Banik, G C (2001) Construction productivity improvement: Current US perspective. Journal of Construction Procurement, 7(2), pp. 60-71. ISSN 1358-9180
Abstract
Productivity is central to the value of money obtained by construction clients and to the competitiveness of the US construction industry. The construction industry as a whole can start up a chain reaction of growth, opportunities, development and more growth. Unfortunately, construction productivity in the United States did not increase as expected. The results are presented on a survey of ENR listed top 100 contractors to obtain their views on where productivity improvement would most help and to compare trends with a similar type of survey which was carried out nationwide in 1983. Data were collected on the general characteristics of the respondents and on the contractors' opinions on potential areas for productivity improvement. The study shows that contractors should concentrate immediately on planning, estimating, scheduling, site supervision, labor turnout, engineering design, standardization and prefabrication. The survey found that marketing, communication, risk management, IT, and value engineering are the areas, where more efforts are needed to improve construction productivity. Another finding is that the construction industry, as a whole doesn't want to spend resources for research and development to improve construction productivity.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction, estimating, perceptions, potential, productivity improvement |
| Index terms: | supervision, construction productivity, construction industry, prefabrication, risk management, marketing, competitiveness, standardization, engineering design, construction client, productivity, estimating, research and development, survey, value engineering, scheduling, United States |
| Subjects: | Geography, design process, market analysis, building construction, research management, practitioner, operations management, operations research, management, performance measurement, industry analysis, value management, control systems, data collection methods, risk assessment, business, financial and cost management |
| Topics: | Roles and Professions, Construction Technology, Business Strategy, Cost Management, Research Practice, Time Control, Digital Applications, Risk Management, Project Management, Geographical Context, Quality Management |
| Descriptive scope: | 4 PCTE |
N.B. Descriptive scope is a count of how many of the five facets of empirical research are indicated by the words used in title, abstract and keywords. It is not intended as a judgement on the research; merely a count of the kind of word we would expect to indicate Phenomenon, Concepts, Theoretical framing, Empirical techniques, Analytical techniques. If all five are present, then a code of “5 PCTEA” will indicate this. If you feel the coding for this record is questionable, we welcome discussion around the terms we matched or the way we categorized them. The facet you would expect may not be coded, or a facet may be coded inappropriately. This can also bear on a larger question, of which facets should be treated as defining in construction management research. Please get in touch, and we will look at it. More details here