Measurement of construction productivity: concrete gangs

Improved productivity results in greater output at reduced costs, yet there are no standardised methods of productivity measurement that are recognised by the construction industry. In addition, methods of measuring construction productivity are not generally readily available. This makes inter-client, inter-site and international comparisons difficult, if not impossible, to achieve. At Loughborough University a considerable amount of effort has been put into the evaluation of construction productivity and as a result output rates for several construction operations have now been established. This paper illustrates how activity sampling can be used on a single concreting operation and how the results can be synthesised to produce output rates for several operations. Activity sampling results from over seventy concrete pours have been combined and analysed to produce a reliable set of output data.