factor of productivity (SFP)
measures is generally expressed as;

Total output
Single factor of productivity (SFP) = ____________________
Individual resource input

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 Where the individual resource input could be labor, capital, material or
energy.

Thus, Telsang (2002) categorized single factor of productivity measures as

follows:

Total productivity
Labor productivity = _______________
Labor input

Where labor input is measured in terms of man-hours

Total output
Capital productivity = ___________
Capital input

Total output
Material productivity = ___________
Material input

Total output
Energy productivity = ___________
Energy input

Total tangible output

Total factor of productivity (TFP) = ________________
Total tangible input

Where;

Total tangible output = value of finished goods produced + value of partial units
produced + dividends from securities + interest + other income.

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 Total tangible input = value of human + material + capital + energy + other
inputs used.

Factors affecting productivity in building project

In response to the growing need to improve productivity and thereby derive

the resultant benefits, much work has been done to identify the factors that affect
productivity in building projects. A review of such work like Oglesby, Parker and
Howell (1989), Banik (1999), Dalman (1995) cited in Akpujiha (2004) identified a
myriad of factors that exercise influence over the construction productivity. These
factors according to Akpujiha (2004) can be broadly classified into nine categories:

1- Labor: This has been considered as the most important factor that exercises
influence over the construction productivity. Factors include; union activities,
rate of turnover, provision of welfare for workforce and availability of quality
workforce.
2- Management: Good management results in enhanced profitability and success,
while bad management has been found to be responsible for over half of the
time wasted on project. Factors includes; use of project scheduling technique,
adoption of measures to boost workers morale, labor effective, supervision,
relationship between consultants and contractors.
3- Materials: Materials are central to the construction process because that is what
other inputs would be applied to for the end results to be achieved. Factors
include; implementation of detailed material delivery, and control schedule,
adequacy of site storage facilities and quality of material.
4- Regulatory Issues: Regulations and regulatory bodies exist to protect the
society at large and participants in the construction industry. They also ensure
an orderly growth of the construction industry. Uncontrolled enforcement of

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 these regulations sometimes stifles the productivity of the construction industry.
Factors include; compliance with local codes, compliance with the requirement
of professional regulatory bodies e.g. ASCE, COREN, Fire service agency and
other agencies that compliance with employee health and safety regulation.
5- Engineering: The soundness of engineering decisions has a strong impact on
the efficiency of development of all the inputs of contractors. Factors include;
the constructability of designs, adoption of standard specifications and quality
of site documentation. According to James et al (2004), the construction
industry has been criticized for its slow adoption of emerging technologies.
However, it is believed that in recent years this trend has been changing.
Greater demand for more cost-effective and schedule effective projects have led
to a new project delivery processes, many of which exploit technologies that
serve to either integrate or automate tasks.
6- Construction Technique: The appropriateness of the techniques adopted on a
projects impacts seriously on productivity. Factors include; policy of using pre-
cast elements and policy of pre-assembling structural components. According to
Madhav et al (2006), the use of low grade technology in the construction
industry leads to low value addition and low productivity apart from poor or
sub-standard quality of construction and time overruns in projects. Upgrading
of technology is required both in the manufacturing of construction materials
and in construction activities.
7- Equipment: The availability, development and proper co-ordination of
equipment on construction projects contribute much to productivity. Factors
include; capacity of plants and equipment, ease of operation of plants and
equipment and maintainability.

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8- Financial: Financial issues contribute to or retard productivity on construction
sites. Factors include; adequacy of cash flow, promptness of settlement of
monthly certificate by client and prompt payment of claims.
9- Environment: Environment factors are those that are eternal to the project.
Factors include; friendliness or harshness of the terrain, weather condition and
availability of infrastructure.

Change is normal throughout all phases of construction project due to the nature
of creating something new. Project change has a tremendous effect on the
performance of a construction project. Effective management of project change
reduces schedule delay, cost overruns, claims and legal disputes resulting in
successful construction (Dennis et al, 2002). Dennis et al asserted that excessive
project change during the design and construction phases lead to major disruptions
of planned schedule, work methods productivity and overall project performance.
According to Leonard (1988), change order has been known for productivity loses.
Riley et al (2005) submitted that change order represents one of the largest sources
of cost growth and consequently time overrun for construction projects.

In 2002, the joint building council commissioned a study whose main aim was
to investigate and establish an average percentage labor cost of construction rates.
This was used to determine the labor content of a contract for fluctuation purposes
(Wachira, 2002). During the above study, it became clear that productivity of labor
not only varied between the various sites but also the daily productivity for similar
activities in the same site varied.

In 2002, the Association of Structural and Civil Engineers (ASCE) in a

technical council identified three main factors affecting site productivity. These
factors are;

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- Shortcomings in labor management: these are factors that are within the
control of the managers of the project. Labor management is the application of
management skills to labor i.e. planning, control and monitoring of labor to
ensure that it is focused on the achievement of the set objectives. Some of the
shortcomings include unfair wages, lack of training and lack of motivation.
- Extraneous reasons: these are factors that are not within the strict control of the
project team but which may be influenced by proper planning and scheduling of
tasks e.g. inclement weather and breakdown of law and order.
- Shortcoming of labor: these are factors that are not within the control of the
workers themselves but whose effect may be minimized by practice of sound
labor management e.g. lateness, idleness and careless workmanship.

According to Parker et al (2003), in an analysis of labor productivity in

Tanzania, makes it clear that the contractors’ view of the problem of labor
management was somehow skewed by their need to cover up some of their
shortcomings. Findings of Parker et al show that more than 90% of the worker
identified unfair wages as one of the major labor shortcoming. Interviews with and
perusal of the contractor record show that although the government publishes
minimum wages for the construction workers i.e. Kshs.169.95 per day, most of
them are paid below this wage guideline. The main reason for this is that there is a
lot of unemployment and those who demand the legal wages are simply chased
away and there are other employees waiting to immediately take their place. The
government through the ministry of labor does not have the resources mainly in
terms of personnel to enforce the wage guidelines so they turn a blind eye, and the
clients and consultants do not bother since the payment of fair wages is usually not
incorporated in the conditions of contract. Most construction workers are employed
on casual basis when work is available. This in turn means that the majority of these

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workers contribute to the declining cost-effectiveness of the construction industry
(Business roundtable report, 2001). Parker et al asserted that most workers
interviewed had not been trained by their employer while the contractors argued
that they trained the workers in the job. This is however not effective given that
most of these workers do not stay with the same employer for a sufficiently long
time. The casual nature of employment of the employees is the biggest hindrance in
training since the contractors do not feel obliged to train none permanent
employees.

Concepts of waste in construction industry.

According to Peurifoy et al (1997), improvement of site productivity is

achieved in two stages namely; the design and implementation. The design stage
involves focusing on identifying waste in the construction process and secondly,
analyzing the causes that produce waste with the purpose of reducing or
eliminating their effects.

Waste has been defined by Alarcon (1995), as “anything different from the
absolute minimum amount of resources of materials, equipment and manpower
necessary to add value to the product”. Alwi et al (2002), goes further to define
waste as “any loss produced by activities that generate direct or indirect cost but do
not add any value to the product from the point of view of the client”. Waste can
include mistakes, working out of sequence, redundant activities and movement,
delayed or premature inputs and products or services that do not meet customer
needs (Lehr, 1998).

In this research, by Alwi et al (2002), an attempt was made to identify the most
important waste variables and their causes in the construction industry. Their
findings indicated that waste variables ranked as being important were: repair on

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finishing works, waiting for materials, delays to schedule and waste of raw
materials on site and lack of supervision/poor quality. The causes of waste ranked
as most important were: design changes, slow in making decisions, lack of traders’
skill, inappropriate construction methods, poor coordination among project
participants, delay of material delivery to site and poor planning and scheduling.

Measurement of construction site productivity

Jonsson (1996) asserted that it is necessary to evaluate construction site

performance in order to implement a process of continuous improvement. Unlike
other industries like the manufacturing industry, the construction industry lacks
appropriate performance measurement systems. This is one of the principal barriers
to the promotion of continuous improvement in construction projects. A
productivity measurement system, which is appropriate to the output being
produced, needs to be established. Through measurement, the management can
gauge the increase or decrease in productivity. The information gathered thus
becomes an important basis for planning follow-up action. Productivity
measurement enables an organization to:

- Determine the extent of utilization of the resources allocated.

- Enhance operational flexibility in terms of manpower and equipment
utilization.
- Identify areas for productivity improvement
- Determine the cost of operation of the organization
- Communicates to its members the priorities, objectives and values which the
organization looks for in the achievement of its strategic objectives.

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 According to Wang (2000) in his research titled “improving construction
productivity by measurement” identified the following characteristic of a
performance measurement system;

- Measurement parameters should be simple and limited in number

- Definition of the system objectives should be clear and unambiguous
- The measurement must also be reasonably accurate, and must be balanced
against the efforts required to collect the data.

Kavanagh et al (1998) discovered that the problem most frequently

experienced when implementing performance measurement systems are:

- Lack of commitment from personnel directly involved and the middle

management
- Rejection of performance measurement due to fear of punishment.

According to Harris et al (2001), there are three steps involved in the

measurement of the productivity of an organization. These steps are:

- Identification of main outputs in line with the objectives of the organization

- Determination of measurement parameters for each of the main output and
process identified
- Collection of data based on main output and measurement parameters
identified.

Measurement of current productivity level:

Akpujiha (2004) submitted that productivity on time period is usually

measured with the formula:

Amount produced (output)

Productivity = _____________________
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 Amount of resources (input)
Conclusion

From this assignment we are going to draw the following conclusions:

- For productivity to be at optimal efficiency, the personnel must have the

right skills, training and experiences
- That the building contractors must recruit the productive labors, because the
adversary contributed to the material wastage, poor workmanship, elongated
project duration and cost overruns
- In order to improve productivity; there is need for an improvement of the
economic position of contractors, managers and consultants for the
completion of project contract on budget, on time and to the desired quality.
- To ensure the utilization of the limited resources, the project must be
commissioned by realization a necessity project planned, in order to avoid
overruns of planned cost and time targets.
- That the regulatory agencies must work hard to ensure the compliance of
local codes, materials, labor health and safety.

Bibliography

- Adrian, J.J (1976). “Business Practices for Construction Management”

American Elsevier publishing Company.

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- Akpujiha, C.O (2004). “Assurance of Construction Site Productivity
Improvement in Nigeria” Bayero University Kano. (Unpublished)
- Alwi, S. Hampson, K and Mohammed, S (2002). “Waste in the Indonesian
Construction Projects” School of Civil Engneering, Tarumanagara University,
Jakarta, Indonesia.
- Dennis, F.T and Alan, T. (1995). “Building Contract Claim and Dispute” 3rd
Edition. Longman England.
- Parker, N.A; Lema, N.M and Mligwa, G (2003). “An analysis of Labour
Productivity in Tanzania” University of Dar es Salam and National
Construction Council.
- Pilcher, R. (1992). “Principles of Construction Management” 3rd Edition
Megraw-hill Book Company.
- Wang, S.Q (2000). “Improving Construction Productivity by Measurement”
National University of Singapore, Singapore.

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