Factors Affecting Labor Productivity

Abstract

Construction industry confronts challenges connected with productivity and making matters even more tricky is the labor productivity. Construction labor productivity is of great interest to practitioners and researchers because it affects project’s cost and time performance. Labor efficiency is affected by numerous factors and is usually linked to the performance of time, cost, and quality. In this context, large body of research has been conducted in the last decade or so identifying and evaluating factors that affect labor productivity. In spite of the previous research, assessing, controlling and improving labor productivity still present challenge to construction managers and site supervisors. The aim of this research is to explore the possibility of improving upon the existing work and to attain latest information on key factors that affect project performance in terms of project completion time. It also develops prediction models for labor productivity. To find the factors affecting labor productivity questionnaire, survey was done. A total of 109 construction professionals and 13 construction sites were engaged for data collection. Results demonstrate the factors affecting the productivity, top in which is design changes during execution. The findings show that the productivity decreases with the increase of crew size. Based on the analysis of the results, recommendations for the stakeholders have been proposed for the improvement of labor productivity. This study concludes that the design changes should be minimized during execution, material should be ordered prior start of work so it will be available on the time of activity. As a result, this study will be useful for clients, consultants, contractors and other stakeholders who desire to improve the productivity.