How does management impact construction productivity?

Abstract

The main objective of this paper is to present general information on the issues involved in improving the productivity of a construction project, and focuses on management issues. Increased productivity can have a large impact on the overall construction process and consequently can result in significant cost and time savings. This paper deals with various aspects of construction productivity, incusing basic concepts, factors and major issues affecting productivity. The construction industry is one of the largest industries that support the economy of every country in the world. A successful construction project is one that achieves the intended objectives in terms of cost, time, quality and safety. This is possible only when the planned levels of productivity can be attained. However, productivity, or lack of it, is perhaps one of the main problems confronting the construction industry, the construction firm and the construction project. As a consequence of the importance of the construction industry, the nature of construction projects and the available economic resources, more emphasis should be given to improving productivity. Productivity improvement is actually a reduction in the non-production time spent each day by the worker and a transfer of those man-hours to direct productive work. Managment is directly related to all those activities. Due to, management involves numerous aspects; this paper is going to be focused just on two management activities in which most of the companies invest considerable amounts of money. Estimating and scheduling have a huge impact and are directly related with almost every activity of a construction project. Its analysis can enhance and make a project easier to deliver on time and within the budget.