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TIME I$ MONEY: Key Productivity findings in Alberta Construction Projects

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University of Calgary. A Unique Research Project ... University of Calgary Research Team. Dr. Janaka Ruwanpura. Principal Investigator ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: TIME I$ MONEY: Key Productivity findings in Alberta Construction Projects


1
TIME I MONEY Key Productivity findings in
Alberta Construction Projects!
  • Dr. Janaka Y. Ruwanpura, PQS
  • Director and Assistant Professor of Project
    Management Specialization
  • Associate Chair in Design Engineering
  • University of Calgary

2
A Unique Research Project
  • The Construction Productivity Improvement
    research project at the University of Calgary is
    the first in the Canadian construction industry
    to involve four competitive construction
    contractors with the support of three
    construction organizations to investigate common
    problems and to find solutions for improvement.

3
  • Successful projects do
  • not
  • happen by chance !

4
Construction Research?
  • Researchers and practitioners have added TONS
    of contributions to improve the construction
    project management
  • Many of these problems are still bothering and
    yet to address.
  • One such area is construction productivity

5
This is what we thought Two Years ago!
  • Identifying and analysing the most critical
    factors influencing construction productivity
    will lead to the development of more efficient
    and cost effective methods and strategies to
    improve the productivity of future construction
    operations in Alberta.

6
What is missing?
  • Research studies - false appearance of
    originality.
  • Published data is out of date and of no relevance
    to a particular location or to a particular type
    of construction
  • No monitoring to justify the findings
  • Many factors have changed over time.
  • No follow-up work to find GOOD solutions.

7
Objectives
  • To identify the most critical factors in terms of
    Human, Management and External Factors that
    affect productivity and to analyze the results.
  • Investigate the Top Factors (Based on survey and
    Stakeholders requests) to determine their
    individual and cumulative (combined) impact on
    construction productivity.
  • Develop methods and tools to measure and improve
    construction productivity
  • Develop Models to Predict construction
    productivity.
  • Develop a set of practical guidelines for
    productivity improvement.
  • Conduct an industry seminar on the construction
    productivity improvement.
  • Design training material to improve construction
    productivity.

8
Team
NSERC Bert van den Berg
Construction Productivity Research Project
Construction Industry Steering Committee
University of Calgary Research Team
Charles Lendzion/Ken Gibson, CRIC
Dr. Janaka Ruwanpura Principal Investigator
Bill Flaig, Graham
Brian Hubert, Ledcor
Kasun Hewage Eldon Choy Yangbo Zhou Sushil Da
Silva Graduate Research Assistants
Dr. George Jergeas Co Investigator
Scott Thompson, Ellis Don
Bruce White, PCL
Adam Huang Research Assistant
Dave Smith/John Ink CCA/CCRB
9
First Phase
  • A Survey A larger sample from all four
    companies and analyze the results

10
Results of the Survey
11
Survey Participants
12
Most Important factors affecting Productivity
Survey Results
Order of Importance
13
Project Managers Opinions
Inadequate Communication is most significant
factor for construction productivity
14
Superintendents Opinions
Worker Experience and Skills is most significant
factor for construction productivity
15
Cluster Analysis
16
Measurement/Monitoring Issues some opinions
  • Cannot determine a way to measure
  • PMs can track dollars schedule extensions but
    not the frustrations and discouragement of stop
    and go work flow
  • A web based project management program could
    increase productivity and profitability
  • It would be beneficial to have a means of readily
    assessing productivity impact cost as a part of
    the cost assessment of changes

17
Phase 2 so far
  • Identified Two key areas
  • Human Issues Motivation, Performance and
    communication
  • Situations that Impact Performance and to find
    ways to avoid the non-productive situations
  • Developed Methods and Concepts to Monitor and
    Measure Productivity
  • Developed a Model to Predict Productivity
    considering the real situations

18
Progress Monitoring and Interviews
  • Contractor A completed
  • Contractor B completed
  • Contractor C 95 completed
  • Contractor D 40 completed.

19
Issues Investigated
  • Worker Motivation and related issues (Kasun
    Hewage, Ph.D. student)
  • Motivation
  • Output
  • Worker skills, team sprit
  • Communication
  • Measured the working time, non-working time, and
    output of the workers interviewed

20
Issues Investigated
  • Interviewed Construction Management Professionals
    (Yangbo Zhou, M.Sc.) to identify issues related
    to
  • Motivation
  • Performance
  • Job Satisfaction

21
Issues Investigated
  • Situations that impact Productivity and Working
    Time (Eldon Choy, M.Sc. and Sushil Peres Da
    Silva, M.Sc. student)
  • Identified the situations
  • Measured the working time, non-working time, and
    output
  • Identified the links between situations
  • Developed a model to predict the
    individual/cumulative impact of situations on
    productivity (Eldon)
  • Working on recommendations (Sushil)

22
Worker Motivation and Communication
23
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24
Sample Questions - Interview
25
Sample Results (1 to 7 scale)
26
Top 5 motives for one company
  • The respect you receive from the people you work
    with
  • The chances you have to learn new things
  • The tools and equipments you have to do your work
  • The supervisors understanding of the quality and
    technical details of work you do
  • The opportunities to develop your skills and
    abilities

27
Top 5 motives for another company
  • The chances you have to learn new things
  • The opportunities to develop your skills and
    abilities
  • The job security
  • The respect you receive from the people you work
    with
  • The amount of freedom you have in your work

28
Graphical View
29
Working Time of the Interviewed Workers A
Sample from a Company
30
Working Time (Direct Tool Time) A sample
31
Sample Comments
  • About 80 percent of the interviewed workers in
    all construction sites mentioned lack of
    communication as a factor that affected their
    motivation to work.
  • Lack of communication refers to inter-group
    communication and external communication with
    other groups and the managers.

32
Sample Comments
  • Workers were not aware of company goals and
    targets they were told only about daily work
    targets when, in fact, they would have liked to
    know the overall scope of the site activities and
    project.
  • The interviewer spent a great deal of time
    listening to the workers concerns about
    communication. When the question What could be
    improved in your team? was asked, most of the
    time, the workers said lack of communication.
    Workers blamed management, believing they
    themselves were not responsible for the lack of
    productivity that was caused mainly by poor
    communication.

33
Various Situations that Impact Tool Time
  • Identify the triggering situations for
    productivity loss
  • Understand the behavior of situations and their
    relationships with productivity
  • Examine the effectiveness of applying situation
    models in modeling construction operations
  • Provide recommendations for productivity
    improvement

34
Data Collection
  • Direct site observations
  • Background (Date, Weather, Area)
  • Type of Work (False work, Forming, Columns)
  • States of a Worker (Working, Non-working)
  • Output
  • 21 categories for non-working time for Carpentry
    Work 10 categories for Columns

35
Observation Categories of Non-Working Time for
Carpenter Crew
36
Observation Categories of Non-Working Time for
Carpenter Crew
37
Situations
38
Breakdown of Work Hours
39
Quantification of Situation
Maximum is 88 of the total work hours
40
Quantification of Situation
In 80 likelihood, it is 24
41
Previous Models
  • All the previous models predicted or made a
    relationship between a factor (or situation) and
    the productivity by ignoring the existence of the
    other situations
  • Temperature vs. Productivity
  • Overtime vs. Productivity
  • Change Orders vs Productivity
  • Is it possible? NO

42
New Situation Based Model
  • Considers the existence of situations
  • You can remove a situation or situations by
    allowing the existence of others and check the
    impact of the removal of the factor on
    productivity
  • Remove crowded area
  • Remove Interruptions and Lack of Materials

43
Situations Influence Diagram
1. Change Area
2. Cold Weather
3. Crowded Area
4. Instructions
5. Interruptions
6. Lack of Materials
7. Drawing Changes
8. Precedent of Slab
9. Precedent of Column
10. Saturated Area
11. Snowing
44
Conceptual Framework
Output Work Hours
Productivity
Productivity
Productivity
45
Conceptual Framework
  • Relationship between Situations and Working Time
  • Non-Working Time (NWT) ST
  • 2. Relationship between Situations and Output
  • Working Time (WT)SM Output
  • Relationship between Working Time and Output
  • Efficiency or Production Rate
  • Relationship among Situations
  • Strength of Links

46
Application of Situation-based Simulation Model
  • Scenarios 
  • All Situations (Benchmark)
  • Without Change Area
  • Without Crowded Area
  • Without Instructions
  • Without Interruptions
  • Without Saturated Area

47
Control Variables of the Scenarios
  •  

48
Application of Situation-based Simulation Model
  • All Situations  

49
Application of Situation-based Simulation Model
50
Findings from Scenarios application
  • Mitigation of Change Area and Instructions do
    not improve productivity, because of the
    counter-effects (Crowded Area and Interruptions)
  • Mitigation of Crowded Area, Interruptions,
    and Saturated Area  can improve the
    productivity by about 20-25.

51
Development and Application of Situation-based
Simulation Model
  • Must Eliminate
  • Crowded Area
  • Interuptions
  • Saturated Area
  • Must be Allowed
  • Change Area
  • Instructions

r
52
Development and Application of Situation-based
Simulation Model
  • Cant Eliminate
  • Coldness
  • Snowing
  • Not Significant
  • Drawing Changes

53
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54
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55
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56
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57
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58
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59
Breakdown of output per QuarterForming
60
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61
What Else?
  • Similar Data collected for
  • Rebar Work on Slabs
  • Column Work

62
Recommendations We are working on them now
  • Common sense solutions
  • Minor modifications to on going site operations
  • Out of the box

63
Sample Comments and Recommendations
  • It was noted that 3.8 of the time, carpenters
    were required to move to the lower level and
    manually move material up to their work area.
  • This also resulted in an increase in the category
    of Idle time and Watching.
  • This could be rectified by ensuring that the
    formwork and false work were moved up to the new
    level in advance.
  • Another option is to have sufficient quantity of
    formwork and false work material on site so that
    quantities of these materials do not result in
    the workers time being underutilized.

64
Sample Comments and Recommendations
  • When formwork and false work were available
    around their work area, it was not collected and
    stacked as per size as a result 2.6 of the
    carpenters time were used in measuring and
    searching for the right size of formwork/false
    work to use.
  • In the future, if the team removing the formwork
    and false work could stack the materials as per
    size, better productivity will be obtained from
    the carpenters.

65
Sample Comments and Recommendations
  • It was also observed that the survey team which
    provided the levels for the formwork and false
    work did not keep ahead of the carpenters.
  • This happened 30 of the time. On one occasion,
    the formwork which was built had to be removed
    and the false work readjusted and on the second
    instance, the slope given by the surveyor was
    erroneous. These resulted in rework.
  • One recommendation would be for the survey team
    to start a few hours earlier in the day so that
    their work does not delay the progress on site
    and vice versa the workers do not hamper their
    work.

66
Sample Comments and Recommendations
  • The location of power tool storage boxes was not
    properly selected.
  • 0.8 of the time, workers had to move away for
    their work area and locate the right storage box
    in order to find the relevant equipment.
  • In the future, it would be advisable to seek
    advice from the workers about the best place to
    locate the power tool storage boxes.

67
Developing a Model
  • Develop an analytical model for redistributing
    time saved based on the recommendations.
  • This model will offer two scenarios for the
    increase in the output as a result.
  • An optimistic and a pessimistic

68
On site Testing of a few recommendations
  • Subject to acceptance by the general contractor a
    few of the recommendation will be tested to
    verify the increase in tool time

69
Motivation, Performance and Job Satisfaction of
Construction Management Professionals
70
Top 10 Motivation Factors Importance (7 point
scale)
how important each motivation factor is in
motivating them doing their jobs
71
Top 10 Motivation Factors Satisfaction (7 point
scale)
how satisfied they are of receiving each
motivation factor while doing their jobs
72
What Else?
  • Separate analysis based on
  • Age
  • Experience
  • Educational Background

73
Analysis
  • Analyzing the relationship between the importance
    degree and satisfaction degree of each motivation
    factor, the researcher identified the motivation
    factor, which considerable CMPs perceive that it
    is important in motivating them doing their jobs,
    but they do not satisfy, and then the researcher
    conducted in-depth interviews to investigate the
    problems that lie behind the motivation factor.

74
Two motivation factors were identified as having
potential problems.
  • Senior manager's positive feedback after
    successfully accomplishing the task
  • Bonus the CMPs received

75
Senior manager's positive feedback after
successfully accomplishing your task
  • Field engineers
  • There were several times that my former
    supervisors made the work very dissatisfying so
    that I quitted my jobs. All I received was
    criticism, and when praise was due, I didnt
    receive anything.
  • I am working very hard without any good words
    from my boss, but when something goes wrong, even
    it is not my fault, he always yells at me.
    Yelling and blaming has no effect other than
    de-motivating us.
  • I dont really care about money. If my boss
    would just say thank you, if he or she would just
    acknowledge that I exist. The only time I hear
    anything is when I screw up. I never hear when I
    do a good job.

76
Five strategies of Recommendations
  • Invite employees involvement in setting up
    performance or productivity evaluation criteria
  • Adopt clear and fair performance or productivity
    evaluation criteria, which are widely understood
    and accepted by employees
  • Set up a committee to evaluate employees
    performance or productivity according to the
    criteria
  • Allocate bonuses, which have a clear and strong
    correlation with employees performance or
    productivity.
  • Monitor the outcome at regular intervals to see
    if allocating bonuses have achieved the desired
    effect.

77
Future
  • There are several other recommendations to share
    with individual companies

78
Conclusions
  • The Project provided many benefits
  • Identified key issues
  • Quantified impacts
  • Will develop recommendations
  • Excellent support from the collaborating
    companies
  • Will issue specific reports to the
    collaborating companies
  • Will issue a generalized report after analyzing
    the results of the 4 companies (by Dec. 2005)

79
Future
  • Win-Win situation for the companies and the
    University
  • Planning to extend the productivity research to
    study and analyze more issues in the next 2-5
    years
  • Will create a Productivity task force so that
    specific needs could be identified for future
    research.
  • Will maintain QUALITY of research that will be
    beneficial to industry.
  • Will develop an integrated PM framework for the
    benefit of the construction contractors.

80
Publications 2005
  • Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering Special
    Issue in Construction (Aug. 05)
  • Situation Based Model and Case Study
  • Motivation, Performance, Satisfaction of CMP.
  • American Society of Civil Engineers
    Construction Research Congress (San Diego, Apr.
    05)
  • Situation Based Model
  • Canadian Society for Civil Engineering Annual
    Conference (Toronto, June 05)
  • Motivation, and Communication of Workers
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