Arditi, D and Mochtar, K (2000) Trends in productivity improvement in the US construction industry. Construction Management and Economics, 18(1), pp. 15-27. ISSN 01446193
Abstract
Surveys of the top 400 US contractors were conducted in 1979, 1983 and 1993 to identify the areas with potential for productivity improvement in the construction industry. The trends in the findings of these surveys are observed and interpreted. The results indicate that cost control, scheduling, design practices, labour training, and quality control are the functions that consistently over the years are perceived as having considerable room for productivity improvement, whereas materials packaging and foreign developments in construction technologies are perceived consistently as functions that do not have much effect on improving construction productivity. The functions that were identified as needing more improvement in 1993 compared with the previous surveys were prefabrication, new materials, value engineering, specifications, labour availability, labour training, and quality control, whereas those that were identified as needing less improvement than in the previous surveys were field inspection and labour contract agreements. Also, respondents indicated consistently over the years that they are willing to participate in activities related to improving construction productivity but are not interested in funding any such activities.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | construction industry; construction productivity; productivity trends; USA |
| Index terms: | cost control, scheduling, specification, value engineering, survey, funding, construction productivity, prefabrication, construction industry, quality control, construction technology, agreements, design practice, productivity, inspection |
| Subjects: | building construction, industry analysis, quality assurance, management, contractual condition, design process, contract formation, operations research, operations management, economic analysis, project delivery, financial and cost management, data collection methods, digital engineering, value management |
| Topics: | Time Control, Contract Administration, Digital Applications, Design Practice, Quality Management, Construction Technology, Business Strategy, Cost Management, Research Practice, Project 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