Productivity in Construction

Construction managers, general contractors, subcontractors, and specialty contractors are in the construction business to make a profit. Productivity is also important to owners of construction projects. In its simplest form, productivity or efficiency is the relationship between a given outcome and the resources expended to produce that outcome. Production is output compared to a duration-based input. The production rate is the output expressed against that unit of time. There are many factors that construction professionals can control that will affect the productivity achieved on the project such as: construction schedule, equipment, site layout and management, and labor supervision. The chapter provides non-controllable factors that affect productivity such as: weather, skilled workforce, worksite, and design complexity. Productivity in construction is often addressed in three distinct contexts: the planning stage, during the execution of the work, and at the project postmortem.