Advertisements
Factors Influencing Craftsmen’s Productivity on Building Construction Site in Oredo Local Govt. Project material PDF document download start from the abstract to chapters 1 to 5
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Range of construction sites is wide and divided into various segments usually residential buildings, commercial buildings, industrial buildings, road construction, utility construction etc. Construction involves various people, skills, organizations, technologies, contracting methods, financing arrangements and regulatory mechanisms and has different phases such as planning, designing and building, and then they are used, maintained, repaired, renovated and eventually demolished or replaced in their life cycle. This diversity of construction sites makes it difficult to manage. Now a big question is that how can we measure construction productivity considering all these segments, aspects and phases.
The construction industry remains one of the few most labor intensive industries in the developing countries. It is therefore very important to understand the concept of construction Productivity of craft men. In different researches it was argued that productivity measurement techniques could be perceived as theoretical, difficult and expensive for construction companies to adopt.
Good project management in construction must strongly measure and monitor productivity on construction site Chris (2017). Construction productivity has got increased attention from different construction researchers. Researchers and practitioners around the world have provided several contributions on areas related to construction work productivity. In addition, the result of different researches indicated that productivity is a complex issue as many factors influence productivity such as labor, capital, material, equipment, tools and equipment, poor communication or relationship between workers and management, disorganized projects, poor supervision, lack of cooperation and communication between different workers, and unfair workloads are the some of the factors that affect productivity. Technical problems like inadequate designs or incomplete engineering work can also lead to a decrease in construction productivity Dozzi (2016). The main findings of previous studies indicate that the critical areas influencing construction productivity were related to materials, tools, equipment availability, and the Workers‟ performance.
Advertisements
Increasing the construction work productivity benefits a contractor in several ways: projects can be completed more quickly, project cost will be lowered, the contractor can submit more competitive bids, the project becomes more profitable and in addition it makes the firm to be capable and also helps to have good will among different stakeholders. Therefore, measuring productivity, identifying factors influencing productivity and use productivity improving approaches should be a major and continual concern for construction contractors to increase the probability of projects to be completed as per the budgeted cost and specified time.
The purpose for which a construction enterprise is established is to engage in any construction activity mainly to satisfy the national defense construction and infrastructural development needs. Besides, to engage in the construction of roads, dams, irrigation infrastructure, Buildings and other construction related works in the country.
Henceforth its establishment, the enterprise had completed 18 roads, dam, irrigation, building and real estate projects which worth around birr 4.7 billion in the last seven years. Currently, there are 23 construction sites under construction which worth around 14.7 billion. The enterprise annual income turnover is around 1.7 billion on average for the last seven years.
Statement of the problem
In the construction industry productivity loss is one of the greatest and severe problems. Previous researches shown that, from various project-costs a component such as labors, materials and equipment‟s, labor component is considered the most risk. Whereas others components (equipment and material) can be determined by the market price. Labor cost in construction industry is estimated to be about 33%- 50% of the entire project cost Hanna (2015). Because labor is more variable and unpredictable than other project-cost components, it becomes necessary to understand the effects of different factors on Productivity of craft men. Previous research confirms that productivity loss results from various factors, which includes but not limited to various variation in long hour of extra work, poor field management, and extreme climate conditions (Alarcon and Borcherding ,2011; Thomas and oloufa, 2011). There are many researches worldwide had been done on Productivity of craft men, which investigating factors that affect Productivity of craft men. But none of them address the factors that affect Productivity of craft men in Oredo Local Government Area building construction. The researcher is inspired to assess the factors related to the enterprise context and provide practical suggestion and recommendation aiming to upgrade the knowledge in order to improve the Productivity of craft men in building construction sites in Oredo Local Government Area.
Research Question
- What are organizational, technological, labor, and design and specification related factors that affect Productivity of craft men in building construction sites in Oredo Local Government Area?
Objective of the Study
General objective
To investigate factors influencing Productivity of craft men in building construction sites in Oredo Local Government Area.
Specific Objectives
- To examine the effect of organizational related factors that affect Productivity of craft men in building construction in Oredo Local Government Area.
- To identify the effect of technological related factors that influence Productivity of craft men in building construction sites in Oredo Local Government Area.
- To assess the effect of labor related factors that affect Productivity of craft men in building construction site in Oredo Local Government Area.
- To identify effect of design and specification related factors that affect Productivity of craft men in building construction site in Oredo Local Government Area.
Research Hypothesis
H1: Design related factors have positive statistical significant effect on Productivity of craft men
H2: technology related factors have positive statistical significant effect on Productivity of craft men
Significance of the study
Productivity has a great significance in the construction industry. Productivity of craft men a significant part of production input for construction sites. In the construction industry, many external and internal factors are never constant and are difficult to anticipate. This factor leads to a continuous variation in Productivity of craft men. It is necessary to bear in mind that a reduction in productivity affects the schedule of the work and causes delays. The consequences of these delays could result in serious money losses.
Increased productivity in the construction industry benefits the two Contracting; the Client and the Contractor of the project. From the Clients‟ perspective, increased productivity lowers costs, shortens construction schedules and achieves better returns on investments. From the contractor‟s perspective, increased productivity leads to a more satisfied customer, leads to faster turnover and increased profits.
The conclusions that will be drawn from this study will be used by the construction practitioners in Oredo Local Government Area to take account of these factors at an early stage in order to minimize the time and cost overrun. Besides, the investigated factors can serve as a checklist for construction practitioners to give attention to enhance the productivity of labors so as to make the project to be completed as per the plan.
Scope of the study
The research study attempted to identify and rank factors influencing Productivity of craft men in building construction sites from contractor‟s perspective. In addition, this research was limited to organizational, technological, labor, and design and specification related factors influencing Productivity of craft men in building construction sites that are under construction in Delta state. The target respondents were top, middle, and lower level managers, project manager and, and senior site and office engineers who work at the head office and projects that are involved in building construction sites management process.
Limitations of the study
The study was envisaged from the contractor‟s perspective towards factor influencing Productivity of craft men in building construction site and clients and consultant views were not considered in the study. If the view of consultants and clients had been considered in the study there might be a better perspective and results. Since the study takes in to account the influence of organizational, technological, labor and design related factors to Productivity of craft men, the influence of other factors such as natural environment, leadership, etc. which may have significant influence in the project management process and thus was not considered in the study.
Organization of the Study
This study was organized in five chapters. Chapter One discussed the background of the study, the objective of the study which was to assess the factors that influences Productivity of craft men a case of the DCE, the statement of the problem, research questions, significance of the study, limitation of the study, delimitations of the study, and the organization of the study.
Chapter Two covered the literature review which includes theoretical and empirical review of related literature. It has also described the conceptual framework and the knowledge gaps.
Chapter Three consisted of the research methodology that was used for the study. It consisted of the research design, the target population, the sample size and sampling procedures, research instruments, data collection procedures and data analysis methods. Chapter Four covered data analysis, presentation and interpretation. Chapter Five comprised of the summary of findings, conclusion and recommendations and suggestions for further research.
Advertisements
