Jim Adrian s

Construction Productivity

Newsletter

Volume 21 Number 1 (21st Year of Publication) Adrian International LLC

309-***-**** email: abp4jz@r.postjobfree.com 5317 N. Woodview Ave.

homepage http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~jadrian/ Peoria, Illinois 61614

CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTIVITY QUIZ SUMMARIZES 20 YEARS OF PAST ISSUES

Over the past twenty years, each and every issue of this productivity newsletter has attempted to

inform and educate the reader as to:

a.) the importance of labor and equipment productivity to the time, cost, quality, and safety of the

construction project

b.) the opportunity to increase construction productivity

c.) how to measure and improve construction productivity

After twenty years of publishing the newsletter, my professor role tells me that it might be time for a

quiz. No worry; there is no grade! However, it may be useful to occasionally test one s knowledge of

the subject matter and the content of prior issues. The real grade is earned through implementing new,

creative, proactive productivity improvement steps at the job site. You may want to have your

supervisors take the quiz. The suggested answers follow the questions.

(T-True or F-False)

1. Productivity is defined as units of output per person hour worked.

2. Productivity has increased faster in the construction industry than it has in the automobile

industry.

3. The amount of non-productive labor time at a construction project varies from project to

project but averages around 16%.

4. There is typically more productivity variation or risk with the concrete forming task than

there is with the concrete placement task.

5. The construction supervisor has typically used a monitoring or accounting approach to

construction productivity as opposed to a critiquing or analysis approach.

6. The construction firm has typically benchmarked their best productivity for a work task as a

means of setting out estimating and production goals.

7. A worker typically has a higher hourly cost than a construction crane.

8. The majority of construction workers view themselves as working for a firm, not a job.

9. The typical construction supervisor expends more time and energy coming down on

problems as opposed to investigating opportunities.

10. In the typical construction firm, the project estimate is broken down into daily production

goals for the workers.

11. When equipment is moving from one location on a construction project to another location at

the project site; it should be viewed as being in a productive state.

12. Money is the single most important motivator to all workers.

13. Job site working conditions are viewed as a motivating factor as opposed to a maintenance

factor.

14. On the majority of construction sites, equipment is in a non-productive state more often

than is labor.

15. Planning entails when something has to be done and scheduling entails determining what

has to be done.

16. The work activities that are defined for a project plan and schedule should not be the same

as the take-off items in the project estimate.

17. The project activities that are the most difficult to update when updating a project schedule

are the work activities that have not started as of the date of the update.

18. The construction supervisor should be more attentive to a work activity or task on the

critical path as opposed to a work activity that has considerable schedule float.

19. Requiring a subcontractor to fill out a daily production planning and schedule form is an

example of requiring the subcontractor to manage itself.

20. When a construction worker works ten six hour days doing hard physical work, the worker

only losses productivity in the hours he or she is working past the normal forty hour work

week.

21. The ratio of supervisory hours to worker hours is a factor in determining worker

productivity.

22. Workspace is a factor in determining the amount of construction productivity that is

achieved.

23. The cons truction industry has historically used a job cost report that is produced weekly or

monthly as a means of monitoring productivity.

24. There are three elements to an effective control system; 1.) plan, 2.) compare, 3.)

reprimand.

25. Continuous improvement entails the measurement of a defect and an analysis of the cause

of the defect.

26. It is always cheaper to utilize equipment to do a construction work task than it is to use

labor.

27. When a construction supervisor chooses to work overtime, one of the benefits is that the

hourly rate for the owned equipment is reduced.

28. Group behavior at a construction project is always detrimental to the productivity

improvement objective.

29. A one to four week look ahead schedule attempts to reduce non-productive time by setting

out long lead items.

30. Requiring a subcontractor to set out planned work effort as opposed to when the firm will

complete the work is an example of process management.

31. The construction industry spends more money and time on providing education to their

employees than does most other industries.

32. When more workers are hired for a project than was planned, the contractor obtains

increased productivity owing to the learning process.

33. One of the typical negative impacts on productivity that occurs when change order work is

performed is that there is a dilution of supervision.

34. Concrete forming offers more opportunity to increase productivity than does the placement

of concrete.

35. Communication, pride, measurement, and money are all motivators of workers.

Suggested Solutions:

1. True The definition is correct. However, productivity is affected by many factors including work

effort, management, weather, planning, etc.

2. False Productivity has increased slower in the construction industry than it has in most industries

including the automobile industry.

3. False Most studies indicate that there is in excess of 40% non-productive time.

4. True Risk is defined as variation from the expected average and the nature of forming is such

that there is a wide variation in forming productivity from one day to the next; the

supervisor needs to pay considerable attention to risky tasks.

5. True The supervisor typically compares performance to prior jobs or the estimate. More

attention to looking for better ways to do things is recommended.

6. False The industry and the supervisor have typically focused on the average productivity

achieved or expected. This focus takes away from the potential to improve.

7. False In many cases equipment costs more per hour. Therefore it is important to keep equipment

productive as well as labor productive.

8. False This is one of the unique difficulties of the construction supervisor. Many of his or her

workers are only with them for a job. This makes it more difficult to know and motivate

each and every worker.

9. True Unfortunately, the supervisor often finds himself or herself putting out fires . It would be

advantageous for the supervisor to spend some time focusing on opportunities.

10. False The supervisor and the crew are typically not given production goals even though they

should have them.

11. False Similar to focusing on labor, equipment should only be considered in a productive state

when it is used to place finish material.

12. False Many studies have found that workers are equally or more motivated by responsibility,

measurement, feedback, and pride.

13. False Workers expect job conditions to be good; it is a maintena nce factor. Typically if the job

conditions are worse then expected, productivity would decrease.

14. True Equipment is often idle at the job and does not get the attention of the supervisor and

management. It should.

15. False Just the opposite. Planning is determining what has to be done, and scheduling is when it

has to be done.

16. True Ideally they should be the same and in that way the schedule and estimate become one in

the same system.

17. False The activities that are the most difficult to update are the activities that have started but are

not yet complete at the time of the update.

18. True For the most part this is true in that the critical activities determine the overall project

duration.

19. True What is good for the general contractor is typically good for the subcontractor. One way to

manage a subcontractor is to require them to manage themselves; i.e. perform good

management practices such as planning.

20. False When a worker gets fatigued owing to overtime, each and every hour is negatively

impacted.

21. True If there is too much supervision, it is not cost effective. However under supervising

typically leads to workers being less productive.

22. True Most studies indicate that there is a best work area space to perform work tasks. If less

area is available, worker productivity will decrease.

23. True The supervisor compares actual to budget. Even though this is the most common means,

the problem is that the budget in itself represents averages and not what can be achieved.

Also a more timely control cycle needs to be considered; too much money is expended

daily at a job site to be reliant only on a weekly or monthly control system.

24. False A control system entails 1.) the timely 2.) comparison of plan 3.) to actual, 4.) to detect a

potential problem, and 5.) the attempt to correct the problem.

25. True By focusing on defects, identifying the cause, and taking appropriate actions, improvement

can be achieved.

26. False The construction firm and the supervisor needs to be able to do a cost analysis for a specific

work method to determine if it is more effective to use labor or equipment.

27. True Because approximately 30 percent of the hourly cost for a piece of equipment relates to

fixed costs or costs that are independent of use; the more hours it is used the less it cost per

hour.

28. False Groups can also be a positive force; the key is to focus the group on company and project

objectives; i.e. to get goal congruence.

29. True In many instances in order to have materials or events occur one to four weeks from the

present time, an action must be made today. The look ahead schedule can be used to

facilitate the timely delivery of material and the occurrence of needed events.

30. True Requiring or encouraging subcontractors to manage their process or effort will be more

effective than a promise for results.

31. False The construction industry expends vary for little for continuous education for employees;

this is undoubtedly one of the reasons why construction productivity has not increased at

acceptable rates. One of the best ways to improve is to look for new ideas; i.e. education.

32. False As additional workers are hired; each new worker is subject to some learning process. It

follows that the more workers that are hired, the more the loss of productivity owing to the

learning process.

33. True In order to obtain maximum productivity, there has to be the proper ratio of supervisors for

craft workers. If additional work is performed with additional workers, or if workers are

distributed over a larger work area, supervision will be diluted and productivity will likely

be negatively impacted.

34. True Concrete forming has more variation in productivity from one time period to the next. This

is likely due to the unique work process and the difficulty of the work process. With this

higher variation or risk comes significant potential to improve.

35. True To varying degrees, each and every worker to include supervisors and craft workers are

motivated by each of these factors; money is not the only motivator. The ability to learn is

also a motivator for workers.

Your score (1 point for each question answered correctly.

30-35 You are very knowledgeable about construction productivity.

20-29 You have a fair understanding about construction productivity.

10-19 You need to review select past issues.

0-9 You need more productivity knowledge.

List of Past Newsletter Issues; Upcoming Seminars or Events; Available Publications

We re on the web http://hilltop.bradley.edu/~jadrian/

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