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.