The impact of management practices on mechanical construction productivity

Over recent decades, sporadic advancements in machinery and construction materials have to some extent increased construction productivity in the United States. However, there is evidence that additional productivity improvement opportunities exist. One way to improve direct work rates and likewise the potential to increase construction craft productivity is through better planning and management. Utilizing a dataset from the Construction Industry Institute Benchmarking and Metrics programme with 41 sampled projects, the relationship between the level of implementation of different management programmes and mechanical craft productivity is examined. The implementation of several management programmes, including pre‐project planning, team building, automation and integration of information systems and safety had a positive correlation with improved mechanical productivity. In fact, the statistical results show that projects with advanced implementation of the selected management programmes experienced significant mechanical productivity advantages over projects with weak implementation.

[1]  Rafi Ashrafi,et al.  Development of the SMARTTM Project Planning framework , 2004 .

[2]  G. Edward Gibson,et al.  Building Project Scope Definition Using Project Definition Rating Index , 2001 .

[3]  D. Zohar.  The effects of leadership dimensions, safety climate, and assigned priorities on minor injuries in work groups , 2002 .

[4]  Dongping Fang,et al.  The nature of safety culture: A survey of the state-of-the-art , 2007 .

[5]  J. Webster.  Project planning: getting it right the first time , 2004, 2004 IEEE Aerospace Conference Proceedings (IEEE Cat. No.04TH8720).

[6]  Dong Zhai,et al.  Relationship between Automation and Integration of Construction Information Systems and Labor Productivity , 2009 .

[7]  M. D. Cooper.  Towards a model of safety culture , 2000 .

[8]  James T. O'Connor,et al.  Assessment of automation and integration technology's impacts on project stakeholder success , 2007 .

[9]  G. E. Gibson,et al.  Preproject-Planning Process for Capital Facilities , 1995 .

[10]  James T. O'Connor,et al.  Project Performance versus Use of Technologies at Project and Phase Levels , 2004 .

[11]  Tsung-Chih Wu,et al.  A correlation among safety leadership, safety climate and safety performance , 2008 .

[12]  Petra Perner,et al.  Data Mining - Concepts and Techniques , 2002, Künstliche Intell..

[13]  Dongping Fang,et al.  Developing a model of construction safety culture , 2007 .

[14]  G. E. Gibson,et al.  Benchmarking Preproject Planning Effort , 1996 .

[15]  Kathryn Mearns,et al.  Safety climate, safety management practice and safety performance in offshore environments , 2003 .

[16]  Sherif Ali Mohtady Mohamed,et al.  SAFETY CLIMATE IN CONSTRUCTION SITE ENVIRONMENTS , 2002 .

[17]  C. C. Smith.  Improved project definition ensures value-added performance-Part 1 , 2000 .

[18]  Jeffrey S. Russell,et al.  Impact of change orders on labor efficiency for electrical construction , 1999 .

[19]  Awad S. Hanna,et al.  Benchmarking Productivity Indicators for Electrical'Mechanical Projects , 2002 .

[20]  Awad S. Hanna,et al.  Cumulative Effect of Project Changes for Electrical and Mechanical Construction , 2004 .

[21]  Jiawei Han,et al.  Data Mining: Concepts and Techniques , 2000 .

[22]  Syed M. Ahmed,et al.  Safety Management in Construction: Best Practices in Hong Kong , 2008 .

[23]  Robert Albanese.  Team‐Building Process: Key to Better Project Results , 1994 .

[24]  Sherif Ali Mohtady Mohamed,et al.  Empirical investigation of construction safety management activities and performance in Australia , 1999 .

[25]  Osama Abudayyeh,et al.  Partnering: A Team Building Approach to Quality Construction Management , 1994 .