Development of a construction productivity metrics system (CPMS)
Abstract
Construction productivity has been a cause of great concern in both the
construction industry and academia. Even though many companies have
developed their own productivity tracking systems based on their experiences and
previous studies, none have been successful in establishing common definitions
and developing a survey tool that collects standard productivity data at the
appropriate levels. This research was initiated to establish a common set of
construction productivity metrics and their corresponding definitions.
As a result of this research effort, the Construction Productivity Metrics
System (CPMS), which contains a list of direct and indirect accounts and 56 data
elements grouped into seven major categories, was developed. The CPMS is a
standard construction productivity data collection tool and provides a framework
to report industry norms to benchmark construction productivity.
Input from 73 industry experts were used in determining the 56 measuring
elements and their corresponding definitions. Data collected from the 16
industrial projects were used in presenting preliminary findings and illustrating
data analysis and data presentation methodologies. The expected relationships
from data were also provided to show the recommended outputs of future
research. Because of the small sample size, drawing any conclusions would be
speculative and thus they were kept to a minimum. Based on the analyses, the
developed CPMS is believed to be a reasonable productivity data collection tool
to provide industry norms.
This dissertation also introduces a new approach to estimate expected
construction productivity and explains the concept of developing a construction
productivity model to calculate expected productivity. Finally, conclusions and
recommendations for further improvement are offered.
Description
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