Construction productivity: the basics that surprisingly few know

Some critical construction challenges include workforce management, meeting compliance and controlling costs. With an increasing skilled labor crunch, you must ensure your existing staff performs at their full capacity. Know the meaning of construction productivity, the factors affecting it, its measurement, and improvement tactics in this blog.

What is construction productivity?

Construction productivity reflects the ratio of output to input. Every project manager is aware that productivity is directly tied to profitability. This makes the business investment in construction management software, such as Inncircles, inevitable.

How can you measure construction productivity?

Production tracking aims to determine whether workforce planning is optimal. Here are some methods-

1. Output per labor hour: Measures the amount of work completed per hour of labor.
2. Cost-based productivity: Measures the production against the cost of resources used.
3. Time-based productivity: Measures the time taken to complete a project or task.

Here is the step-by-step process for measuring construction productivity -

Step 1: Define the output.

Step 2: Track the resources, such as labor hours, materials, and equipment.

Step 3: Calculate productivity with the relevant formula, such as the output divided by labor hours.

Step 4: Compare the productivity rate against benchmarks to identify improvement areas.

With InnPMIS’ configurable timesheet templates, you can accurately and precisely track hours worked, labor efficiency and task completion.

What are the factors affecting construction productivity?

There are numerous aspects influencing construction productivity. Some countries release lists of factors impacting the industry. It provides the main reason behind the fall in workforce management. While these factors may differ depending on the country, some of the common categories are -

1. People’s skills include education, experience, leadership, discipline, communication, and legacy data from previous projects.
2. Job satisfaction, such as motivation, salary, perks, contract changes, conflicts, recognition, and promotion
3. Working conditions include noise, shift duration, security checks, weather, hazardous work areas, and construction risks. InnPMIS helps keep your workforce safe throughout the construction lifecycle by leveraging data-driven insights to identify high-risk areas.
4. Client requirements include a change in project scope, client communication, and approval processes. InnPMIS minimizes bottlenecks and keeps decisions on schedule through sequential or parallel approval workflows.
5. Project characteristics, including job size, complexity, location, materials, and requirements.
6. Project organization includes site accessibility, logistics, supply chain, security check, and commute.
7. Safety measures include compliance with safety regulations, safety training, and PPE availability. With InnPMIS, your project will always stay compliant as inspections will be on time through integrated logs and calendars.
8. External factors include government policies, contractor management, economic cycles, stop-starts during holidays, resource crunch, and seasonal changes.
9. Community impact includes local community relations, noise ordinances, and working hour restrictions.
10. Technology adoption includes advanced software usage, automation, BIM, and drones. You can improve your execution accuracy and site planning through InnPMIS by utilizing its BIM and GIS integration.

Considering these factors and avoiding obstructions is the first step towards better workforce planning. Effective strategy and execution work hand-in-hand to attain the best outcomes.

What are the steps to improve construction productivity?

While there is no single set of solutions to improve construction productivity, here are some practical ways to do so -

1. Ensuring efficient project planning: Scheduling projects, resource allocation, and risk management will minimize unnecessary delays, cost overruns, and resource shortages. Consider milestones and deadlines during the pre-construction stage. Lay a solid foundation for your project by breaking it down into a work breakdown structure (WBS) with InnPMIS.
2. Being open to technological adoption: Beyond facilitating workflow automation, technological adoption also helps in accounting, safety management, equipment management, and more. InnEQM offers real-time insights and predictive analytics to ensure your equipment is safe, compliant, and performing at its best.
3. Optimizing workforce planning: The cyclical nature of construction projects requires people to work shifts without days off or holidays. Delay or gaps between projects causes a cutback in work hours and payments. You must be equipped to handle such workforce management challenges.

Wrapping up

It may be difficult to measure and forecast construction productivity, however, there are options for its improvement. Following the steps mentioned in this blog will enhance overall construction productivity.

Inncircles offers a suite of products targeted at boosting construction productivity through workforce management and reducing equipment downtime.