Estimation of Optimal Productivity in Labor-Intensive Construction Operations: Advanced Study

The traditional practice of comparing actual productivity versus historical productivity only provides relative efficiency data rather than absolute efficiency data. Innovatively, a two-prong strategy for estimating optimal labor productivity by quantifying systematic and operational inefficiencies allows project managers to estimate the absolute efficiency of their labor-intensive operations and compare actual productivity against an objective benchmark. Although this two-prong strategy was previously validated for a simple task with a single worker performing sequential actions, no study has confirmed the feasibility of applying this approach to complex operations involving multiple workers or sequential and/or parallel tasks and actions. Because adding more workers increases not only the complexity of the construction operation but also the complexity of calculating optimal productivity, this study expands the current body of knowledge by augmenting the two-prong strategy's methodology to apply the approach to a complex, multiworker operation necessitating both sequential and parallel tasks and actions. The feasibility of the expanded methodology is tested using a case study involving the fabrication of sheet metal ducts that includes 8 workers performing 8 tasks and 45 actions. This paper reviews relevant literature; tests the feasibility of the two-prong strategy on a complex, labor-intensive operation; analyzes the data; evaluates the strategy; and confirms the framework as a tool for accurately estimating optimal productivity in complex construction activities. The success of this framework better enables project managers to measure and manage the productivity of their labor-intensive construction operations.