TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

Title page i
Acknowledgement ii
Abstract iii
Table of contents iv
List of tables vii
List of figures viii
List of Illustrations ix
1 General 1
1.1 Features of Construction 1
1.2 Construction productivity 2
1.3 Problem statement 3
1.4 Objectives 4
1.5 Scope 4
2 Literature Review 5
2.1 Introduction 5
2.2 Fundamental Models 5
2.2.1 Model defining productivity 6
2.2.2 Construction as open conversation process 6
2.3 Construction process models 8
2.3.1 Construction process model 8
2.3.2 Typical process model of construction process 9
2.4 Labor productivity models 11
2.4.1 Labor productivity model 11
2.4.2 Expectancy Model of Labor Motivation 11
2.5 Construction productivity estimation and measurement 15
2.5.1 W.B.S of construction productivity estimation 16
2.5.2 Productivity Measurement W.B.S 18

iv
 2.5.3 Models to Estimate 19
2.5.4 Onsite measurement 20
2.5.5 Indirect Measurement of productivity 25
2.6 Site Factors affecting construction productivity 27
3 Research Methodology 35
3.1 Introduction 35
3.2 Research framework 35
3.3 Expert validation 41
3.4 Pilot study 41
3.5 Data analysis 41
3.5.1 Reliability tests 41
3.5.2 Explanatory factor analysis 42
3.5.3 Reliability of factor analysis 43
3.5.4 Regression analysis 44
4 Data analysis 45
4.1 Introduction 45
4.2 Research survey 45
4.3 The sample 46
4.4 Pre analysis 47
4.5 Descriptive statistics 50
4.6 On-site factors negatively affecting productivity 52
4.6.1 Top five factors 52
4.7 Explanatory factor analysis 53
4.8 Reliability factor analysis 62
4.9 Regression analysis for testing the relationship between 63
on-site factors and their influence on project productivity
4.9.1 Relationship between on-site factors and their influence 64
on Cost Performance Index (CPI)
4.9.2 Discussion on the contribution of four factors which 65
have significant relationship with (CPI)
4.9.3 Relationship between on-site factors and their influence 66
on Schedule Performance Index (SPI)

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 4.9.4 Discussion on the contribution of four factors which 68
have significant relationship with CPI
4.9.5 Relationship between on-site factors and their influence 69
on frequency of rework
4.9.6 Discussion on the contribution of four factors which 70
have significant relationship with frequency of rework
4.10 Comparison of current study with previous studies 73
4.10.1 Comparing top factors of previous study with current 74
study
5 Conclusion and recommendations 76
5.1 Introduction 76
5.2 Conclusions 76
5.3 Limitations and Recommendations for further research 77

References 78
Appendix-I 81

vi
 LIST OF TABLES

TABLE TITLE PAGE

3.1 List of on-site factors from literature review 37

3.2 Item factor loading and their interpretation 42
4.1 Expert validation respondents profile 46
4.2 Overall view of respondents 46
4.3 Reliability statistics 47
4.4 Item – Total statistics 48
4.5 Descriptive statistics 50
4.6 KMO and Bartlett’s test variables 54
4.7 Total variance explained 55
4.8 Rotated component matrix 55
4.9 Results of factor analysis 56
4.10 Results summary of reliability analysis of grouped factors 63
4.11 Multiple regression output for on-site factors and CPI 64
4.12 Model parameters for CPI 64
4.13 Significance values for CPI 65
4.14 Multiple regression output for on-site and SPI 66
4.15 Model parameters for SPI 67
4.16 Significance values for SPI 67
4.17 Multiple regression output for on-site factors and frequency of 69
rework
4.18 Model parameters for frequency of rework 69
4.19 Significance values for frequency of rework 70
4.20 Summary of regression analysis results 72
4.21 Ranking of factors affecting productivity in previous studies and 73
current study

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 LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE TITLE PAGE

1.1 Graph Manufacturing vs. Construction Productivity 3

2.1 Model defining productivity 6
2.2 Construction as an open conversation process 7
2.3 Construction process model 8
2.4 Typical process model of construction process 10
2.5 Typical process model applied to concreting activity 10
2.6 Conceptual model of labor productivity 11
2.7 Project cost and duration sector 12
2.8 Labor productivity sector 13
2.9 Expectancy Model of Labor Motivation 14
2.10 W.B.S of productivity estimation 17
2.11 W.B.S of productivity measurement 18
2.12 Graphical representation of time spent on different activities by 21
the crew
2.13 Process of work sampling 23
2.14 Cumulative cost and Schedule variance 26
3.1 Steps in research methodology 35
3.2 Research methodology framework 36
3.3 Conceptual framework of on-site factors affecting productivity 40
3.4 Framework for testing reliability of factor analysis 43
4.1 Data analysis steps 45
4.2 Screen Plotting of factors 54

viii
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

ACWP – Actual cost of work performed

BCWP – Budget cost of work performed
BCWS – Budget cost of work scheduled
E.V- Earned value
P.V – Planned value
A.V – Actual value
CPI – Cost performance index
SPI – Schedule performance index
W.B.S – Work breakdown structure
F.D.S – Foreman delay survey
EVM – Earned value management

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 CHAPTER 1
INTROUDUCTION
1. General
Construction is a process of building infrastructure. Construction is of three types: Building,
Infracture, and Industrial; buildings comprise of commercial and non-commercial
(resendiantial) buildings, infracture works are all public works like construction of
transportation system which include roads, railways and public utility projects like dams,
reservoirs, sewage system etc. Finally Industrial sector comprise of building product
manufacturing plants, power generation plants, mills etc.
Construction industry is a labor intensive process, every work or activity must be executed
with the help of skilled and unskilled labor. “Construction industry is a one of main source
to the national economy in countries all around the world, (Horner et al. 1989)”It creates
employment opportunities for many unemployed people which will help the country to
develop its GDP. Construction industry amounts about six – nine percent GDP of developed
countries (Source Wikipedia). Whereas India is a country of agriculture, most of the
country’s GDP is from agriculture sector, after agriculture the most amount of GDP of the
country is from construction sector i.e. “about 19 percent of total GDP of India in the year
2011-2012 is contributed by the construction industry (Wikipedia)”

1.1 Features of Construction

Construction sector is very different from other sectors, its unique characteristics defines
how challenging is this sector.

1. Uniqueness
Each and every project is different from one another, no two projects are similar or
resemble each other. Due to such uniqueness of construction industry it is difficult to
repeat the process, so the improvement of process or methods in construction are very
rare and slow.

2. Operations On site
The majority of the operations identified with construction must be performed on site.
Furthermore, the site is frequently changing in a matter of hours. This make the work
challenging as the work has to be performed with desired quality in a site which is
consistently changing in terms of climate, mobilization, material locations etc.

3. Impermanent nature
All construction ventures include various partners to be specific temporary workers, sub-
contractual workers, suppliers, architects, organizers, and so on. Every one of them have
particular obligations which finally contributes to the project. The issue manifests when
there is no legitimate coordination between the partners. Everyone has distinctive needs
and work towards their own objective. Expediting every one of the partners a typical
wavelength in a constrained time is a challenge that should be handled.

4. Labor intensive
Every activity or work should be performed by the worker. There is no other option to
use robots or advance machines which replace the workers. “There were efforts made

1
 before to replace the workers by robots and machinery but the results shown to be a big
failure (Tezel 2007).”

5. Sub-Contracting
Subcontracting is a common practice in the construction business. Also, the issue
emerges when there is no appropriate control over the sub-contractual workers. They
perform the vast majority of the work and regularly specific work is performed by them.
Because of the relations and correspondence between them, the execution can be
exceedingly affected.

1.2 Construction Productivity

Every sector will have productivity, productivity in construction is measured as a ratio of

total input and output. Output in construction are determined in terms of volume, length and
inputs are the resources utilized to obtain those outputs. A company, project or work is
considered as productive when it obtains maximum output by utilizing limited inputs. The
calculation of inputs against obtained outputs is known as productivity measurements. There
are various methods and techniques to measure productivity. Productivity is considered as a
best tool to evaluate performance. “Productivity is simply considered with input and output
ratio whereas performance is a measure of time, cost, quality and safety (Oglesby & Howell
2017)”. Productivity measurement will help the management to examine and promote the
efficiency of the work and in addition it will help to estimate productivity with the help of
recorded data and set benchmarks which will further help the management to evaluate the
performance variations in terms of time and cost. “ According to (Sharif & Adhanari,2005)
the purpose of productivity measurement is to compare the results: 1) Production added from
time to time 2) Added income from time to time 3) Added employment opportunities from
time to time 4) The number of work yourself to others 5) Component own achievements
with components of main achievements of others ”

If we compare the productivities of both manufacture and construction industries, it shows

a huge difference the reason behind this is uniqueness of construction, lack of innovation
techniques, lack of research and development sector in the field of construction. Even though
both the industries resembles each other, the factors affecting productivity in construction
are more in numbers when compared to factors affecting productivity in manufacturing
industries. In construction there are some factors which are independent of others and there
are some factors which are triggered due to occurrence of some factors. If we study and
define about the factors affecting construction productivity, we can take measures to control
the affect and improve productivity.

2
 Figure1.1 Source Experts interview IHS Global insight (Belgium, Germany, France,
Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States) World input-output database.

1.3 Problem Statement

Productivity remains a hot topic in the field of construction for more than 50 years. During
the past few decades the rate of productivity is decreasing when compared to other sectors.
“The construction industry is characterized by substandard performance, below average
productivity, shortage of skilled labor, schedule delays and poor management practices (Jha
& Iyer, 2006).”
All the construction operations are usually performed on site. On site productivity is affected
by many factors important of them are labor, management, materials, equipment and tools,
safety and quality.
As all the construction operations are preplanned and scheduled according to the contractual
requirements time, cost and quality, and performed according to the plan on site. In the
developing countries like India most of the construction activities of a projects are not
performed according to the plan which results to cost overrun, delay and doesn’t comply
with the quality requirements. On site factors are the main reason behind this. “In the
construction industry productivity loss is one of the greatest and severe problems. Present
construction contracts lack enough to classify recompense for productivity loss due to field
factors (Construction Industry Institute [CII], 2000.” This study is focusing on on-site factors
negatively affecting construction productivity. If we can identify those factors and identify
their level of impact, we can take measures to control them which will help the construction
productivity to improve.

3
1.4 Objectives
The primary objective of this research is to evaluate the major understanding of construction
productivity concepts, models, methods for measurement and practices towards onsite
factors negatively influencing construction productivity in India. In an attempt to give better
comprehension about onsite factors affecting construction productivity, the objectives of this
study are:

1. To identify the relevant on-site factors negatively influencing construction productivity

from the opinion of the construction personnel.
2. To extract the construct variables of on-site factors affecting construction productivity
from explanatory factor analysis.
3. To develop a regression model which represents the relationship between onsite factors
and their influence on project productivity.

1.5 Scope

Nature of projects is limited to resendiantial and commercial building projects which are
located in southern part of India mainly Hyderabad. This study is mainly about the relevant
on site factors negatively affecting construction productivity, so projects which are in
construction phase are selected.

4
 CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction
The importance of this study was contributed in the field of construction projects overall the
world. Construction Productivity is a critical issue in developed and developing countries.
Productivity is simply defined as input and output ratio. These inputs are various resources
managed and provided by the management and output is the predefined estimate. It can be
also defined as the efficient way to perform works. As construction is a unique process
influenced by many factors. “Some factors are independent of others and some factors
trigger the occurrence of other factors. (Dai et al., 2009b).”
In this study Construction Productivity is breakdown into three parts:
1) Models of construction productivity
2) Methods to estimate and measure productivity
3) On site factors affecting productivity

Different models which tells about the construction process, inputs and outputs are explained
in detail to have a clear idea about construction productivity, to differentiate in between the
models they are grouped into several groups and their pros and cons are discussed.
Measurement of work is very important as it will help to record data for future use, analyze
data by comparing it with estimated or planned which will help the management to interpret
or estimate productivity of similar projects and it helps the project control team by giving
the schedule and cost variances respectively. As construction is a unique process there are
various measurement techniques to calculate the performance of the project, worker, and
crew. All the measurement techniques in this field are studied from the previous researches
and are grouped according to the understanding and explained. Depending upon the sample
to be measured different techniques are employed for example if you want to measure
productivity of crew, worker we use Work sampling or FDS and if we want to measure
productivity of whole project we use Earned value concept.
Every construction project will have different factors affecting productivity, the factors of
one project can resemble another project or not, and if there are for example ten factors
affecting a project then similar project in different location might have few more or less
factors affecting construction productivity i.e. mostly no two projects will have same factors
affecting productivity. All the construction activities performed on site are first planned and
scheduled in office. So construction productivity is affected by both on-site and off-site
(Head office) factors. Basically there are many factors which affect construction productivity
which are discussed in previous studies, from which important factors which cause delay,
time, cost and quality issues are discussed in this study and are grouped.

2.2 Fundamental Models

Basic models which explains about the input, process and output or simply defines
productivity. According to different journals which I have referred there are three models in
this category.

5
• Model defining productivity
• Conceptual framework of productivity estimation model (Park 2006)
• Construction as open conversation process (Derwin 1985)
2.2.1. Model defining productivity

Figure 2.1 Model defining productivity

This model simply defines productivity i.e. Input divided by output. To achieve better
productivity the input utilized (resources) must be reduced or the output should be improved
in terms of quality and quantity. Utilization of input and production of output changes with
the methodology that we us, different methods show different outputs, for example
construction of a brick wall can be done on site and can be prefabricated. These two methods
finally result to construction of a brick wall but precast method is more productive than on
site as it saves time, effort and material wastage (money), the only thing required is planning
of that activity by providing proper dimensions, required strength and the time when it
should be delivered on the site.
The difference between the two outputs can be measured by many ways which I will discuss
in detail in the next section of literature review (2.2).The best method or process is chosen
according to the situation, like precast cost more when compared to build on site. If you
prefer budget than time then build on site is better according your situation
2.2.2 Construction as open conversation process (Derwin 1985)
The inputs are clearly defined in this model, which are different resources like labor, capital,
energy, material and equipment. All these are managed and scheduled by management to
obtain the final output. As I said managing and scheduling of resources to obtain the output,
which is not so easy because at the site level the process of converting inputs to output is
quiet complex as productivity is effected by many internal and external factors and also by
some undefined disturbances as shown in the figure 2.4.

6
 Feedback Feedback

Input Internal Environment

Output
Labor Organizational structure,supervision,
management, sapn of control, work rules, etc. Products and
Rework projects
Capital

Input Conversation Output

Energy
mechanism technology mechanism

Material Disturbance Disturbance

Disturbance
Equipment
Exogenous factors such as:
Disturbance Weather, economic condition, unions,
government regulations, public, etc

Figure 2.2 construction as an open conversation process (Derwin 1985)

This process also explains about the input, process and output, here input mechanism refers
to methodology. When output is not according to desired specifications it leads to rework,
the disturbances in the figure shows their influence on the resources and final products. Here
the disturbances are only due to the external factors but when the internal environment is
incompetent it also shows a negative impact on productivity. Exogenous factors can effect
both the inputs which will have their impact on outputs or they can directly affect outputs or
products. The internal factors can be controlled by the management but the external factors
can’t be controlled. Two feedback loops can be seen from the figure 2.2, which is a tool of
management to measure its effectiveness.
Advantages
• The effect of external factors and internal factors can be foreseen from this model
• The two feedback loops can be used as a tool to measure the competence of management
and manpower over the output.

Disadvantages
• Nowhere in the whole model has it told about the quality control and quality assurance
or Total quality management, if it was added then the rework loop can be excluded.

7
2.3 Construction process models
As per my reference there are two models which fits in this category they are Construction
process model and typical process model. Both the models explains about the process of
construction and its influence on construction productivity.
2.3.1 Construction process model (Charoenngam 2017)
The main objective of construction process is to minimize input and maximize output. Input
are different resources usually five M’s money, materials, machineray, manpower and
management. Output is the final product of any activity which is defined in drawings and
specifications. Construction process includes application of plans that are made by the
management. Construction industry is normally concerned with the fixed output or end
products, within the agreement of time and budget, and bonded by contract and law. To
accomplish the project according to specifications and on time management is completely
responsible, as it should plan, control, monitor ,supervise and motivate the crew.

Figure 2.3 Construction process model (Charoenngam 2017)

The process used to fabricate works is a reflection of management’s planning, estimating,
scheduling. The construction methods and procedures are decided by head office
management according to the situation of their construction site. Everything can be
controlled and monitored by the management except some external factors like government
regulations and laws. To obtain desired output manage inputs and process.
In this model Inputs are the resources like skilled and unskilled labor who utilizes materials,
tools and equipment’s which are provided by the management who decides or plans which
person should use which material and which equipment to accomplish any assigned work or
activity. During the construction phase of activity/work management puts on eye on the work

8
(monitor), in case if anything goes wrong it is the management’s job to control and correct
it.
In the process phase there are three elements Technical constraints, External constraints and
Managerial constraints. Technical constraints are basically the procedures or methods that
are to be used for construction. External constraints are the factors that cannot be estimated
accurately such as external weather, government regulation and certain acts of God. Time,
cost, quality and productivity are the managerial constraints that are managed by the
management.
The last box on the right hand side of the figure 2.3 is output, the final result of all the
resources when they undergo some particular process to build something as per the drawings
and specifications.
Pros
• Everything in the model is finally linked with the output, so we can estimate the results
or outputs based upon the process that we use, if the outputs are undesirable then we can
initially change the procedures.
Cons
• The inputs which are converted physical into outputs after the process are not discussed,
overall inputs are given as resources in the model.
2.3.2 Typical process model of construction process
For clear understanding of this model concreting activity is taken into consideration and
explained in the figure 2.5, it can be applied to any process or activity of construction
process.
In this model it clearly differentiate in between inputs that become a physical part of an
output like concrete, reinforcement, bricks, materials etc. and inputs that do not contribute
physically in the final output like labors, equipment’s etc. which are shown on the left hand
side of the figure 2.5.
Outputs are also divided into products which conforms to the requirements e.g. structural
members, HVAC system and end products which do not conform to the requirements e.g.
defects and waste example material wastage which is shown on the right hand side of the
figure 2.5.

9
 Figure 2.4 Typical process model of construction process (Raymond.T, S.L Tang &
Ahmed 2002)

Figure 2.5 typical process model applied to concreting activity.

With the help of this model we can calculate the cost of conformance which come from
inputs which are converted to physical outputs and cost of non-conformance which is derived
from the inputs which will not contribute physically in the end product.

10
To improve productivity this model can be used very effectively as we can find out clearly
which part of our work goes wrong conformance or non-conformance, simply if all the inputs
which has to be converted physically to the end product (conformance) or output are
completely transferred from inputs to outputs without any wastage, defects (non-
conformance). Then we can say that the activity/work is done productively and if not it’s
vice versa.
Benefits
• Inputs which are converted physically to outputs after the process are clearly discussed
in this model and inputs which just contribute to overall output like manpower and
machinery but does not convert physically to outputs are also mentioned in this model.
• Cost of conformance and cost of non-conformance of all the activities of a project can
be calculated by this model.

2.4 Labor productivity models

2.4.1 Labor productivity model
“The major portion of construction budget is allocated to labor expenses say about 40%
according to (Hwang and Liu 2010).” As productivity has many factors affecting directly
and indirectly, mostly all the factors are covered in this model which affect labor
productivity. The positive or negative sign in the figure 2.6 demonstrates that there exists a
positive or negative relationship in the middle of the two factors In this model a complex
bury related-structure of various elements influencing labor productivity is displayed by
utilizing system dynamic approach.

Figure 2.6 Conceptual model of labor productivity (Nasirzageh,P.Nojedehi, 2013)

11
For clear explanation this model is broken into four sub-models which are project workflow
sector, work force (modification in labor policy, labor overtime policy), project cost and
duration sector and labor productivity sector.
Project work flow sector
It consists of three important aspects of construction projects; “work in progress, work
checked and completed and rework”. If the work is as per the mentioned quality and
specifications then its status is changed from work in progress to work checked and
completed and if the quality requirements are not met then this is shifted to rework.
Project work force sector
“This sector is further divided into labor policy, modification in labor policy and overtime
policy. Modification of labor policy is nothing but overmanning and labor overtime policy
is the concept of making the labors work for more time. Modification of labors depend upon
five factors; remained work to completion, remained time to completion, expected workforce
productivity, normal workday and absenteeism. The level of schedule pressure will decide
overtime or overmanning, both of them have detrimental effect on productivity (Nasirzageh,
P.Nojedehi, 2013)”.
Cost and duration sector

Figure 2.7 project cost and duration sector (Nasirzageh, P.Nojedehi, 2013)
Project cost is summation of total material cost, total equipment cost and total work force
cost. Duration of the project will also effect the cost as workforce and equipment’s will be
charged for operating overtime. Improper utilization of given budget will lead to cost
overrun of the project. This will have a bad impact on productivity of the project. Initially
every activity and work is scheduled for the whole project, incompetent schedule will lead
to delay and to get finished the project on time by overcoming delay extra resources are
allotted or the same resources are asked to work overtime, this depends upon the amount of

12
work completed, amount of work remaining and remaining time for completion which
indirectly increase the cost.
Labor productivity sector

Figure 2.8 Labor productivity sector (Nasirzageh,P.Nojedehi, 2013)

This division gives data about the labor efficiency considering all the impacting factors.
There are many components influencing worker productivity out of which some have
positive influence like “motivation, project management efficiency and skillfulness and
some have negative affect for example lack of working area, fatigue, and unfamiliarity with
new technique”. Mostly all the factors are controllable by management except bad weather
condition which have negative affect on productivity, this factor cannot be controlled but it
can be forecasted and if planned properly it may have less impact.
By using this model, project manager can find out the root cause which decreases
productivity and may take measures to control those factors and improve the project
performance.
Benefits of model
• As labor is the major input for any construction operation, all the factors that affect labor
productivity and their positive and negative impacts on labor productivity are completely
discussed in this model.
• As materials and equipment’s are used by the workforce its cost can be evaluated during
the construction phase and estimated during the pre-construction phase with the help of
this model

13
• All the constraints of productivity time, cost and quality and its factors are modeled in
this model.

2.4.2 Expectancy Model of Labor Motivation

Figure 2.9 Expectancy Model of Labor Motivation

This model was proposed by “Manoney and Fillen 1985”. It explains variations in terms of
the effort a worker is willing to exert to complete a task. A good effort is a reflection of
proper incentives and can be improved or diminished by job conditions, management
actions, application of the work and rewards. If effort is applied, the worker will have
sufficient knowledge, skills and abilities, if proper direction is given and constraints are
removed then the performance will be high.
Incentive is related to satisfaction, in this theory there are three components that explains
satisfaction
1. The expectation that crew will be able to perform at desired level
2. The expectation that if crew performs satisfactorily, its members will receive specific
job-related outcomes or rewards.
3. The anticipated satisfaction that the crew members associate with the outcome.
(Manoley 1983)
Management can easily increase incentive of the crew by providing proper pay, recognition
and promotion. Whereas the desire to work by itself is the best incentive. The level of
incentive is directly proportional to the effort for performing a task. A crew with strong
incentive will perform the task with in less time

14
Task assignment can be conveyed in terms of skill variety, task identity and task
significance. Skill variety can be described as application of various skills to perform a job.
Task identity refers to the crew performing an important and notifiable work among overall
work. Task significance means that the crews understanding that the work which they are
doing is important, meaningful and has some value.

Effort can be seen in two ways duration and intensity. If the activity is completed within in
the given time or before it, then it states that the workers spend their lot of time working
productively rather than wasting their time doing unproductive work. Intensity of worker is
stated as how hard the labor works during the productive time. Intensity of work is dependent
upon the incentives provided.

“Performance is the combination of time, cost, quality and safety (Oglesby and Howell
2017)”. As shown in the figure 2.9 performance is a combination of seven important
elements: effectiveness, efficiency, productivity, innovation and quality.

Effectiveness priority is to finish the project on time and within the given budget. Efficiency
is all about conversion of inputs to outputs. Productivity is nothing but the measure of
efficiency of work. Profitability is related to cost engineering which consist of revenues and
total costs, to gain profit revenues must be greater than costs. Innovation is a concept of
introducing new methods and techniques which leads to improvement in any kinds. Finally
quality focuses on the acceptability of the work with respect to the specification and design
limits. With proper incentives, effort and task significance a crew or worker can be easily
motivated to achieve better performance.

Benefits

• This model can be applied to improve or develop worker motivation.

• Find out the correct reason why worker is not motivated or willing to work.
• Using this we can calculate the amount of time a worker spends on each activity.

2.5 Construction productivity estimation and measurement

Construction productivity estimation and measurement are interrelated to each other, first
you estimate and then you measure to cross check the accuracy of estimation. Estimation is
used as a reference or standard to verify with actual work, construction productivity
measurement is useful to compare the actual measured work with estimated work and helps
the managing team to control and monitor the whole project. Measurement is the only tool
to make sure the work that we do is productive or unproductive.
“As stated by (Oglesby1989) construction is a vast and unique process with higher
complexity, the uniqueness and non-recurrent operations of construction projects make it
difficult to develop a standard productivity definition and measure (Sweis 2000). ” Every
project is distinct in terms of specifications and design, administration, delivery methods and
participants of the project. This makes more difficult for any project to be estimated.
Productivity measurement is a means to analyze and promote production efficiency. Another
advantage of measurement is to define the target and serviceability, practicality as a
reference in the payment of employee wages. It can be also used to find out the percentage
of waste of each materials for every activity. Usually measurement is on labors or manpower
as most of the construction operations are performed by the workforce and mostly all the
methods that are used for productivity measurement measures labor productivity. So the
labor productivity measurement units for time are hours, days, months or years and for

15
quantity of work it can be measured in different units like square meter, meter cube etc. To
measure a company productivity we should measure the hours of work that has to be paid
includes, all the work hours that must be paid for the work plus all the work hours that must
be paid instead of not working for example leave due to sickness, vacation, holiday or any
other reason.
First I have explained how estimation is linked to measurement and then what are the
different ways that productivity can be measured.
2.5.1 W.B.S of construction productivity estimation

Estimation of productivity is not an easy task as there are many factors that affect
productivity, these factors are not the same for each project. As construction process are
unique and the characteristics of every project are different from one another. So considering
those factors one has to estimate productivity accurately.
“Usually construction companies uses their own historical data to estimate future projects
(H.S Park 2006).” The learning curve factor is also an important factor used for estimation
of projects. As the theory of learning curve tells that the productivity of the repetitive work
is improved when it is continuously performed, this is because of development of familiarity
with that activity, better management and efficient use of tools and equipment’s (Oglesby
1989). Baseline productivity can be estimated via historical data and repetitive work.

16
 Figure 2.10 W.B.S of productivity estimation
Raw productivity is otherwise called observed productivity this is derived during the
construction period of the venture (project), raw productivity value is not the exact or
absolute productivity value, if we compare same work force based on productivity then the
values may differ even when the management is same as both the construction site
characteristics doesn't resemble. Actual productivity is measured productivity which is
calculated after the work or activity is finished, this is done in completion stage.
By comparing actual and estimated productivity we can calculate the performance of the
project. If the actual productivity is close to estimated productivity then we can say that
project performance is good and if not vice versa. The performance of the project is obtained
in evaluation stage.
Productivity measurement is similar to evaluating productivity from the actually obtained
productivity and baseline productivity that was estimated. Productivity measurement can be
done in various ways. Which I will discuss in the next chapter.

17
2.5.2 Productivity Measurement W.B.S

Productivity
Measurement

On site Indirect
Models
Measurement Measurement

Activity Project
Economic Specific Earned
Oriented
Value
Work
F.D.S
Sampling

Figure 2.11 W.B.S of productivity measurement

Construction productivity measurement is completely different from industrial

measurement. As construction is an onsite process it is also measured on site, on site
measurement category is sub divided into two which are method study and work
measurement, again this method study can be done in four ways, Work sampling, Foreman
delay survey (F.D.S). Productivity measurements can also be done off site by using some
models like Economic, Activity oriented and Project specific but measuring through models
gives final results or output like the current value of productivity. When we measure
productivity by using different on site measurement methods we can obtain the value of
productivity in addition to this we get the reason behind the increased or decreased
productivity. So productivity measurement is very essential to find out the difference in
estimated work and actual work. There is another way to measure productivity indirectly by
earned value concept.
All these methods have unique purposes to be used based upon the situation and result that
we have to achieve. If we just want to get the final value of work we can use models for this
purpose. If we want to know the reasons or factors behind the result then we may prefer for
onsite measurement. If we want to check the project position or status of the project we can
use earned value concept. Usually measurement of anything/any work is done to compare it
with planned work and in case of any variance between the estimated work and actual work,
management will take actions to control the variance and focuses to reduce the difference
and finally finish the project as estimated.

2.5.3 Models to Estimate

Economic Models

18
Productivity is defined in the following form by different government agencies

Total Factor Productivity (TFP) = Total Output

Labor + Materials + Equipment’s + Energy + Capital
…………………(1)

Total factor Productivity (TFP) = Value of output …………………………………(2)

Value of input
Total Factor Productivity is an economic model which measures in terms of money, as they
are the common units to measure input and output. They are helpful for Policy making and
evaluating the situation of the economy, but this model is not convenient for the contractors.
It might be highly incorrect if applied to a specific project or site as its disability to predict
the various inputs.

Project –Specific Models

An individual project can be accurately defined by governmental agencies for specific
program planning and by the private sector for conceptual estimates with the help of this
model.

Productivity = Output ……………………………………….(3)

Labor + Equipment + Materials
Productivity = Square feet …………………………………………………………...(4)
Dollars

Activity Oriented Models

This model is based up on the work sampling study. “It is helpful for contractors to find out
the time spent in various activities (McLeish 1981). ” This model can be applied for all labor
intensive works. At construction site contractors are focused on labor productivity which can
be measured in different units, cubic yards, tons and square feet etc.
Labor productivity can be defined in one of the following ways.
Labor productivity = Output ……………………………………………………(5)
Labor cost
Labor productivity = Output ……………………………………………………(6)
Work hour
There is no particular standard of productivity, some people use inverted equation 4 to
measure labor productivity.

19
Labor productivity = Labor cost or Work hours ……………………………………(7)
Output
Equation 6 is usually known as unit rate. So contractors depend on the performance factor
to measure productivity.

Performance factor = Estimated unit rate …………………………………………(8)

Actual unit rate
In construction industry we are interested to measure labor productivity as it will give us the
effectiveness of management skills in planning, controlling and supervising work force to
complete the undertaken projects with all the requirements and specifications within the
limited resources.
2.5.4 Onsite measurement

All the Construction activities are performed on site and to measure their competency there
are many techniques. On site measurement of work is very essential as to know the progress
of work, which tells the status of the project and helps the management team to control the
project. Any measurement in construction process or construction work gives us the
information about the work done, work remaining and work in progress. On site
measurement will give information about the work done and work in progress. Measurement
on site can help us find the least cost and least time consuming method and also defines the
standard time for most of the activities that has to be performed. If any activity which takes
more time and cost on site, which was found by the measurement of work. Then the
management team will train the crew to perform such activity by using that current
method/process or modify the method to perform the activity within the minimum time and
cost, which will also be measured by the onsite measurement techniques. For example
manual mixing of concrete on site take more time as all the materials required to prepare
concrete has to be accumulated at one place and then preparation works starts. The cost of
making concrete manually will also be high as the percentage of waste will be high. If
concrete is produced by concrete mixer at batching plant where all the elements which are
required to prepare concrete will be at a place, then the time and cost for preparing it will be
less when compared to manually mixing process. This difference can be measured by
different methods.

Work sampling

Work sampling is a management tool to measure its competency. It is a method of making

unspecific observations to acquire data about any activities. It focus the administration for
neglecting to supply the important instruments, machinery, data, direction, plan, and labor
etc. to work force so that they can effectively do their job. It is usually applied to critical
activities in large projects

We can derive an activity model of any activity or work by recording a huge number of
random observations and using statistical analysis we can determines how much time spent
by the crew on different activities which are shown in the figure.

20
 Figure 2.12 Graphical representation of time spent on different activities by the crew.
(McLeish 1981)

The graphical representation of activity model divides the different types of works into
several categories, unfortunately the direct work i.e. productive work is only 32.4 %
according to the analysis. Most of the unproductive time is spent by waiting or sitting idle it
may be due to lack of materials, tools, equipment, lack of information, lack of supervision
etc. The reaming percentage of time is spend in travelling, transporting, tools and materials
and personal breaks, here travelling and transporting are two different concepts transporting
is walking around the site to carry tools, materials and walking empty handed in the site is
called travelling, transportation is categorized in supportive work category and all the
activities which does not support or contribute directly and indirectly are included in
unproductive work.
Work sampling is done by assigning some observers who are trained to this sampling. In the
training they are taught to be unbiased with their decisions, not allowed to work sample
during tool box meeting, during clean up time of site, just before or after the starting or
quitting of work, during bad weather conditions on site. This is because this will affect the
final result of the activity sampling.

21
Sampling of work is done in three ways which are tour approach, crew approach and
modified crew approach, Tour approach considers the total work force to be the population
and gather samples from the entire group, with this a large number of samples can be
collected within the short period of time. Crew approach samples several crews and gather
information only from those crews, each crew member can be observed and absentees can
be recorded. Modified crew approach is a combination of tour approach and crew approach
in which the crew is divided into a particular craft having several crew doing each type of
work. Then, collect data for several types of work representing a cross-section of that crafts
work on the entire site.
During work sampling the sample or worker is let known that he is being sample and he
should be sampled only when all the required resources like information, materials, tools,
equipment’s, etc. are assigned/appointed to them. So that the sampled worker or workers
involved in that work will give their best for best results.
The final aspect of this method is to achieve the maximum productivity that can be achieved
for that activity, for this some suggestions and recommendations are made after the analysis
of the data. Work sampling is done in a particular process which is explained in the figure
2.13

22
 Work Sampling

Break Site into

Smaller areas

Area to
Activities

Select
Observers

Train
Them

Observations

Essential Direct Ineffective

Contributory Work Work
Work

Obtain or transport Place , align , force Travel empty

tools & materials , and tie works which handed, idle , waiting
Receive/give contribute directly for tools , materials ,
instructions, Read to completing of equipment's & other
drawings etc. work crew members etc.

Collect
Data

Tour Modified Crew Crew

Approach Approach Approach

Data
Analysis

Statistical Correlation
Analysis Analysis

Summarize
and sort data

Find Factors responsible Enhance Productivity

for low Productivity improvement Programs

Figure 2.13 Process of Work Sampling.

23
Foreman Delay Survey
Foreman delay survey is another activity-analysis technique with high success rate at
construction sites. It’s a method of measuring the influence of administrative actions or
activities that are external to Foreman’s control. F.D.S is the formal, uniform procedure for
obtaining and analyzing data form on site foreman about the problems that cause delays in
on site work and the amount of time lost in each problem which is caused. FDS system
believe that the Foreman who stay close to the work can best identify and estimate time
losses at the end of the day. Work sampling and F.D.S are the best methods which gives
information at low cost and time which can be easily organized.
Features of F.D.S
• Provide current estimates, data is recorded at the end of the day
• They can review total project, rather than just a sample of work force.
• They are cost effective and easily to conduct as only five minutes of foreman’s time is
required to full the form each day.
• Gives information on distinct items of delay, like materials, tools, etc.
• They classify delay difficulties by craft and team, empower management to direct focus
towards crafts which needs help.
• Provide two-way communication between management and foreman.

Key elements before starting F.D.S

• Clear communication of management expectations is required. Foreman must know that

F.D.S has full management support and they are expected to report delay most accurate
possible.
• Clear understanding of probable benefit to foreman. Foreman must know that F.D.S is
not an examination of their performance but to remove all the obstruction which effect
their effectiveness, they are the persons who can the most from this.
• Simplicity, circulate and collect forms in the smooth manner possible, usually by time-
card channels
• Follow-up is necessary, having one person appointed to follow up on missing delays will
ensure the foreman that management is serious about foreman participation.
Implementation of F.D.S
• Foreman orientation by organizing a meeting about 15 min – 1 hr. Potential benefits to
foreman, management expectation of participation by foreman, form timing and
channels for its distribution and collection are the topics to be discussed.
• Collection of delay reports is done for daily, normally for one continuous work week
• Rework and reported delays should be summarized by category and craft
• A meeting is held with the foreman to review the summary of the results which cause
delays and rework, it convince the foreman that you have taken their delay reports and
worked with them.
• Responsibility of management to take action which is visible for example like
eliminating cumbersome requisitioning procedures, addition of tool room clerk,
purchase of walkie-talkies. Such actions satisfy foreman that F.D.S is worthy and shows
that management is ready to take actions to improve productivity.

24
2.5.5 Indirect Measurement of productivity

Effective project administration focus that the undertaken project should comply with the
standard specifications and all the objectives and goals which were mentioned in the pre-
construction stage, (contracting) mainly project should be finished as per planned schedule
and within budget. To guarantee achievement, an efficient project control technique must be
planned, created, and applied to give management with timely and accurate assessment on
definite usage of resources for comparing them with planned objectives which were set
during the planning stage

Earned value is a project control method which gives a quantitative measure of work
execution. It analyzes definite achievement of planned work and related cost against an
incorporated schedule and budget plan. The earned value method suggests a quantitative
measure for the Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP) by attributing planned dollars
to booked work as it is performed. BCWP is an element of time, cost, and work and gives a
typical connection between the Project budget and schedule.

A system frequently utilized for cost control is just plotting the Budgeted Cost of Work
scheduled (BCWS) on a chart with the Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP). This is
misdirecting in that an examination of points on each curve at a given time does not
contemplate. In case if the project is ahead of planned work, the graph may complicate this
by displaying actual cost overrunning the budget but actually ACWP may be within the
budget or under running the budget for the work done. In case of behind schedule, the graph
may show that actual cost under running the budget when in reality the ACWP will be
overrunning the budget for whatever work done. This technique of Earned value relates
BCWP against ACWP to derive cost variance. The value for BCWP is likewise utilized for
correlation against the BCWS to supplement the schedule control system. It is hard to decide
whether an overall project is on plan when a course of events is put on a schedule where a
few activities are ahead and some are behind. The earned value method gives a way to
consolidate the schedule difference of individual activities keeping in mind to determine the
magnitude of schedule deviation for the whole project.

For effective utilization of the earned value concept management has to maintain effective
control and monitor systems. Which can be possible by a good W.B.S (work break down
structure) and O.B.S (organization break down structure). This technique will be very
effective to measure performance only when the management is competent in cost and
schedule control systems. Representation Cost and schedule variations might be exhibited
graphically by plotting BCWP, ACWP, and BCWS against time are shown in the figure 2.14

25
 Figure 2.14 Cumulative Cost and Schedule variance

The cost and schedule differences are expressed by the distance from BCWP to ACWP
and to BCWS, separately, at a given point in time. The cost and schedule difference
ratios are the cost and schedule variances identified with the BCWP curve and BCWS
curve, individually
By using the following formulas different elements can be derived or calculated

Cost performance index (CPI) = BCWP/ACWP

Schedule performance index (SPI) = BCWP/BCWS
Schedule Variance (%) = BCWP - BCWS
BCWS
Cost Variance (%) = BCWP - ACWP
ACWP

26
2.6 Site Factors affecting construction productivity
As construction is an on-site process which is exposed to open environment, all the activities
which are performed in the construction process are unique and rarely repetitive. So there
are many factors that affect construction productivity on site. Most commonly there are some
factors that affect every construction site but every construction project may have different
factors when compared with one another.
Late supply of construction materials
Materials are one of the major resources which are used in construction, selecting supplier
and procuring materials from supplier is the major responsibility of material management
department. Material management is defined as the process of estimating, procuring,
inspecting, storing & stacking, handling and fabrication of materials according to the plan.
All these are considered as the functions of material management, if any of these function is
inadequate it will affect the material availability on site.
Estimation of materials with specified qualities and quantities is done according to the plan
and specifications and BOQ. Constructability review here helps the estimation team to
prepare a perfect purchase order. Insufficient estimation of materials will cause schedule
delay. The purchase order is forwards to purchasing department whose function is to select
the supplier based upon some criteria, the best of all the criteria’s is to look after the previous
records of the supplier and ensure whether there are any previous issues regarding late
deliveries, poor quality of materials etc., selecting incompetent supplier will effect materials
management productivity as quality, quantity of materials will be deprived and also may
cause lack of materials due to late deliveries.
Late payments to employee and supplier
Lack of proper financial system will have much adverse effect on workers motivation than
any other factor. Delay in paying the wages or salaries can lead to many other factors like
absenteeism, motivation, and rework. This will also effect the on-site availability of
materials. For example if suppliers comes to know about the payment delays issues for the
employees working in the site, then he might ask for advance payments for the supply of
materials or he may ask the contractor to submit bank guarantee bond before delivering the
materials.
Slow local authority approval
Before starting construction and during construction contractor need to get approved many
things from the government or local authorities. For example land clearance certificate
stating that this land is nonagricultural land and can be used for building/infrastructure
development purpose, NOC (no objection certificates), layout approval, building plans and
specifications approval and son on. If contractor is ready with technical and human resource
to start the construction works and he cannot start the work because he could not get
approvals from the government authority it will negatively affect productivity and can lead
to project delay.
Inadequate site staff
As all the construction activities are performed on site. People employed on site must be
competent and capable enough to perform their tasks efficiently. If they lack team work,
experience, skill whatever required for being competent it will lead to productivity loss.
Inadequate site staff is nothing but lack in amount of staff in terms of quantity and quality.

27
Lack of supervision/ Supervisor absenteeism
Lack of labor supervision is the most vital factor influencing labor productivity. Regular
supervision of labor is essential for the productive contribution to enhance the productivity
in each phase of construction activities. Absence of supervision encourages workers,
particularly the individuals who are under direct employment method, to take part in
inefficient exercises, take regular unscheduled breaks, being ideal in the site because of lack
of material or instruction delay, or even leave construction site in the working hours to visit
their own personal activities in an appropriate timing can lead to ideal work. Direct
supervision of labor is required to overcome defective and non-conforming works which are
not according to contractual specifications and therefore to minimize the effect of rework,
so that the cost and time spend in the renewal of rework activities can be saved.
High Staff Turnover
Turnover is the rate at which the old employees leave their job and new ones are hired to fill
these positions. High turnover rate implies new crews to be formed and manpower have to
be reassigned. These new crew requires some time for familiarization with the work and
learning curve is lost. This breaks the former rhythm and relationships of crew members.
Rate of Absenteeism & Turnover is reflection of morale of workers. Dissatisfaction can be
the main reason for absenteeism & Turnover. Major causes of these are hazardous working
condition, poor supervision, low safety level, better opportunities elsewhere. Rate of
turnover and absenteeism must be in control to maintain good productivity statics.
Rework
Rework has the most adverse effects on construction productivity as it will be time and cost
consuming, loss of materials and effort. Rework in construction project would result to
additional (extra) work and increase the project cost. The issue of rework starts from various
reasons some of them are the incomplete design, unrealistic schedules, lacking learning of
drawing, misreading of drawing and detail particulars, lacking work capacity, change orders
deficient number of supervisors.
Workforce Absenteeism
Absenteeism has low effect when compared with skill and experience on productivity, “it is
caused because most of the craftsmen working in this field are agriculturists and they quit
job during the farming season and return back to their main occupation and due to few
irresponsible workers who are addicted to drinking alcohol and skip the work (Kuldej
Sinthawanarong 2004)”. “According to P F Kaming better pay from other projects, distance
between site and home, good working environment, more complex works or opportunities
of career development in other projects are the major causes that causes absenteeism.” To
overcome this problem researchers suggested to implement on site or near to site
accommodation to the workers who are involved in the project but this will increase the cost
of project.
Lack of Familiarity with current job and condition
Standardization is nothing but being familiar, if the labor is assigned with latest tools or
equipment’s which he did not have any knowledge about them before, it will be very difficult
for him/her to work with them. There is nowhere productivity in this aspect. So it’s the
management responsibility to know about the skills and abilities of the labor before assigning
any work. This can also be avoided if the management asks the workers to get their own
tools required for them to perform the given work or assignment. This will also help the

28
management as they are not responsible to provide tools and look after them, the worker
himself is responsible for his tools. Being familiar with the surrounding conditions is also
very important as few workers have good efficiency rate in cold conditions and few of them
are efficient in warm conditions, not only weather conditions it is also about the nature and
scope of work before recruiting, human resource has to ensure about his past experience and
type of work he is familiar with which will help in maintaining good productivity.
Work stopped due to political strikes
In a developing country like India political influence have major impact on construction
industry. As construction industry is a labor intensive industry, on the day of strike
construction work will be completely stopped as there will be no craftsmen or other
employees who will be willing to work on that day. Such strikes occur frequently in a
developing country which effects productivity badly.
Inadequate Site layout
Poor site layout can cause ineffective materials handling for example if the warehouse
location is far away from the working location then the time, effort and money will be lost
in shifting the materials from storage to site areas. In addition it can create access problems
to the equipment’s that are employed in the site, which will decrease productivity as the
equipment’s will consume more fuel, time to do its operations. Poor site layout will also
effect the man working hours for example if the toilets, rest areas, canteen etc. are in a long
distance from the working area then the time taken by workers to perform their daily
activities like breaks, food and toilets will consume more time than required. This is not an
ordinary problem as the total work hours lost is the product of all the workers working in
site and extra time taken by them to perform these activities will be a huge number.
Total work hours lost = Number of workers X extra time taken by each worker.
Lack of materials on time at workplace
Materials are essential elements for any construction activity from starting till the end,
without them work cannot be proceeded or started. Lack of materials on site is the factor
mentioned in many researches and ranked as the first to affect productivity detrimentally.
“In a study by (Thomas et al, 1989), ineffective material management practices were
estimated to have caused an 18% work hour overrun.” Insufficient materials on site may be
because of inadequate management who fails to manage transportation of materials on site,
inadequate warehouse locations to store materials, improper planning and procurement
practices, extensive multiple handling of materials, improperly marking and sorting, trash
and debris obscuring access to and movement of materials, remobilization and
refamiliarization after lengthy delay, crew slowdowns in anticipation of material shortages,
rework, material misfabricattion, insufficient methods used to distribute materials, improper
site layout .“ In a research conducted by H.S Park claimed that productivity loss due to
material management is between 5.4 % to 56.8 % which included late or out of sequence
deliveries ” “ About 6% of all construction labor costs could be saved if material and
equipment had been available at the work site when needed ( Bell and Stukhart 1986) .”

29
Improper operation and maintenance of equipment’s and tools
To obtain better productivity proper utilization of equipment’s and tools is suggested by
authors in many researches. In developing countries like India manual efforts are preferred
more than equipment’s. To obtain desired productivity factors affecting equipment and tools
productivity should be managed.
Selecting appropriate equipment which suits the site condition and capacity requirements is
essential to be productive. To do so proper planning should be done. Not all the equipment’s
can be operated initially by the workers, training is required to effectively operate them.
Operation and maintenance should be done according to the standards and manuals, if not
there are high chances of an equipment breakdown. Availability of spare parts of the
equipment’s is also an essential factor to fix the breakdown or repair them. Using outdated
equipment and tools will lead to delay as these equipment’s will take more time to finish the
assigned work than equipment’s which are properly maintained and operated. Ineffective
site layout will also indirectly effect productivity as it effects accessibility.
Shortage of spare parts in case of equipment breakdown
Equipment breakdown is mainly because of improper operation and maintenance or due to
equipment’s utilized on site are operated by unskilled and untrained labor who don’t have
sufficient knowledge about those equipment’s. In case of equipment breakdown required
spare parts should be available in the market if not that equipment cannot be repaired, this
leads to lack of equipment’s on site which have adverse effect on productivity.
Poor Weather conditions
All the constructions activities are weather sensitive and they are highly affected by the bad
weather conditions. It is found that after agriculture construction industry is the only field to
be highly affected by the bad weather. “Temperature and humidity are considered as major
factors to affect productivity (Kohen and Thomas 1991).” Too high or too low temperature
is unfavorable for performing work on site. Heavy rainfall is also another weather condition
which adversely affects productivity as during rain it will be impossible to work on site due
to which the estimated schedule will be disturbed and the project may be delayed.Basically
excavation, paving, concrete works and masonry activities are affected by the rain. Mainly
external works like formworks, steel works, and casting of concrete, plastering, painting and
tiling activities which are performed externally are highly effected by these external factors.
High winds, snow, heat radiations all these come in this category which detrimentally effects
productivity. Sometime due to worst weather conditions the work is totally stopped.
Man hours lost due to unfavorable weather conditions include
• paid time in which bad climate transiently keeps workers from working is lost
• productivity is diminished because of heat and cold injuries
• Work which is affected by bad weather has to be redone
• Work is disturbed and work week is shortened which leads in disturbance for overall
schedule
Lack of coordination among construction parties
To achieve better productivity coordination among different construction parties is much
necessary as construction is only possible with a team work. Since construction industry is
combination of immense administration, human, technical works. Lack of coordination will
have negative on productivity.

30
Low quality of materials
Quality of materials and equipment’s will have direct impact on the final output as the time
taken to build with poor quality of materials will be higher when compared to the time taken
to build with good quality of materials “ (Adnan Enshassi, 2007).” The percentage of waste
when we use low quality materials is higher than the waste percentage when we use good
quality of materials for construction. Insufficient quality of materials leads to rework as the
work is not done according to the specifications and requirements which were mentioned in
the contract. This kind of unsatisfactory work will be rejected by the owner or consultant
which badly effects productivity.
Insufficient storage space for materials
Insufficient storage space has major effect on project productivity. As it leads to lack of
materials on site, which are one of the major resources without which performing
construction operation is impossible. If a project does not have proper storage space then the
materials delivered by the supplier are stored on site exposed to water and wind and might
have high chances to be damaged. Materials placed on site will block the site mobilization
and creates transportation problems resulting into site congestion.
Lack of employee training
Employee training is necessary to enhance the skills and abilities of workforce. If training is
not provided then it will affect construction productivity as the workforce will not have
proper knowledge about the work, which will lead to rework, delay and cost overrun.
Lack of Skill and Experience
If a person need to do things effectively then he should have an ability to do it, this ability is
called as skill. In construction industry site worker require a lot of skills to do his job.
“Mohammed Khan (2015) studied about the effect of skilled and shortage of experienced
labor and concluded that they are the major factors that effect on site productivity.
Experience of work is essential factor to affect site productivity. As experienced worker does
not require detailed explanation of the activities and did not require continuous supervision
all along the activity. If any activity which is critical is to be performed by the skilled and
experienced worker, who has all the ability to solve problems intellectually, always thinks
practically to encounter hurdles which may happen in on site activity. Then the output
required from that activity will be desired and performance of that crew or worker will be
effective which leads to higher productivity.
Lack of Motivation/commitment of workforce
Motivation is considered as a gasoline to improve productivity. A detailed explanation of
motivation and how its effects the workers performance is clearly explained in the
expectancy model of labor motivation in figure 2.11. “Other than this there few important
theories which explains about the worker motivation, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory
and Taylor’s theory. This result supports the discoveries of Borcherding et al. (1980), and
Whitehead (1990), whose investigate stated the significance of this factor to labor
productivity. ” This impact is just ordinary and takes after the character of the human nature.
Motivated workers are typically more energetic and initiative. They work harder and react
faster to directions. Their pace is, in addition, related with a more prominent feeling of pride,
fulfillment, and obligation, in this manner they normally accomplish more, in correlation
with demotivated or demoralized workers.

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Unrealistic project goals and deadlines
Project which cannot be reached within the available time and cost are known to be
unrealistic and have adverse effect on productivity as it will lower the employee motivation
as they think that it cannot be achieved even if they try to do it with full efforts and
determination.
Unclear/Errors in drawings
Incomplete technical specifications which are not clear are time consuming as they require
many requests for information letters for the clarification of work. Productivity is severely
affected due to unclear specification. If the work is already started then rework may be
required which is one of the major factors affecting productivity. Mostly unclear technical
specification are due to providing less time for the designer to prepare design documents in
order to submit for tender so most of the tender documents are not clear, insufficient and can
lead to disputes between the parties involved in the project.
Poor Performance Monitoring and control

“Monitoring is a process of management which include collecting, measuring, and

disseminating performance information and assessing measurements and trends which affect
project productivity improvement (PMBOK).” Controlling is the process of analyzing the
data gained after monitoring and reviewing it with the plan and scheduled work and
identifying the cost and schedule variances. Usually most of the projects are delayed because
of the unforeseen conditions, inaccurate estimation and due to changing requirements.
Basically there are very few projects which go as per the plan without any change or
modification in the plan. The process of monitoring and control helps the project to stay on
the track which include many change orders and finally meet the goal which was planned.
Monitoring and control according to PMBOK is concerned with:

• Comparing the actual work performed with the planned work

• Evaluating performance to find out any preventive or corrective measures are required
and suggesting those measures to prevent bad work.
• Analyzing, following and checking project's risk to ensure the risks are recognized, their
status is accounted for, and that suitable risk-response plan are being executed.
• Maintaining an exact and up to date convenient data base concerning project's products
and their related documentation through projects completion.
• Providing data to help status-reporting, progress-measurements, and to forecast.
• Current schedules and cost are updated by the information provided during monitoring
and control.
• Observing execution of approved changes when and as they occurs.
Project Complexity Scale & design
A project with complex design is very difficult to perform, it requires people with high skill
and experience to execute the tasks. If people with little experience are employed in such
projects it will definitely result to delay or cost overrun and finally end up with bad
productivity rates.

32
Poor Planning and Scheduling Practices

Planning and scheduling are the critical factors affecting construction productivity of
developing and developed countries. The basic purpose of planning and scheduling is to help
the management team to help themselves in directing and controlling works. Planning and
scheduling can be defined as a decision making process which in done before the
construction work is started it includes effective and productive way to achieve the desired
results with in the given time and budget. Specifically it gives answers to the following
questions
• What is the work to be done?
• Who is the best person to do the job?
• Which way is the best and effective to perform the activity?
• When it should be done?
Failure to plan and schedule effectively will cause
• Excessive labor and equipment waiting time,
• Major delay in performing activities due to lack of materials,
• Lack of coordination in between the sub-contractors and crews employed for different
activities directly effects productivity by creating congestion and disputes on site.
• In ability to respond to unanticipated conditions like adverse weather which interrupts
the work, equipment breakdowns, and material shortages.(Adrian 1987)
Poor Quality assurance and quality control
Quality is nothing but confirming to the contract requirements. Lack of quality in the final
product will lead to rework or repair of that activity. This will increase the time and cost of
the project. Resources used to build that product and efforts are wasted if it doesn’t comply
with the requirements. To avoid poor quality, quality assurance and quality control
department are employed to look after the quality requirements of the final products.
Quality assurance is an act of enhancing that all the activities that has to be performed in the
project will comply with the specified contract requirements. It involves in building policies,
procedures, training and different systems which are required in order to obtain required
quality. It helps the project to rectify problems and warn management about the problem
which will in turn be useful to prevent rework.
Quality control is the function of quality assurance program which monitors and collects
information about the end products of the project activities and ensure that they match the
requirements, if not they take corrective measures to eliminate unsatisfactory work. QA &
QC have direct or indirect effect on construction productivity. As if the management fails to
identify the unsatisfactory work at the initial stage, it will be much more difficult to resolve
that issue at the final or intermediate stage. Trying to solve such issue after initial stage will
be time and cost consuming.

33
Lack of tools and equipment’s
Lack of tools and equipment’s is the most crucial factor discussed in many researches. As
without proper tools and equipment’s it is highly impossible to perform an activity. “Tool
and equipment shortages likewise have a high impact in the US, UK, Indonesia, and Nigeria
(Guhathakurta et al, 1993; Olomolaiye et al, 1996).” This outcome may be legitimized, as
labor needs a least number of tool and equipment to work successfully. Absence of tools and
equipment’s is due to ineffective management as it is completely responsible to provide tools
for the work force, conduct maintenance programs for equipment’s to avoid breakdowns,
making use of old out of date equipment.
Loss in productivity caused from change orders
Change orders might occur due to improper planning of work during the planning stage. At
any point where the designer is not confident about the design or drawings i.e. whenever the
contractor has some problems with the planned design or if any drawing is incomplete a
variation order or change order is placed. Which will result for changes in the sequence of
activities or works and may change the plan. Change order has a worse effect on productivity
if the work has already been done as it is highly time and cost consuming. The most difficult
work involved in the change order is removing the hardened concrete which is completely
demotivating. There might be a lot of reworks due to change orders.
Inadequate construction method
Appropriate method of construction should be used which should comply with the project
standards and specification, if not it can lead to major productivity loss as the work done by
such method will not be accepted by the client and the contractor has to face the loss in terms
of time and cost.
On-site accidents
Accidents have a great impact on productivity. Adverse temperature, hard work, unsafe
working conditions; make the site unsafe and leads to injuries. “Workers negligence,
carelessness, ignorance, lack of attention of works that are being performed, job pressures-
nervous & fatigue, high rate of turnover, high level of subcontracting are the main causes of
safety issues”.

34
 CHAPTER 3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
Research methodology comprises of the methods and procedures which are used by the
researcher in order to collect data and analyze it. Each and every step is discussed in detail
here in research methodology, basically we have three steps problem identification, research
method and a methodology framework. In the initial stage of problem identification an
extensive literature review of the topic is done from which problem is identified and
objectives are set. The next phase is to select an appropriate method which suits the research
study. Usually there are two research methods qualitative and quantitative. Quantitative
method is chosen for this research to obtain desired objectives. The final stage is to develop
a methodology framework which consists of four critical stages model development, data
collection, analysis of data and recommendations and conclusions. This research is
conducted by quantitative research approach and survey questionnaire is used as a tool to
collect data.

Process
• Data Analysis
•Literature review • Descriptive stasticts
•Research scope and •Selection of • Factor analysis
objectives respondents
• Regression
•Develop survey • Conclusion
questionnaire
•Collect data
Input
Output

Figure 3.1 Steps in research methodology

3.2 Research Methodology Framework
In research methodology framework the research study is discussed from the beginning till
the end i.e. from the conceptualization stage to recommendations and conclusions, each and
every step of research conducted by the researcher to obtain the study objectives are briefly
discussed in this framework which is shown in the figure 3.2

35
 • productivity concepts
Literature • Models
review • Methods for measurement Setting research Research
Preliminary • Factors affecting productivity objectives Scope
Input study from different sources

List of On-site factors affecting construction

productivity

Objective 1

Selection of Validation Addition or Final list of

Verification Experts of factors reduction of factors factors

Final Update Questionnaire

Pilot study
questionnaire questionnaire design

Target
Focus area respondents
Questioner Residential & Project Managers Distribution of
survey Commercial Site Managers questioner
Data Project Engineers
building projects
collection &
Analysis Regression model which Objective 2
Objective 3

represents the relationship

To extract the construct variables
between onsite factors and their
influence on project productivity.
of on-site factors affecting Analysis
construction productivity

Discussion Conclusion &

Conclusion
of results Recommendations

Figure 3.2 Research methodology framework

36
Table 3.1 List of On-site factors from literature review
Factors Code Variables Reference
M1 Poor Performance PMBOK; Arsalan Heydarian and Mani
monitoring and Golparvar-Fard
control
M2 Improper project Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
coordination (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
(2014)
M3 Lack of employee Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
training (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
Management (2014)
M4 Late payments to Princy & Shanmugapriya (2017); Alinaitwe
employees, supplier et al (2007); Kadir et al (2001)
M5 Poor quality David Arditi and H Murat Gunaydin(1997)
assurance and
quality control
M6 Inadequate Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
construction (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
method (2014)
PS1 Poor planning and Arditi (1985); Steiner (1979), Adrian
scheduling practices (1987); Alexander Laufer 1989; Nabil A.
Kartam and Raymond E. Levitt (1990)
PS2 Poor welfare Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
facilities provided (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
at site (2014)
Planning and PS3 Unrealistic project Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
Scheduling goals and deadlines (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
(2014)
PS4 Inadequate site Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
staffs (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
(2014)
PS5 Inadequate site Makulsawatudom(2004);Jarkas&Bitar(2012
layout ); Kadir et al (2001); Emsley (2001)
MA1 Late supply of Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
construction (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
materials (2014)
MA2 Lack of materials Makulsawatudom (2004); Emsley; Kuldej
on time at Sinthawanarong (2004); Princy &
workplace Shanmugapriya (2017); Thomasetal(1989)
Material
MA3 Insufficient storage Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
space for materials (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
(2014)
MA4 Low quality of Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
materials, tools and (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
equipment (2014)
TE1 Shortage of spare Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
Tool and parts in case of (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
Equipment equipment (2014)
breakdown

37
 TE2 Improper operation Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
& maintenance of (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
tools and (2014)
equipment's
TE3 Lack of tool and Makulsawatudom (2004);Princy &
equipment Shanmugapriya (2017); Alinaitwe et al
(2007);Zakeri et al (1996);
W1 Lack of skill and Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
experience of the (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
workforce (2014)
W2 Lack of Princy & Shanmugapriya (2017); Alinaitwe
motivation/commit et al (2007);Palmer(2006);Thomas &
ment of the Mathews (1986)
workforce
Workforce W3 Workforce Princy&Shanmugapriya(2017);Adnan &
absenteeism Enshassi (2007); PF Kaming(1997);Kuldej
Sinthawanarong (2004)
W4 High staff turnover Princy&Shanmugapriya(2017);Adnan &
Enshassi (2007); PF Kaming(1997);Kuldej
Sinthawanarong (2004)
W5 Supervisor Makulsawatudom (2004); Samelson &
absenteeism Borcheding,;Lim & Alum (1995);Arditi
(1983);
D1 Change order by Kadir et al (2001);Zakeri et al (1996)
owner
D2 Reworks Princy & Shanmugapriya (2017);Blismas
EWM Lee(2013); Makulsawatudom (2004);
D3 Project complexity: Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
Design
scale and design (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
(2014)
D4 Unclear/error in Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
drawings (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
(2014)
E1 Poor weather Princy & Shanmugapriya (2017); Thomas
conditions & Kohen (1991); Zakeri et al (1996);
Talhouni (1990)
E2 Slow local authority Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
approval (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
E3 On-site accidents Makulsawatudom (2004); Thomas &
Mathews (1986); Emsley(2001)
E4 Ground conditions Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
External necessitating (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
revisions (2014)
E5 Lack of interaction Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
among the site (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
community (2014)
E6 Communication Serdar Durdyev, Syuhaida Ismail
problem among (2015);Anu .v Thomas & J.Sudhakumar
craftsmen and (2014)
supervisor

38
These attributes are grouped theoretically by the researcher with the help literature review.
Each and every attribute is given a unique symbol/code for easy representation of them in
further analysis.
A pictorial representation of all these factors is shown in the below figure.

39
 Poor training
system Poor supervision

Low quality of
Lack of Quality Poor quality policy Lack of Lack of Low tendency
Change orders drawing and Feedback
department & procedure inspections motivation of team work
Specification

Management Technical Social Productivity

loss

Poor quality
INPUTS
-Project objectives
Project Insufficient operation
-Project Scope
plan and maintenance
-Time, cost & quality Criteria of selecting Accepting defective
Purchasing Transport Negotiation
requirements supplier materials
-P.B.S Mode of transport
-O.B.S Payment delay Lack of
- Drawing & specs equipment s
Estimation of :
-Relationship b/w all Procurement Inspection
-Duration Equipment's
activities and WP s.
-Resources
-Cost Constructability Q.A & Q.C Storage &tools
Lack of
Scheduling materials
B.O.Q
Updating Improper criteria for
Drawing Limited Improper
Loss/theft selecting
& Specs Estimation Space Storing &
Authorization for Material Stacking
implementation management methods Using obsolescence
Plan & Undesired Productivity
Schedule quality and Damage tools and equipments
Comparing actual quantity material
vs planned Ineffective site layout
Multiple Inadequate
handling handling
Execution Training Experience Shortage of spare
parts
Change Handeling
Measurement Crew skill orders Cost Lack of effective
Evaluation Collecting data/ overrun planning
monitoring Site
Decision Misfabrication Rework layout
Controlling Wastage of
Lack of training for
resources
Construction operators
Poor Q.A Working Temporary
method Schedule Accessibility
& Q.C area facilities
Engineeering delay Incompetent
Communication
Supervisor
Overtime
Schedule Site Loss in
Payment delay Motivation
pressure Congestion productivity Insufficient
Fatigue Supervision
Productivity Accidents& supervisor
Absenteeism Inadequate
loss injuries
Safety
Unscheduled Training,
Strikes, Government Training Worker idel
breaks by worker experience
holidays Regulation & PPE Enforcement Behaviour

Figure3.3 Conceptual framework of on-site factors affecting construction productivity

40
3.3 Expert validation
Validation of the factors is done before going for data collection. This validation is
conducted to ensure the factors discussed in the literature review are actually the factors
affecting productivity in India. Validation is done with the help of experts in the field who
have at least 15-20 years of experience, they are practitioners and academicians with a sound
knowledge in this concept. Expert validation will lead to addition or reduction of factors that
are discussed in the literature and also have chances to modify survey questioner.
3.4 Pilot study
To make sure my prototype research questionnaire is free of ambiguity, confusion and
mistakes it is pilot tested, where few respondents about 5-10 of them with good experience
in the construction field were asked to verify research questionnaire, few modifications in
that questionnaire were done and total time to fill a questionnaire was also calculated. This
was the finalized questionnaire used for collecting data.
3.5 Data analysis
The data collected can be analyzed with the help of various software’s. In this study
researcher has used IBM SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) to analyze the
data. Firstly the reliability tests is done which is named as Cronbach’s alpha reliability test
to test the reliability of the data collected. Then descriptive statistics of the data which
includes mean, standard deviation are obtained from SPSS, with the help of these descriptive
statistics ranking of attributes is done. Before entering into effective factor analysis (EFA)
two tests are done namely Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin’s (KMO) test and Bartlett’s test of Sphericity
to test the adequacy of the data.
After testing the data adequacy further analysis are done according to the procedures of SPSS
software to obtain EFA output.
3.5.1 Reliability tests
“Reliability test is referred as pre-analysis which is done through collected data. This test is
to confirm every time the data is analyzed it produces the equivalent results and also referred
as measure to estimate the degree of internal consistency (Leyden et al.2004). The index that
details about the level of internal consistency is termed as Cronbach’s alpha. It is used when
the data is comprised with multiple questions in a survey. The Cronbach’s alpha generally
lies in between the range of 0-1, higher the value, higher the internal consistency of the data.
Cronbach’s alpha is used for examining the reliability analysis. Bernardi (1994) proposed
that the level of Cronbach’s alpha is considered when the value is equal or higher than the
value of 0.7 and it is regarded as ‘Acceptable’. The value above 0.9 is treated as excellent.
It is also somewhat acceptable if the value ranges from 0.6-0.7.
α = N/N-1 (1- ∑ α2Yi / α2X)
Where; α = reliability coefficient (Cronbach’s Alpha)
N = number of items in the questionnaire
α2 Yi = the sum of variances of each item score
α2X = the variance of sum of all item scores
The correlation coefficient value which indicates the item inter co-relate with each other
enhances to be considered as “Correlated item total correlation”. According to Duplessis

41
(2003) value less than 0.32 is to be terminated from the scale of measurement. It also
describes and determines the validity of data.”
3.5.2 Exploratory Factor Analysis
“The interpretation of correlations among the different variables in the dataset is thus
referred as Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Hence provides a solution with strong factor
structure based on strong correlations. The beauty of EFA is that there will be no piori
hypothesis about which factor belong to which construct. The rotation technique is applied
further to falsify and can be expressed more precisely solution. The two rotation techniques
are classified as orthogonal in which it assumed the factors are to be uncorrelated to each
other. Varimax, Quartimax and Equimax are part of orthogonal rotation. Varimax rotation
is used often which it minimizes the loadings with high factors. The other one is named as
Oblique rotation where the factors are allowed to be correlated. Direct oblimin is often used
to identify the distinctive relationships among the variables. One of the primary method for
factor extraction in EFA is Principal Component Analysis in which it reflects all the variance
(places 1’s in diagonal of matrix). Then the items can be grouped based on factor rotation
with Eigen value more than 1.0. According to Hofsted and Neuijen, (1999) the values of
factor loading power will be terminated if the value exits less than the range of 0.35-0.5. It
is also suggested that according to the theory explained by Costello and Osbrone (2005),
factor analysis is comprised of following methods. The measurement of sample adequacy is
determined by inspecting the values of
i) “Bartlett’s test of Sphericity” in which the value should be significant
ii) “Kaiser-Mayer-Olkin’s”, the value always should be more than 0.5.
Bartlett’s test of Sphericity is testing of a hypothesis that correlation matrix is an identity
matrix in which diagonals are placed with ones and the rest are zero. It implies matrix is not
treated as identity matrix if significant result (P<0.05) and hence concludes the variables are
related to each other and can proceed with the EFA. According to Norusis (1994 (cited in
Santoso et al.2003)) the KMO statistics are classified as if the value falls in 0.90’s it is
marvellous, in 0.80’s it is Meritorious, 0.70’s is Middling, 0.60’s is Mediocre, 0.50’s is
miserable and unacceptable if the value is <0.50. Scree plot is also another form of retaining
factors which represents graphically. The factor loadings are presented in Table 3.2”
Table 3.2 represents the item factor loadings and their interpretation
Factor loading Shared variance (%) Quality
0.45 20 Fair
0.55 30 Good
0.63 40 Very good
0.71 50 Excellent
Source :(Schumaker and Lomax, 2010)

42
3.5.3 Reliability of factor analysis
“Reliability of factor analysis was established by calculating the Cronbach’s alpha
Reliability coefficient (a) (Chan et al., 2012; Choi et al., 2011; Doloi et al., 2012). The
Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was calculated for the factors extracted from factor analysis
and checked if any group’s Cronbach’s alpha value is less than 0.7 which is considered as
not reliable. Along with this all the attributes within the groups are also verified and attributes
with total item correlation values less than 0.32 are removed.” This process is explained in
the below flowchart.

Framework for testing reliability of Factor analysis

Process

Literature Review List of factors from literature review

Items investigated by chosen Experts having experience in construction field

Expert. will examine the items.

No.
Ok? Removed/
alternate
Yes

Questionnaire
Distribute the questionnaire/ pilot testing
survey

SPSS; Reliability Test (Internal consistency)

Evaluate the Items Cronbach’s alpha > 0.7
Item scale correlation <.32 will removed
No.
Ok? Removed
Yes

SPSS:Apply Exploratory factor Analysis(EFA):

Determines factors of Variables KMO value > 0.5 with barletts test of
significance at 0.000. Eigenvalue >1 with factor
rotation. Factor loading < 0.35 will be dropped
No.
OK? Removed

Yes
SPSS; Reliability Test (Internal consistency)
Item Correlation confirmation
Cronbach’s alpha > 0.7
Item scale correlation <.32 will removed

Figure 3.4 Framework for testing reliability of factor analysis

43
3.5.4 Regression Analysis
Regression is done to find the relationship between dependent variables and independent
variables. There are two types of regression linear and multiple, multiple regression is used
in this study to measure the relationship between independent and dependent variables. As
there were a lot of attributes affecting onsite, which are reduced with the help of data
reduction technique into few factors. These factors obtained from factor analysis were the
independent variables and three indicators measuring construction productivity (CPI, SPI
and Frequency of rework) are the dependent variables used for multiple regression analysis.

44
 CHAPTER 4
DATA ANALYSIS
4.1 Introduction
The main aspect of this chapter is to analyze the data collected in India and present it. As
mentioned in the previous chapter all the attributes listed from literature review are first
validated by experts and then final questionnaire is prepared, later this questionnaire is pilot
tested with the help of few respondents, pilot testing of the questionnaire leads to few
modifications and updated questionnaire is used for collecting data. Firstly all the data is
filtered and invalid data is removed. Then this data is imported into SPSS software where its
reliability is tested and further analysis are done in order to obtain research objectives. All
the steps of data analysis are shown in the figure below

Data Analysis

Reliability tests

Descriptive
statistics

Explanatory factor
analysis

Extraction of
Objective 2
factors

Reliability of
extracted factors

Regression
Objective 3
analysis

Figure 4.1 Data analysis steps

4.2 Research survey
The questionnaire was finalized after the expert verification who have strong background in
construction industry and distributed via face to face and through email. The researcher
demonstrate the questionnaire and objective of the study clearly before interviewing the
respondents. The total duration for data collection took three months.

45
Table 4.1 Expert validation respondents profile

Sno. Experts Name Designation Experience in

this field
1 D. Karthik Assistant professor in 15 years (also
Construction management – NIT has field
Warangal experience)
2. A.S.R. Murthy General Manager- Navayuga 30 years
Engineering company Ltd.
3. T. Srinivas Retired deputy executive engineer 36 years
Reddy (Roads and building department)
4. Srinivas Rao Associate professor – NICMAR 15 years
Hyderabad
S. Jayaraja Project Manager – Prathima infra 30 years
5. Reddy

After expert validation, (M2) Improper project coordination, (D2) Reworks, (D1) Change
orders were modified and updated into (M2*) Lack of coordination among the construction
parties, (D2*) Rework due to field errors and (D1*) Loss in productivity caused from change
orders respectively.
Some of these attributes were eliminated as the experts considered them as irrelevant, (PS2)
Poor welfare facilities provided at site, (E5) Lack of interaction among the site community
and (E6) Communication problem among craftsmen and supervisor were eliminated from
the list. Pre-survey also lead to addition of few attributes like (E7) Work stoppage due to
political strikes and (W6) Familiarity with current job and conditions. Totally there were
about 32 attributes listed out after expert validation and they are further analyzed.
Pilot study was conducted with the help of six sample respondents in order to ensure survey
questionnaire, few changes were done in this questionnaire and this questionnaire was used
for collecting data.
4.3 The sample
About 250 questioners were distributed out of which 165 responses are returned (63.2%). In
this 165 about 7 responses are excluded due to insufficient, unclear and biased information.
All the information collected from southern part of India mainly Hyderabad was collected
from direct interviews and before distribution of questionnaire, researcher has briefly
explained the research objectives and scope to avoid biased information.
Table 4.2 Overall view of respondents
Characteristic Number Percentage (%)
Size of company
Small 42 26.51
Medium 93 58.80
Large 23 14.55
Positions
Project manager 38 24.05

46
 Site manager 26 16.45
Project engineer 82 51.89
Others 12 7.59
Years of construction
experience
1-5 years 51 32.27
6-10 years 62 39.24
10-15 years 28 17.72
>15 years 17 10.75

4.4 Pre analysis

Reliability test
Reliability test is a pre analysis test which helps the researcher to find the internal
consistency of the data that has been collected. “This test is to confirm every time the data
is analyzed it produces the equivalent results and also referred as measure to estimate the
degree of internal consistency (Leyden et al.2004).” Performing reliability test is very
important as it gives the scale which represents the validity of the data. Cronbach’s alpha is
the value which represents reliability or validity of data, it lies in between 0-1, higher the
value higher will be the internal consistency of data.
According to Bernardi (1994) the value of Cronbach’s alpha is acceptable if it lies in between
0.7-1. The value higher than 0.9 is excellent and somehow the value between 0.6-0.7 is also
acceptable.
Table 4.3 Reliability Statistics

Cronbach’s Alpha Cronbach’s Alpha Based on N of Items

Standardize Items
.895 .895 31

Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha

Firstly Cronbach’s alpha value obtained from SPSS reliability analysis of 32 variables was
0.889 and explains 88.9% of variability. As explained in the chapter three the items with low
correlation (<0.32) are eliminated. If (E4) attribute ground condition necessitating revisions
is removed due to its low correlated value 0.28.
It will improve the Cronbach’s alpha value from 0.889 to 0.895. This explains 89.5% of
variability for 31 attributes. The value obtained for 31 attributes 0.895 is acceptable as it lies
between 0.7-1, this value of 0.895 is close to excellent criteria (0.9) and this is acceptable.
Thus 32 out of 31 attributes will be remaining for further analysis. Therefore 0.895 is the
actual value considered.

47
Table 4.4 Item-Total Statistics

Scale Scale Corrected Squared Cronbach’s

Mean Variance Item-Total Multiple Alpha if
Attributes if Item if Item Correlation Correlation item
Deleted Deleted deleted
Late supply of 90.43 297.482 .366 .533 .893
construction materials
Late payments to 90.10 298.002 .377 .364 .893
employees, supplier
Slow local authority 90.11 297.727 .362 .366 .893
approval
Inadequate site staff 90.28 298.342 .389 .486 .893
Supervisor absenteeism 89.38 296.39 .414 .328 .892
High staff turnover 89.79 298.650 .352 .332 .893

Rework due to field 90.21 296.841 .421 .482 .892

errors
Workforce absenteeism 90.56 292.796 .503 .758 .890
lack of familiarity with 90.65 293.899 .536 .783 .890
current job and
conditions
Work stopped due to 90.24 292.604 .493 .511 .891
political strikes and
hartals
Inadequate site layout 90.02 295.700 .469 .520 .891

Lack of materials on- 90.56 295.497 .374 .438 .893

time at workplace
Improper operation & 90.61 293.614 .438 .473 .892
maintenance of tools
and equipment's
Shortage of spare parts 89.74 290.805 .484 .515 .891
in case of equipment
breakdown
Poor weather 90.59 290.524 .479 .559 .891
conditions
Lack of coordination 90.78 299.699 .356 .537 .893
among the construction
parties
Low quality materials 90.04 298.234 .320 .468 .894
and equipment’s

Insufficient storage 89.66 289.271 .564 .584 .889

space for materials
Lack of employee 90.85 298.049 .438 .769 .892
training

48
 Lack of skill and 90.82 296.457 .470 .884 .891
experience of the
workforce
Lack of 90.73 296.337 .451 .801 .891
motivation/commitment
of the workforce
Unrealistic project 90.37 287.661 .565 .768 .889
goals and deadlines
Unclear/error in 90.14 297.165 .398 .499 .892
drawings
Poor Performance 89.49 288.876 .567 .515 .889
monitoring and control
Project complexity: 90.35 294.598 .401 .751 .892
scale and design
Poor planning and 89.50 294.659 .422 .474 .892
scheduling practices
Poor quality assurance 89.44 291.955 .478 .470 ..891
and quality control

Lack of tool and 90.88 293.801 .461 .617 .891

equipment
Loss in productivity 89.70 296.414 .417 .461 .892
caused from change
orders
Inadequate construction 90.38 298.224 .421 .458 .892
method
on-site accidents 90.82 293.590 .439 .526 .892

In the above table 4.4 no variable was removed as the variables in the table were satisfied
with the threshold value i.e., corrected item total correlation (> 0.32), in the table 4.5 all the
variables were above 0.32.
Descriptive analysis was done and each variables mean was calculated with the help of SPSS
and this mean value is used to rank variables among themselves. All the variables and their
ranks are presented in table 4.7.

49
4.5 Descriptive Statistics
In the below table each and every variable’s mean values are given which are extracted from
the descriptive statistics in SPSS. The ranking of these attributes are given based upon the
mean values.
Table 4.5 Descriptive Statistics
Symbol Name Mean Rank N
D2* Rework due to field errors 3.86 1 158
PS1 Poor planning and scheduling
3.80 158
practices 2
M5 Poor quality assurance and quality
3.75 158
control 3
M1 Poor Performance monitoring and
3.74 158
control 4
MA3 Insufficient storage space for
3.58 158
materials 5
D1* Loss in productivity caused from
3.54 158
change orders 6
TE1 Shortage of spare parts in case of
3.50 158
equipment breakdown 7
M3 Lack of employee training 3.45 8 158
PS5 Inadequate site layout 3.22 9 158
MA4 Low quality of materials and
3.20 158
equipment’s 10
M4 Late payments to employees,
3.14 158
supplier 11
E2 Slow local authority approval 3.13 12 158
D4 Unclear/error in drawings 3.10 13 158
W5 Supervisor absenteeism 3.03 14 158
E7 Work stopped due to political strikes
3.00 158
and hartals 15
PS4 Inadequate site staff 2.96 16 158
D3 Project complexity: scale and design 2.89 17 158
PS3 Unrealistic project goals and
2.87 158
deadlines 18

50
 Table Cont.…

M6 Inadequate construction method 2.86 19 158

MA1 Late supply of construction materials 2.81 20 158
W3 Workforce absenteeism 2.68 21 158
MA2 Lack of materials on-time at
2.68 158
workplace 21
E1 Poor weather conditions 2.65 23 158
TE2 Improper operation & maintenance
2.63 158
of tools and equipment's 24
W6 Lack of familiarity with current job
2.59 158
and conditions 25
W2
Lack of motivation/commitment of
2.51 158
the workforce
26
M2* Lack of coordination among the
2.46 158
construction parties 27
W1 Lack of skill and experience of the
2.42 158
workforce 28
W4 High staff turnover 2.39 29 158
TE3 Lack of tool and equipment 2.36 30 158
E3 On-site accidents 2.36 30 158

Researcher has developed a mean rating criteria, which helps him to classify the level of
impact/effect of each factor on productivity. This scale was ranged from 1-5 where 1
represents very low effect and 5 represents very high effect.
Mean Score: Description
1-1.50 = Very low affect
1.51-2.50 = Low affect
2.51- 3.50 = Moderate affect
3.51- 4.50 = High affect
4.51 – 5.00 = Very high affect

51
4.6 On-site factors negatively affecting construction productivity
4.6.1 Top Five factors
i) Rework due to field errors
Rework is ranked among top factors affecting construction productivity in many studies. In
this study rework is ranked no.1 with a mean value of 3.86 which explains it has high effect
on project productivity. Poor quality assurance and quality control and improper project
monitoring are considered as the main causes for rework in India this statement is supported
with the results as poor quality assurance and quality control and project monitoring are
ranked 3rd and 4th respectively in this study.
Field errors like poor supervision, unskilled and unexperienced labor, improper and irregular
inspections are usually the major causes for rework. Rework is nothing but re-doing the same
work as this was not done right in the first place. Rework leads to wastage of resources like
materials used for construction, wastage of equipment and labor hours utilized for that
activity or task which will indirectly increase the total project cost and duration and decreases
productivity.
ii) Poor planning and scheduling practices
This is the most common factor that can be seen in various studies with high effect on
productivity. In this study poor planning and scheduling practices is ranked second with a
mean value of 3.80 representing high effect on project productivity. Most of the project
managers who were part of this study are inexperienced for that position, which means they
have experience in construction field but not enough experience in project managing. This
statement is supported, As 38 responses collected from the project managers 29 of them were
recently promoted or recently joined for that positions with working experience as project
managers between 1-5 years which represents about (76.3%) of them and remaining 24.7 %
belongs to 6-10 years’ experience category.
Poor planning and scheduling is because of inexperienced project manager who could not
accurately estimate the required time and resources necessary to complete the project
tasks/activities successfully with in the given time, cost and to obtain desired quality.
Improper planning and scheduling of the project leads to excessive labor and equipment
waiting time, major delay in performing activities due to lack of materials, lack of
coordination in between the sub-contractors and crews (project staff), inability to respond to
unanticipated conditions like adverse weather which interrupts the work, equipment
breakdowns, and material shortages.”
iii) Poor quality assurance and quality control
In all the developing countries like India poor quality assurance and quality control is a factor
negatively affects construction productivity. In this study it is ranked 3rd with a mean value
of 3.75 representing high effect on productivity. Poor quality assurance and quality control
practices are basically because of poor quality policy and procedures adopted by the
management, lack of employee training and inadequate supervision. This statement can be
accepted as lack of employee training is affecting project productivity with a mean value of
3.45 which is much closer to 3.51 which represents high effect according to the mean rating
criteria.

52
iv) Poor Performance monitoring and control
Performance monitoring and control is the most risky attribute concluded in many studies.
In India this attribute is ranked fourth with a mean value of 3.74 representing high effect on
construction productivity. Cost, time and quality are the three major parameters of
construction productivity. To avoid cost overrun, schedule delay and reduce frequency of
rework proper monitoring and control of work is required. In India it is the planning
engineer’s responsibility to update every day progress and compare it with planned work
and report to the higher management. In small projects this task is done by the project
engineer and he is the one to evaluate the information collected by himself. This situation
can be seen in some of the medium projects in India.
“According to (Huang et al. 2008) described coordination as the major problem which leads
to inefficiency such as lack of management systems updating new information and poor
planning and scheduling. (Bernold and AbouRizk 2010) also supported this outcome, by
strongly suggesting the usage of electronic technologies to monitor the performance of the
construction operatives. By doing so, the execution, according to plan of the construction
process can be ensured, and it will help to prevent poor quality, idleness and accidents.
Consequently, supervisors have to study well the planned activities and then digest them to
properly dispatch those tasks among the labors so that they can be easily coordinated, which
should be followed with a monitoring of the feedbacks of the site activities to take control
on their performances in order identify the constraints and drivers to the on-site construction
productivity.”

v) Insufficient storage space for materials

Insufficient storage space is ranked fifth in this study with a mean value of 3.58 which
represents high effect on project productivity. This factor is responsible for many other
factors like lack of materials on site when required which leads to excessive labor and
equipment waiting time, site congestion is also caused because of insufficient storage as all
the materials delivered has to be stored until they are needed. If proper storage is not
provided they have to be placed somewhere on site which leads to transportation and
mobilization issues. If these materials which are placed on site without proper care and
protection are not utilized within a short period of time they might be damaged due to water,
air and light. This reduces the quality of materials and further leads to rework if they are
utilized in construction works. Such things happen in India because of insufficient storage
space. It is recommended to have short distance in between the storage area and working
area as it can improve productivity by reducing the material handling time.
4.7 Explanatory factor analysis
“Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) is a technique used to interpret the factors and divide
into components based on the strong correlations among the factors. A method of Principal
Component Analysis (PCA) was used to analyze because it can interpret the whole variance
among every correlation matrix i.e., identity and common and make sure that maximum
variation can be extracted. This method is commonly used when the factors are uncorrelated
i.e., the orthogonal rotation. The main purpose of doing this analysis is to find the sampling
adequacy of the data. KMO value predicts whether the factors can be extracted from a less
number of components. Less number of components is extracted by the prediction of KMO
value. Bartlett’s test of sphericity checks whether the correlation matrix is an identity matrix
and the value should be significant. In this research, Principal component analysis was used

53
with varimax rotation based on the Eigen values more than 1.0. A scree plot appeared to
show the number of components that are more than the threshold value. The values obtained
from the factor analysis are set to show the values above 0.4, so that the smaller coefficients
will be excluded. The values mentioned above are represented in Table 4.6 below”
Table 4.6 KMO and Bartlett's Test variables
Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure of Sampling Adequacy. .771
Bartlett's Test of Approx. Chi-Square 2322.669
Sphericity
Df 465
Sig. .000
According to the KMO values shown above in Table for “On-site factors affecting
productivity” is .771 which is well above the least requirements of 0.7. Bartlett's Test of
Sphericity with Chi-square equals to 2322.669 and significance value at 0.000 (less than
0.05). Hence, the values above shown that the data has strong correlation. As
aforementioned, factor analysis technique is adequately applied to this constructs.”
To further assess the measurements of factors affecting on-site, the researches applies the
screen plot with eigenvalue techniques for the analysis. Following Table 4.7 & Figure 4.2
Presents the value of Screen plot and Eigenvalue respectively.
In the figure 4.2 Screen plot we can conclude that these 31 attributes are converted into 8
groups as the curve from point 8 in the graph deviates and becomes straight.

Figure 4.2 Screen Plotting of factors

54
Table 4.7 Total variance explained (Extraction method: Principal Component Method)

Compo Initial Eigenvalues Extraction Sums of Rotation Sums of

nent Squared Loadings Squared Loadings
Tot % of Cum Tota % of Cum Tot % of Cumu
al Varian ulativ l Varian ulati al Varian lative
ce e% ce ve % ce %
1 7.63 24.61 3.92
24.612 24.612 7.630 24.612 12.662 12.662
0 2 5
2 3.00 34.29 3.05
9.686 34.298 3.003 9.686 9.844 22.506
3 8 2
3 1.99 40.72 2.71
6.424 40.722 1.991 6.424 8.751 31.258
1 2 3
4 1.77 46.45 2.45
5.736 46.457 1.778 5.736 7.929 39.186
8 7 8
5 1.61 51.66 2.39
5.203 51.660 1.613 5.203 7.736 46.922
3 0 8
6 1.49 56.47 2.03
4.812 56.472 1.492 4.812 6.558 53.480
2 2 3
7 1.24 60.48 1.68
4.013 60.485 1.244 4.013 5.420 58.900
4 5 0
8 1.16 64.25 1.66
3.773 64.257 1.169 3.773 5.357 64.257
9 7 1
The item with a factor loading less than 1 is not considered and eliminated. Eigen values
greater than 1 was obtained for about eight factors, so they are divided into eight groups. As
per the rotated component matrix the cumulative percentage of extracted eight factors is
greater than 64 which is acceptable as it is above the threshold value.
Table 4.8 Rotated Component matrix
Observed Grouped Factor
variable 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
W1 .928
M3 .866
W2 .853
W6 .777
W3 .685 .364
M6 .704
M1 .696
PS1 .669
D1 .619
M5 .590 .311
MA4 .495 -.338
MA2 .708
MA1 .693
MA3 .342 .687
TE1 .335 .635
TE2 .305 .594 .346
D3 .839

55
 PS3 .717 .335
D4 .663
PS5 .507
TE3 .792
M2 .757
E3 .744
PS4 .738
W5 .604
E7 .303 .471 .463
E2 .706
E1 .341 .497 .542
W4 .758
M4 .356 .525
D2 .506

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser
Normalization. Rotation converted in 7 iterations.
Table 4.9 Results of factor analysis on On-site factors affecting construction
productivity.
Cumulativ
Percentage e
Grouped Code
Observed Factor Eigen of percentage
Factor Variable/Attribute loading values variance of
explained variance
explained
Lack of skill and
W1 experience of the .928
workforce
Lack of employee
M3 .866
training
Lack of
Inadequate
motivation/commit
Workforce W2 .853 3.925 12.662 12.662
ment of the
Management
workforce
Lack of familiarity
W6 with current job .777
and conditions
Workforce
W3 .685
absenteeism
Inadequate
M6 construction .704
method
Inadequate Poor Performance
Management M1 monitoring and .696 3.052 9.844 22.506
and Control control
Poor planning and
PS1 scheduling .669
practices
56
 Loss in
D1 productivity caused .619
from change orders
Poor quality
M5 assurance and .590
quality control
Low quality of
MA4 materials and .495
equipment’s
Lack of materials
MA2 on-time at .708
workplace
Late supply of
MA1 construction .693
materials
Insufficient storage
Inadequate MA3 .687
space for materials
Material and
Shortage of spare 2.713 8.751 31.258
Equipment
parts in case of
Management TE1 .635
equipment
breakdown
Improper operation
& maintenance of
TE2 tools and .594
equipment's

Project complexity:
D3 .839
scale and design
Unrealistic project
PS3 .717
goals and deadlines
2.458 7.929 39.186
Project Issues Unclear/error in
D4 .663
drawings
Inadequate site
PS5 .507
layout
Lack of tool and
TE3 .792
equipment
Lack of
Poor Site coordination
M2 .757 2.398 7.736 46.922
Management among the
construction parties
On-site accidents
E3 .744
Inadequate site
PS4 .738
Poor staff
2.033 6.558 53.480
Supervision Supervisor
W5 .604
absenteeism
Work stopped due
External
E7 to political strikes .463 1.680 5.420 58.900
Factors
and hartals

57
 Slow local
E2 .706
authority approval
Poor weather
E1 .542
conditions
W4 High staff turnover .758
Late payments to
Poor Financial M4 .525
employees, supplier 1.611 5.357 64.257
Management
Rework due to field
D2 .506
errors

Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis. Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser
Normalization. Rotation converted in 7 iterations
Description of extracted groups
On-site factors affecting construction productivity are divided into eight groups with a
cumulative variance of 64.257 which is acceptable as it is higher than the threshold value.
Factor analysis was used to divide these 31 attributes into eight components based upon their
correlations, principal component method was utilized to extract these factors mentioned in
the above table.1) Inadequate Workforce Management 2) Inadequate Management and
Control 3) Inadequate Material and Equipment Management 4) Project Issues 5) Poor Site
Management 6) Poor Supervision 7) External Factors 8) Poor Financial management. A brief
explanations of these factors are given below
Inadequate Workforce Management
Inadequate workforce management is the first group extracted from factor analysis. It
consists of five attributes which are related to labor productivity. This group has a cumulative
percentage variance of 12.662. All the variables in this groups represents how project
productivity is effected due to workforce management. It was identified in most of the
previous studies that labor is an essential factor that plays a crucial role in project
productivity. Efficient use of manpower gives better results but many projects in India lack
such efficiency. Lack of skill and experience is the first and most important attribute of this
group as worker with good skill and experience will help to improve productivity.
In India majority of the employees are recruited if the company requires human resource in
a project, there are few of them permanently employed in the company. The companies look
for experience while recruiting, if they have sufficient experience in the field of construction
they select them for that project. Training employees who are recruited on project base will
not be done as it is cost and time consuming. This is the major reason for lack of employee
training in India. Third attribute of this group is lack of motivation commitment of
workforce, it is considered as gasoline to improve productivity as motivated workers are
typically more energetic and initiative. They work harder and react faster to directions. Their
pace is, in addition, related with a more prominent feeling of pride, fulfillment, and
obligation, in this manner they normally accomplish more, in correlation with demotivated
or demoralized workers.
Majority of the skilled craftsmen in India are familiar to perform their works in traditional
ways. Technology is something which is updated day to day, for example if the skilled
craftsmen did not have knowledge to use concrete settlers, concrete pump and other modern
methods of construction. It will negatively affect productivity as the work done cannot be
assured. Workforce absenteeism is the last and fifth attribute of this group, In India most of

58
the labor working in construction projects are agriculturists and they quit or leave
construction works during cultivation period. “Usually better pay from other projects,
distance between site and home, good working environment, more complex works or
opportunities of career development in other projects are the major reasons that causes
absenteeism.”
Inadequate Management and Control
Inadequate management and control is the name given to the second group extracted from
factor analysis, this group consists of six attribute with a cumulative percentage variance of
22.506. To obtain better project productivity effective management practices should be
executed but most of the projects in India lack effective planning, scheduling, monitoring
and control practices which will have adverse effect on project productivity.
First attribute of this group is about selecting appropriate method that suits the skill of the
workforce, suitable and easy to implement according to the site and surrounding conditions
and mainly it must satisfy the quality and quantity requirements mentioned in the contract.
In selecting an adequate method planning department plays a significant role. Performance
monitoring and control is the second attribute of this group. In order to accomplish the
project with in the expected time, planned cost and desired quality it is important to develop
coordination and supervision of the craftsmen as well as to improve monitoring and
controlling practices in order to avoid schedule delay, cost overrun and also to avoid rework.
“Huang et al. (2008) found coordination as the main reason that can lead to serious
inefficiency such as lack of a management system updating new information and poor
planning and scheduling.”
Poor planning and scheduling is the third and the most important attribute of this group.
Most of the small projects in India does not have planning engineer, project planning is done
during the execution of the activity or just before starting an activity mainly for small
projects, usually in order to obtain better productivity, project planning should be completed
before starting date of project and the management team must conclude the critical path and
milestones of project. So that labor waiting time, undesired quality works, lack of materials
on time at workplace, inefficient equipment working hours can be reduced and better
efficiency can be obtained. Fourth attribute of this group is loss in productivity caused from
change orders, change orders occur mainly because of improper drawings/design.
Management team is responsible for change orders as the management team is responsible
to ask the client or design team in case of any design issues with the help of R.F.I (request
for information) to make sure about the design before starting construction works.
Poor quality assurance and quality control is the fifth attribute of this group which also has
major effect on productivity if insignificant. Quality is an important element to consider in
project, if the quality requirements of the final product doesn’t meet the planned
requirements then the whole amount of work should be redone which will increase the
project cost and duration. It is the management’s responsibility to appoint a quality assurance
and quality control department and ask them to prepare standard quality policy and
procedures and make sure that everyone employed in the project follows it. Supply of low
quality of materials and equipment’s is the last attribute of this group which has negative
effect on project productivity. As work done by such resources take much time and the final
product obtained might not satisfy the quality requirements which leads to rework.

59
Inadequate Material and Equipment Management
Inadequate material and equipment management is name given to third group which consists
of five attributes with a cumulative percentage variance of 31.258. Materials and
equipment’s are two major resources that has to be managed properly in order to achieve
better efficiency. This component explains how the equipment and material related issues
can effect project efficiency. Lack of materials on-time at workplace, late supply of
construction materials and insufficient storage space for materials are the first, second and
third attributes of this group respectively. These three attributes have higher collinearity and
are closely related to each other. As late supply of construction materials and limited storage
space can be one of the reason for lack of materials on site. “Lack of materials lead to idling
time, as the workforce either has to wait for materials or shift to areas where materials are
available. Site productivity will be reduced as the craftsmen may slow down the work when
sufficient quantities of materials are not available, so that the existing supply of materials is
not exhausted. If lead time in material procurement is not taken into consideration, material
delivery may be delayed by the supplier creating material shortages at the worksite. Delays
in material delivery may also be due to unavailability of materials in the market or due to
delayed payment for the materials.”
Material storage locations and size of the project have significant impact on project
productivity (Thomas and Sanders, 19991). As the craftsmen need more time to collect
required materials from the storage locations which are located far away from the work area.
Remaining two attributes of this group are shortage of spare parts in case of equipment
breakdown and improper operation and maintenance of tools and equipment’s. These two
factors are also highly correlated with each other as “improper maintenance schedule of tools
and equipment can result in frequent breakdowns, forcing the site management to draw up
alternative plans to prevent idling of the workforce. Quick repair of faulty tools and plants
is also essential to avoid productivity losses. Construction productivity is severely impaired
if proper resources are not available on time at the workplace, which in turn can have a long
term impact on the cost and schedule performance of the construction projects.”

Project Issues
Project issues is the fourth group which consists of four attributes with a cumulative
percentage variance of 39.186. All the attributes in this group explains how the project
related elements like site layout, design, drawings, project goals and deadlines influence
productivity. Project complexity scale and design is the first attribute of this group, a project
is considered to be complex when many tasks are interrelated with each other, project
location where performing construction operations is difficult and which contains
interdependency of operations all these are categorized into technical complexity. If the
project need many specializations, skills and techniques from different areas of knowledge
such complexity is known as organizational complexity both of these have negative effect
on construction productivity.
Inadequate site layout leads to accessibility and mobilization problems for the equipment’s
to move within the site which will trigger into site congestion and chances of site accidents
may increase, supportive works like material handling takes more time than required due to
inappropriate warehouse locations. Poor site layout will also effect the man working hours
for example if the toilets, rest areas, canteen etc. are in a long distance from the working area
then the time taken by workers to perform their daily activities like breaks, food and toilets
will consume more time than required.

60
 Unclear error in drawing is the third attribute of this group which also has negative effect
on construction productivity. Project drawings are benchmarks for all construction works,
they are used as reference during execution of activity and are also used to compare the final
output. Unrealistic project goals and deadlines is the last attribute of this group. If project
deadlines are unrealistic it will negatively impact the employee motivation as they will
initially confirm that these deadlines cannot be meet even if they work with complete
determination. It is suggested that project planning team should arrange a meeting with all
the departments to discuss about their obligations and deadlines and make them part of
project plan, which will improve worker motivation as they are also part of that plan which
tends to productivity improvement.
Poor site management
Poor site management is the group name given to the fifth group which consists of three
attributes with a cumulative variance of 46.922. Lack of tools and equipment’s is the first
attribute of this group. It has major effect on construction productivity as if sufficient
equipment’s and tools are not available on site it will be very difficult for the craftsmen to
perform their works. In India most of the projects with sufficient number of equipment’s
face problems with operators who are not available at the right time.
Lack of coordination among the construction parties is the second attribute of this group. It
is complete responsibility of the site manager to coordinate with the head office,
procurement team and engineer in order to avoid disputes. The management influence
(Kazaz et al., 2008) and daily works at the construction site (Dai et al., 2009) are the main
factors which can make a significant difference on the construction project’s productivity.
In another words, managers with lack of knowledge, managerial skills and experience will
obviously cause various managerial errors, which will ultimately affect the on-site
construction productivity. On-site accidents is the last attribute of this group which also have
negative effect on productivity, accidents occur because of unsafe acts, insufficient safety
rules and regulations, unsafe worker behavior and inadequate safety in charge.
Poor Supervision

Sixth group extracted from factor analysis consists of two variables which are related to
supervision, this group has a cumulative percentage variance of 53.480. Inadequate site staff
and supervisor absenteeism are the two attributes of this group. Supervisor incompetency
and absenteeism will have negative effect on project productivity. Inadequate site staff and
supervisor absenteeism are closely related to each other as skilled and experienced crew
needs a supervisor to guide them. As supervisor responsibility is to digest all the work
assigned by the management team and explain the work clearly to the crew and help the crew
to overcome different problems while execution. If supervisor is absent on site, crew cannot
effectively perform the work which leads to reduce productivity.

External Factors

External factors is the name given to the seventh group extracted from factor analysis. This
group consists of three attributes which explains about the external factors and their negative
effects on productivity. This group has a cumulative percentage variance about 53.480. In
India local authorities play a significant role to get access before starting construction works.
These include land clearance from government stating that land used for construction is
nonagricultural and can be used for infrastructure development purpose, NOC (no objection
certificates), approval of building plans and specifications from government etc. If any of

61
these stages are delayed due to any reason it will negatively affect productivity as the work
has to be completely stopped until formal approval. In order to overcome such situation and
to remove communication barriers it is suggested to employee an information &
communication management tool.
“Poor weather conditions is one of the key attributes that affects construction productivity
This result is justified, as poor weather conditions were found to negatively influence
construction productivity, particularly the on-site activities ( Jarkas and Bitar, 2012;
Ghoddousi and Hosseini, 2012). Weather conditions, which are usually unexpected, can
cause delay and change in the project as well as the construction site damages. Particularly,
the impacts of unusual weather conditions can be severe. However, clients mostly deny its
impacts and therefore it is suggested to consider this in project planning and cost estimating
stages.” Usually unexpected rainfall and sudden rise of ground water table due to heavy
rainfall, high temperature and strong winds are the external factors that affect construction
operations.
Work stopped due to political strikes and hartals is the third and the last attribute of this
group. In India some revolutionary acts takes place because of some political actions which
leads to call for band (all professional duties will be stopped in order to fulfill the demands
and requirements of ruling or non-ruling parties), during that time construction activities are
completely stopped as the craftsmen will not work on such days.

Poor Financial Management

Poor financial management is the name given to the last or eighth group extracted from
factor analysis. It consists of three attributes with a cumulative percentage variance of
64.257. High staff turnover, late payments to employee and rework due to filed errors are
the first, second and third attributes of this group respectively. The first two attributes are
correlated to each other. As financial shortage may be the main reason behind late payments
to employee. Staff turnover is replacing the old employee with a new one, this may be due
to people working in a project facing with frequent payment delays decides to search for
better opportunities in surroundings and if they found better opportunities with better
payments they will leave the current project and decide to work in the new one with better
payment. Rework is nothing but redoing the same work as it was not done right in the first
place, due to this all the resources used like materials, labor and equipment working hours
are in vain. This results in increase of project cost and duration. “In another study, Moore
(2012) stated that construction industry is suffering from the staggering costs of rework,
which is ranging from 2 to 20 per cent) of the total contract cost of the project.”

4.8 Reliability of factor analysis

“Reliability of factor analysis was established by calculating the Cronbach’s alpha

Reliability coefficient (a) (Chan et al., 2012; Choi et al., 2011; Doloi et al., 2012). The
Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was calculated for the factors extracted from factor analysis
and checked if any group’s Cronbach’s alpha value is less than 0.7 which is considered as
not reliable. Along with this all the attributes within the groups are also verified and attributes
with values less than 0.32 are removed.” Reliability analysis of each group was done and
presented in the table 4.10

62
Table 4.10 Results summary of reliability analysis of grouped factors.

Cronbach's Cronbach's Alpha Based N of

Grouped Factor
Alpha on Standardized Items Items
Inadequate
Workforce 0.906 0.909 5
Management
Inadequate
Management & 0.759 0.763 6
Control
Inadequate Material
and Equipment 0.765 0.767 5
Management
Project Issues 0.778 0.774 4
Poor Site
0.764 0.764 3
Management
Poor Supervision 0.755 0.755 2
External Factors 0.787 0.788 3
Poor Financial
0.758 0.758 3
Management

“Reliability analysis, measured with Cronbach’s Alpha (α) was completed. According to
Nunnally (1967), Rule of thumb is the Cronbach’s Alpha with 0.7-1 considering as
acceptable reliability. All of Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient for each measurement was higher
than 0.7 (as shown in Table 4.9) which the researcher can conclude acceptable reliability.
An item with total item correlation less than 0.32 is eliminated as explained in chapter three.”
All the items included in this study have minimum collinearity, all the variables of eight
groups were considered reliable as they exhibit collinearity greater than 0.32.

4.9 Regression analysis for testing the relationship between on-site factors and their
influence on project productivity.

In this analysis, multiple regression analysis is used in order to find the relationship between
independent and dependent variables. 8 factors extracted from factor analysis are the
independent variables and three variables measuring project productivity are the dependent
variables. The analysis of 1) Inadequate Workforce Management 2) Inadequate Management
and Control 3) Inadequate Material and Equipment Management 4) Project Issues 5) Poor
Site Management 6) Poor Supervision 7) External factors 8) Poor Financial Management,
and cost performance index (CPI), schedule performance index (SPI) and frequency of
rework (cost of quality) is conducted in SPSS, the confidence interval set for this study is
less than 0.05 and results above 95% confidence interval are accepted.

63
4.9.1 Relationship between on-site factors and their influence on Cost Performance
Index (CPI)

Table 4.11 represents the model summary of regression analysis between site factors as
independent variables and CPI as dependent variable. R square and adjusted R square
represents how strong is the relationship between various independent variables and one
dependent variables. In table 4.11 the value of R square is 0.357 and value of adjusted R
square is 0.312, as the value of R square is greater than adjusted R square researcher
determines this model to be fit and concludes that this model explains 35.7 % of variation
which is accounted by four groups which are significant.

Table 4.11 multiple regression output for on-site factors and Cost Performance Index

Adjusted R Std. Error of the

Model R R Square
Square estimate
1 .539a .357 .312 1.079

a Predictors: (Constant) Poor Financial Management, External Factors, Poor Supervision,

Poor Site Management, Project Issues, Inadequate Material and Equipment Management,
Inadequate Management and Control, Inadequate Workforce Management
b Dependent variable: Cost Performance Index
From table 4.12 significance value of this relationship 0.001 is taken into consideration,
which determines that this relationship in between CPI and onsite factors is statistically
significant at fixed interval of 0.05 (95%). F value in the table can be obtained by dividing
mean square regression and mean square regression residual which is 3.466.
Table 4.12 Model parameters for Cost performance index
ANOVA
Sum of Mean
Model df F Sig.
Squares square
1 Regression 17.316 8
2.164
Residual 93.039 149 3.466 .001b
.624
Total 110.354 157

a Dependent variable: Cost performance index

b Predictors: (Constant) Poor Financial Management, External Factors, Poor Supervision,
Poor Site Management, Project Issues, Inadequate Material and Equipment Management,
Inadequate Management and Control, Inadequate Workforce Management

64
Table 4.13 Significance values for Cost performance index
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients “t” P
Model
Std. stastic value
B Beta
Error
3.848 .063 61.212 .000
1 (Constant)
-.076 .063 -.091 -1.205 .230
Inadequate Workforce
Management
-.121 .063 -.145 -1.927 .056
Inadequate Management and
control
-.057 .063 -.068 -.902 .369
Inadequate Material and
Equipment Management
-.152 .063 -.162 -.818 .041
Project Issues
.103 .063 .123 1.635 .104
Poor Site Management
-.015 -.063 - .018 -.243 .808
Poor Supervision
-.153 .063 -.182 -2.420 .017
External Factors
-.223 .063 -.266 -3.535 .001
Poor Financial Management

CPI = -0.091 (Inadequate Workforce management) - 0.145 (Inadequate Management and

control) - 0.068(Inadequate Material and Equipment Management) - 0.162 (Project issues)
+ 0.123 (Poor Site Management) – 0.018 (Poor supervision) - 0.182 (External Factors) -
0.266 (Poor Financial management)
CPI = - 0.145 (Inadequate Management and control) - 0.162 (Project issues) – 0.182
(External factors) - 0.266 (Poor Financial management)
From the model obtained after performing regression analysis between independent
variables (on-site factors) and dependent variable (CPI) four out of eight variables were
found to be significant at 0.05 % significant level. They are inadequate management and
control, project issues, external factors, poor financial management were significant with ‘p’
values 0.056, 0.041, 0.017 and 0.001 respectively.
4.9.2 Discussion on the contribution of four factors which have significant
relationship with CPI
Inadequate Management and Control
This factor which is significantly in relation with CPI at p value 0.056 < 0.05 had the
standardized coefficient value (β) of - 0.145. This result is explained as for every unit
increase in inadequate management and control - 0.145 times CPI will be decreased. This
result is justified with the following statement, if inadequate management and control
practices like poor planning and scheduling, poor performance monitoring and control, poor
quality assurance and quality control are performed due to improper management and
control it will increase the actual cost of work performed and finally (CPI) cost performance
index of the project will be decreased.

65
Project Issues
Project issues had the third highest value of the standardized coefficients (β) i.e. -0.162 and
it is statistically significant at 0.041<0.05. This finding can be explained as project issues
like design complexity, fixing unrealistic project goals and deadlines, errors in drawings and
inadequate site layout, all of these has negative impact on cost or CPI of the project. The
negative sign in (β) value represents that for every unit increase in project issues about 0.162
times CPI is reduced.
External Factors
External factors had the second highest value of the standardized coefficients (β) i.e. -0.182
and it is statistically significant at 0.017 < 0.05. The beta value -0.182 explains for every unit
increase in external factors -0.182 times CPI will be decrease. As external factors like poor
weather conditions, slow local authority approval and work stoppage due to political strikes
will increase the actual cost of the project. The negative sign in the equation determines if
actual cost of the project is increased CPI value will be decreased.
Poor Financial Management
From the results obtained after regression analysis, poor financial management had the
highest value of the standardized coefficients (β) of - 0.266 which is significant at p value <
0.05. This result is justified, with an increase in poor financial management the actual cost
of work performed will be increased, this will reduce the value of CPI. Therefore this
relationship between financial management and CPI can be accepted.
4.9.3 Relationship between on-site factors and their influence on Schedule
Performance Index (SPI)

Table 4.14 represents the model summary of regression analysis between site factors as
independent variables and SPI as dependent variable. R square and adjusted R square
represents how strong is the relationship between various independent variables and one
dependent variables. In table 4.14 the value of R square is 0.377 and value of adjusted R
square is 0.359, as the value of R square is greater than adjusted R square researcher
determines this model to be fit and concludes that this model explains 37.7 % of variation
which is accounted by three groups which are significant.

Table 4.14 multiple regression output for on-site factors and Schedule Performance
Index

Adjusted R Std. Error of the

Model R R Square
Square estimate
1 .527a .377 .359 .842

a. Predictors: (Constant), Poor Financial Management, External Factors, Poor Supervision,

Poor Site Management, Project Issues, Inadequate Material and Equipment Management,
Inadequate Management and Control, Inadequate Workforce Management

66
From table 4.15 significance value of this relationship 0.028<0.05 is taken into
consideration, which determines that this relationship in between SPI and onsite factors is
statistically significant at fixed interval of 0.05 (95%). F value in the table can be obtained
by dividing mean square regression and mean square regression residual which is 2.230
Table 4.15 Model parameters for Schedule performance index
ANOVA
Sun of
Model df Mean score F Sig.
Squares
1 Regression 12.653 8
1.582
Residual 105.682 149 2.230 .028b
.709
Total 118.335 157

a Dependent variable : Schedule Performance Index (SPI)

b. Predictors: (Constant), Poor Financial Management, External Factors, Poor Supervision,
Poor Site Management, Project Issues, Inadequate Material and Equipment Management,
Inadequate Management and Control, Inadequate Workforce Management
Table 4.16 Significance values for Schedule performance index
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients “t” P
Model
Std. stastic value
B Beta
Error
3.766 .067 56.206 .000
1 (Constant)
-.120 .067 -.138 -1.787 .076
Inadequate Workforce
Management
-.163 .067 -.172 -.935 .035
Inadequate Management and
control
-.179 .067 -.207 -2.670 .008
Inadequate Material and
Equipment Management
.018 .067 .020 .264 .792
Project Issues
.056 .067 .065 .840 .402
Poor Site Management
.006 .067 .006 .084 .933
Poor Supervision
-.139 .067 -.160 -2.072 .040
External Factors
-.084 .067 -.097 -1.253 .212
Poor Financial Management

a Dependent variable : Schedule Performance Index (SPI)

SPI = - 0.138 (Inadequate Workforce management) - 0.172 (Inadequate Management and
control) - 0.207(Inadequate Material and Equipment Management) + 0.020 (Project issues)
+ 0.065 (Poor Site Management) + 0.006 (Poor supervision) – 0.160 (External Factors) -
0.097 (Poor Financial management)
SPI = - 0.138 (Inadequate Workforce management) – 0.172(Inadequate Management
and Control) - 0.207(Inadequate Material and Equipment Management) – 0.160
(External factors)

67
From the model obtained after performing regression analysis between independent
variables (on-site factors) and dependent variable (SPI) Four out of eight variables were
found to be significant at 0.05 % significant level except . They are inadequate workforce
management, inadequate management and control, inadequate material and equipment
management and external factors were significant with ‘p’ values 0.076 (Sig.at p<0.1),
0.035, 0.008 and 0.040 significant at p value <0.05 respectively.
4.9.4 Discussion on the contribution of four factors which have significant
relationship with SPI
Inadequate Workforce Management
Inadequate workforce management is the last factor as per the value of standardized
coefficients (β) i.e. - 0.138 which is statistically significant 0.076 (for this factor P value
considered was 0.1), p<0.1. This finding represents if lack of skill & experience, lack of
motivation, lack of training, lack of familiarity with the job and workforce absenteeism
increases due to ineffective workforce management it will reduce the earned value of the
project which will directly reduce the SPI of the project. We can conclude that with an
increase in inadequate workforce management -0.138 times SPI will be reduced.
Inadequate Management and Control
Inadequate management and control is a factor with variables poor planning & scheduling,
poor quality assurance and control, loss in productivity due to change orders, inadequate
construction method, poor performance monitoring and control and low quality of materials
and equipment’s all of these have negative effect on project schedule. From this findings
researcher has concluded that about 0.172 times schedule will be delayed due to increase in
inadequate management practices.
Inadequate material and equipment management
Inadequate material and equipment management is a factor with highest value of standardize
coefficients (β) i.e. -0.207 and it is statistically significant at 0.008< 0.05. This finding can
be explained as if material and equipment management is worse because of lack of materials
on site, late supply of construction materials, and insufficient storage space for materials,
shortage of spare parts and improper operation and maintenance, which negatively affects
schedule performance of the project. The negative sign in (β) value represents this
relationship.
External Factors
External factors had the second highest value of the standardized coefficients (β) -0.160 and
it is statistically significant at 0.040 < 0.05. The beta value -0.160 explains for every unit
increase in external factors -0.160 times CPI will be decrease. As external factors like poor
weather conditions, slow local authority approval and work stoppage due to political strikes
are the main reasons for the project to be delayed. The negative sign in the equation
determines due to external factors earned value of the project cannot be achieved which will
lead to schedule delay and SPI will be deprived.

68
4.9.5 Relationship between on-site factors and frequency of rework

Table 4.17 represents the model summary of regression analysis between site factors as
independent variables and frequency of rework as dependent variable. R square and adjusted
R square represents how strong is the relationship between various independent variables
and one dependent variables. In table 4.17 the value of R square is 0.479 and value of
adjusted R square is 0.461, as the value of R square is greater than adjusted R square
researcher determines this model to be fit and concludes that this model explains 47.9 % of
variation which is accounted by four factors which are significant.

Table 4.17 multiple regression output for on-site factors and frequency of rework

Adjusted R Std. Error of the

Model R R Square
Square estimate
1 .630a .479 .461 1.175

From table 4.18 significance value of this relationship 0.025<0.05 is taken into
consideration, which determines that this relationship in between frequency of rework and
onsite factors is statistically significant at fixed interval of 0.05 (95%). F value in the table
can be obtained by dividing mean square regression and mean square regression residual
which is 2.280.
Table 4.18 Model parameters for Frequency of rework
ANOVA
Sun of
Model df Mean score F Sig.
Squares
1 Regression 25.185 8 3.148
Residual 205.758 149 1.381 2.280 .025b
Total 230.943 157

a Dependent variable : Frequency of rework

b. Predictors: (Constant), Poor Financial Management, External Factors, Poor Supervision,
Poor Site Management, Project Issues, Inadequate Material and Equipment Management,
Inadequate Management and Control, Inadequate Workforce Management

69
Table 4.19 Significance values for Frequency of rework
Unstandardized Standardized
Coefficients Coefficients “t” P
Model
Std. stastic value
B Beta
Error
3.981 .093 42.583 .000
1 (Constant)
.265 .094 .218 2.821 .005
Inadequate Workforce
Management
.175 .094 .182 .803 .042
Inadequate Management and
control
.059 .094 .049 .632 .529
Inadequate Material and
Equipment Management
.160 .094 .132 1.705 .090
Project Issues
.034 .094 .028 .363 .717
Poor Site Management
.228 .094 .188 2.431 .016
Poor Supervision
.030 .094 .025 .321 .749
External
-.040 .094 -.033 -.428 .669
Poor Financial Management

a Dependent variable : Frequency of rework

Frequency of rework = 0.218 (Inadequate Workforce management) + 0.182 (Inadequate
Management and control) + 0.049(Inadequate Material and Equipment Management) +
0.132 (Project issues) + 0.028 (Poor Site Management) + 0.188 (Poor supervision) + 0.025
(External Factors) - 0.033 (Poor Financial management)
Frequency of rework = 0.218 (Inadequate Workforce Management) +
0.182(Inadequate Management and Control) + 0.132 (Project Issues) +0.188 (Poor
Supervision)
From the model obtained after performing regression analysis between independent
variables (on-site factors) and dependent variable frequency of rework, four out of eight
variables were found to be significant at 0.05 % significant level. They are inadequate
workforce management (p 0.005<0.05), inadequate management & control (p 0.042<0.05),
poor supervision (0.016< 0.05) and project issues which is significant with ‘p’ value 0.090
(Sig.at p<0.1).
4.9.6 Discussion on the contribution of four factors which have significant
relationship with Frequency of rework
Inadequate Workforce Management
Inadequate workforce management is the factor with highest value of standardized
coefficients (β) i.e. 0.218 which is statistically significant 0.005<0.05. This finding
represents if inadequate workforce management is increased with practices like lack of skill,
motivation and familiarity, absenteeism and lack of training for employees which will have
major impact on the work done as the work cannot be assured and frequency of rework
increases with the increase in inadequate workforce management and control at a rate of
0.218.

70
Inadequate Management and Control
This factor which is significantly in relation with frequency of rework at p value 0.042 <
0.05 had the standardized coefficient value (β) of 0.182. This result is justified as inadequate
management and control practices will definitely increase the amount of rework from this
finding, the researcher has concluded that 0.182 times of frequency of rework will be
increased with inadequate management and control practices.
Project Issues
According to the results obtained Project issues had the value of the standardized coefficients
(β) about 0.132 and it is statistically significant at 0.09<0.1 (p value considered for this factor
is 0.1). This finding can be explained as project issues like design complexity, fixing
unrealistic project goals and deadlines, errors in drawings and inadequate site layout, If all
of these attributes increase then simultaneously it will also increase the frequency of rework
at a rate of 0.162 times.
Poor Supervision
According to the results obtained poor supervision has a value of standardize coefficients
(β) about 0.188 which is statistically coefficient at 0.016 <0.05. This findings clearly
explains that if poor supervision increases then the frequency of rework will also be
increased at a rate of 0.188 times of poor supervision.

71
Table 4.20 Summary of regression analysis results
Independent variables Dependent variables
C.P.I S.P.I Frequency of rework
Factors
Standardized Standardized Standardized
Symbol extracted Unstandardized Unstandardized Unstandardized
coefficients Sig. coefficients Sig. coefficients Sig.
from EFA coefficients (B) coefficients (B) coefficients (B)
(β : Beta) (β : Beta) (β : Beta)
Inadequate
X1 Workforce - - - -0.120 -0.138 .076 0.265 0.218 .005
Management
Inadequate
X2 Management -0.121 -0.145 .056 -0.163 -0.172 .035 0.175 0.182 .042
& Control
Inadequate
Material and
X3 - - - -.179 -.207 .008 - - -
Equipment
Management
Project
X4 -0.152 -0.162 .041 - - - 0.160 0.132 .090
Issues
Poor Site
X5 - - - - - - - - -
Management
Poor
X6 - - - - - - 0.228 0.188 .016
Supervision
External
X7 -0.153 -0.182 .017 -.139 -.160 .040 - - -
Factors
Poor
X8 Financial -0.223 -0.266 .001 - - - - - -
Management
k Constant 3.848 - .000 3.766 - .000 3.981 - .000

72
4.10 Comparison of current study with previous studies
Table 4.21 Ranking of factors affecting productivity in previous study and Current Study
Ranking of attributes in previous study
Author Country
1 2 3 4 5
Interference
Kaming et al Lack of
Indonesia Rework Absenteeism from other Lack of tools
(1997) materials
crew
Makulsawatud
Lack of tools
om, Emsley & Lack of Incomplete Supervisor
Thailand and Absenteeism
Sinthawanaron materials drawings absenteeism
equipment
g (2004)
Alinaitwe, Lack of Poor
Supervisor Lack of
Mwakali and Uganda Rework tools& Construction
Absenteeism worker skill
Hasson (2007) equipment’s method
Misunderstan
Enhassi et al Material Lack of Lack of labor ding between Unclear
Gaza Strip
(2007) Shortage experience surveillance worker & drawings
supervisor
Proportion of
Jarkas & Bitar Lack of Change Drawing Lack of labor
Kuwait work
(2012) materials orders errors supervision
subcontracted
Serdar
Performance Competencie
Durdyev & Lack of skill Low quality
Malaysia monitoring & s of Project Rework
Syuhaida & experience of materials
control manager
Ismail (2016)
Poor quality Poor
Poor Insufficient
assurance & Performance
Current Study India Rework planning & storage space
quality monitor &
scheduling for materials
control control

73
4.10.1 Comparing top factors of previous study with current study
• Lack of materials was ranked among almost all the previous studies as a top factor
affecting construction productivity, in this study insufficient storage space for
materials was ranked as top fifth factor which can be one of the reasons for lack of
materials on time.
• Rework which is ranked at first place in this study can be found in many previous
studies, as second or third top factor affecting construction productivity in many
countries.
• Remaining Three factors are poor planning and scheduling, poor quality assurance
and control and poor performance monitoring and control which are related to
management are also included in previous studies with different names like poor site
management, incapability of site management to organize site activities etc.
• Lack of tools which was ranked among top five factors in many studies was not in
the list of this study, which is quiet amazing. As per the researcher interpretation all
the equipment’s employed on project sites were rented/ hired for certain period of
time and the issue was with the skilled operators who were not available when
required.
COMPARING THE CURRENT STUDY ANALYSIS WITH ANU.V THOMAS &
J. SUDHAKUMAR RESEARCH
The Anu.V Thomas and J. Sudhakumar research was mainly focused on key factors
affecting construction productivity. The outcome of this research describes 10 latent
variables extracted from factor analysis, which have major impact on productivity.
• Tool and Equipment issues
• Poor labor motivation
• Improper supervision
• Poor material Planning
• Poor site management
• Improper drawing management
• Project management incompetency
• Craftsmen issues
• Lack of meetings
• Lack of communications
The study reveals that material related problems are the main reason for productivity loss
and also concludes frequent drawing revisions, craftsmen turnover and absenteeism as
frequently occurring attributes in the study area. “Improper project coordination and poor
project planning and scheduling were identified among top five severe factors negatively
affecting productivity and also reveals that major loss in productivity are a result of poor
management of construction projects, with major factors related to effective resource
management practices on construction projects” This findings of the study strengthens
the outcome of the study which states that majority of productivity loss is due to
inappropriate management which is incapable of managing resources like material,
manpower, tools & equipment and money (financial management). Latent variables
obtained after factor analysis in the current study are inadequate workforce management,
inadequate management and control, inadequate material and equipment management,
project issues, Poor site management, poor supervision, external factors and financial
management in which majority of them are related to construction resources and
resembles with Anu. V Thomas research study.

74
In current study external factors like poor weather conditions, slow local authority
approval and work stopped due to political strikes was also added which is not discussed
in Anu.V Thomas research study. In the current study material and equipment
management related attributes are grouped in one group and in the Anu.V Thomas
research tools & equipment and material management are two different groups with each
having their own attributes.

75
 CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Introduction
A complete summary of this research is discussed in this chapter, studying on-site factors
affecting construction productivity is the main aim of this research, for this about 158 valid
responses were collected from different building projects which are under construction phase
and only one response was collected from each project. Target respondents were project
managers, project engineers and site manager, site engineer. Most of the data collected was
from medium companies and majority of the respondents were project engineer with
minimum experience of 6-10 years in construction field. Collecting 158 projects data is not
an easy task but it was made easy, as the researcher took the help from ready mix concrete
batching plants in Hyderabad to find him building projects which are in construction.
Approximately about 10-12 ready mix batching plants were visited, as each batching plants
supplies concrete to about 8-10 building projects which are in construction phase. It was
easy for the researcher to gather information of those on-going projects from RMC concrete
batching plants.
5.2 Conclusions
All the responses collected were analysed in a study software SPSS (Statistical Package for
Social Sciences), the main objective of this study are to find out relevant on-site factors
affecting construction productivity and to identify the relationship of these factors on project
productivity which is measured by three indicators they are cost performance index (CPI),
schedule performance index (SPI) and frequency of rework.
The main objectives of this research are to identify relevant on-site factors affecting
construction productivity, initially there were many factors identified with the help of
literature review and they were validated with the help of experts in the field of construction,
after validation of factors from experts the first objective was achieved. These attributes
which were validated by the experts were further used for collecting data.
Firstly data was scrutinized and then imported in SPSS. In which descriptive statists of the
data was obtained and ranking of attributes was done based upon the mean value. Rework
due to field errors, poor planning and scheduling practices, poor quality assurance and
quality control, poor performance monitoring and control and insufficient storage space for
materials were top five attributes identified from descriptive statics.
Then explanatory factor analysis which is also known as data reduction method was
performed to obtain latent variables of those 32 attributes. Eight groups were extracted after
factor analysis with a KMO value of 0.771 and cumulative variance percentage of 64.257.
These groups extracted from factor analysis are named as inadequate workforce
management, inadequate management and control, inadequate material and equipment
management, project issues, poor site management, poor supervision, external factors and
financial management. To check reliability of each group reliability analysis was performed
in SPSS. Every group was reliable with Cronbach’s alpha value greater than 0.7. By this we
obtain second objective of this study which is to identify the underlying relationships of on-
site factors impacting construction productivity.

76
Factor score of each group which represents the total group was saved during factor analysis,
so that it can be further used in regression analysis. Multiple regression analysis was used to
find out the relationship between onsite factors and project productivity. Factor score of eight
groups were used as independent variables and CPI, SPI and frequency of rework indicating
productivity of project were dependent variables used in regression analysis. Three model
were obtained as we have three dependent variables and all the three models were significant
at 0.05% confidence level.
Factors which have significant relationship with these indicators are mainly related to
inadequate resource management such as inadequate workforce management, inadequate
material and equipment management, management and control, poor site management,
project issues and external factors which have negative relationship with schedule
performance index and cost performance index, as actual cost of the project increases and
earned value of the project decreases with the increase in all those factors as a result cost
performance index and schedule performance index will be reduced representing loss in
project productivity. In case of frequency of rework all the significant factors were positively
related which represents with an increase in inadequate resource management practices it
will increase the frequency of rework.
5.3 Limitations and Recommendations for further research
The basic limitation of this study is about the area of research as India is a vast country with
huge geographical area, factor affecting might be different from the current study. The
factors affecting project productivity of this study are relevant to Hyderabad and some other
provinces near to Hyderabad in India. Scope of the research is limited to building projects
factors may be different for another infrastructure project.
Only on-site factors are studies that affects productivity, productivity doesn’t only depend
upon site factors head office factors like human resource, procurement, financing etc. are
also the factors that affect construction productivity which can be studied. Further research
can be conducted on construction activities like excavation, concreting, bricklaying,
Mechanical and electrical to get what exactly are the factors that affect different activities.

77
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APPENDIX-I

81
 QUESTIONNAIRE
Questionnaire
ALL INFORMATION THAT YOU PROVIDE WILL BE KEPT STRICTLY
CONFIDENTIAL FOR ACADEMIC STUDY ONLY

INTRODUCTION
This research is conducted to achieve the objectives which aims to identify the influence of
factors affecting on-site construction productivity the outcome of the study will help to find
out the top factors and few groups of factors that affect productivity in the residential
building projects. So that we can focus on these groups to achieve better productivity.

The researcher would like to appreciate your willingness to be a participant of this study as
the researcher believes that you are the competent person to fill out these questionnaires
regarding your personal knowledge and experience. The success of this study will depend
upon your support to fill out all of the questionnaires which will not take more than 15-20
minutes.

Please do not hesitate to answer all questions from your personal point of view and your
experience as all information will be used only for the purpose of data analysis of the study.

GUIDELINES
The questionnaires include three sections in total and need to be evaluated based on current
ongoing projects
A: Company and respondent profile

B: Evaluating the factors affecting on-site construction productivity.

C: Questionnaire used for measuring current project productivity

THANKS FOR YOUR TIME AND COOPERATION

Mr. Syed Azharuddin

Master student
Construction Engineering and Infrastructure Management
Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand
Contact: +919700810466

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Part one: Respondent background
Please Cross (X) the appropriate choice and fill in the blanks for others.\
1. Respondents name: ……………………………………………………………
2. Gender:  Male Female

3. Name of the company currently working in………………………………

4. Name of the project ……………………………………………………………

5. Number of employees working in your company?

□ <250
□ <50
□ <10
□ >250

6. At which position do you work in this project?

□ Project manager
□ Site Manager
□ Project engineer
□ Others …………………………(Please specify)

7. How many years of experience do you have for the position u selected above?
□ 1-5 years
□ 6-10 years
□ 10-15 years
□ >15 years
8. How many years of experience you have in construction industry?
□ 1-5 years
□ 6-10 years
□ 10-15 years
□ >15 years
9. How many number of construction projects have you worked on?
□ 1-5 projects
□ 6-10 projects
□ 10-15 projects
□ >15 projects

Part two: Evaluation of negatively affecting factors on-site in the current project
Please rate the effect of following factors in your current project.
Please use the following scales and give your evaluation based on following factors and
please cross (X) only one answer

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 Effect

1 2 3 4 5

Very low Low Moderate High Very high

Negative effect on productivity

Sno. Attribute 1 2 3 4 5

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
1 Late supply of construction
materials

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
2 Late payments to employees,
supplier

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
3 Slow local authority approval

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
4 Inadequate site staff

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
5 Supervisor absenteeism

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
6 High staff turnover

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
7 Rework due to field errors

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
8 Workforce absenteeism

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
9 Unfamiliarity with current job and
conditions

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
10 Work stopped due to political
strikes and hartals

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
11 Inadequate site layout

84
 Effect

1 2 3 4 5

Very low Low Moderate High Very high

Negative effect on productivity

Sno. Factor 1 2 3 4 5

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
12 Lack of materials on-time at
workplace

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
13 Improper operation & maintenance
of tools and equipment's

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
14 Shortage of spare parts in case of
equipment breakdown

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
15 Poor weather conditions

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
16 Lack of coordination among the
construction parties

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
17 Low quality of materials and
equipment’s

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
18 Insufficient storage space for
materials

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
19 Lack of employee training

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
20 Level of skill and experience of the
workforce

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
21 Level of motivation/commitment
of the workforce

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
22 Unrealistic project goals and
deadlines

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
23
Unclear/error in drawings

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 Effect

1 2 3 4 5

Very low Low Moderate High Very high

Negative effect on productivity

Sno. Factor 1 2 3 4 5

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
24 Poor Performance monitoring and
control

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
25 Project complexity: scale and
design

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
26 ground conditions necessitating
revisions

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
27 Poor planning and scheduling
practices

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
28 Poor quality assurance and quality
control

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
29 Lack of tool and equipment

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
30 Loss in productivity caused from
change orders

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
31 Inadequate construction method

☐ ☐ ☐ ☐ ☐
32 On-site accidents

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 Part three: Questionnaire to measure productivity of projects
1) Project starting date

………… (dd) / ………(mm) /…….……(year)

2) Estimation on project duration (what is the planned duration to complete the project)

………… (dd) / ………(mm) /…….……(year)

3) Actual progress of this project complete (How much percentage of the project is
completed)

………………. %

4) Total Cost estimated for this project (total planned cost for whole project):

………………………………………….... /-

5) The Actual cost of this project (actual cost of the project spent for the above mentioned
percentage in question number 3):

……………………………………………….…. /-

6. Please evaluate based upon the current progress of the project and please choose only one
answer
Cost performance index (CPI) = BCWP
ACWP
BCWP = Budget Cost of Work Performed
ACWP = Actual Cost of Work Performed (Please choose these values based upon the recent
completed activity/milestone of the project).

1 Far under budget or far under cost ☐

2 Under cost or under budget ☐

3 On cost on budget ☐

4. Over cost or over budget ☐

5. Far Over cost or Far over budget ☐

87
7. Please evaluate based upon the current progress of the project and please choose only one
answer

Schedule performance index (SPI) = BCWP

BCWS
BCWP = Budget Cost of Work Performed
BCWS = Budget COST of Work Scheduled (Please choose these values based upon the
recent completed activity/milestone of the project).
BCWP/BCWS < 1 behind schedule
BCWP/BCWS = 1 on schedule
BCWP/BCWS > 1 ahead of schedule

1 Far ahead of schedule ☐

2 Ahead of the schedule ☐

3 On schedule ☐

4 Behind the schedule ☐

5 Far behind the schedule ☐

8. Please rate the frequency of rework in your project

1 Very rarely ☐

2 Rarely ☐

3 Occasionally ☐

4 Frequently ☐

5 Very frequently ☐

88
9. Please evaluate accident rate in your project?

1 Very rarely ☐

2 Rarely ☐

3 Occasionally ☐

4 Frequently ☐

5 Very frequently ☐

THANK YOU

89