Activity Analysis for Direct-Work Rate Improvement in Construction

In the construction industry, on-site labor is one of the most variable and costly factors that affect project profits. Because of the variable nature of construction labor and its correlation with profits, construction managers require a comprehensive understanding of the activities of workers on-site. For project success, it is obviously important that workers are spending the majority of their time installing materials that advance the project. This material installation time is known in the construction industry as "direct-work" or "tool time." Continuously improving the direct-work rate through the life of the project is critical to project success, and yet no workface assessment method exists in the literature to provide (1) a detailed description of worker activities; or (2) a continuous productivity improvement process to help management identify productivity inhibitors affecting site labor, develop a plan to reduce or eliminate these issues, and measure improvements as a result of these changes. In response to this need, this research focused on the development of a workface assessment method called activity analysis. Activity analysis is a continuous productivity performance improvement process, which efficiently measures the time expenditure of workers on-site and identifies productivity inhibitors that management must reduce or eliminate to provide workers with more time for direct-work activities. Six case studies were conducted to verify the feasibility of the activity analysis process. Further, cyclical data from two major construction firms, including 26 project data points, were collected and analyzed to statistically validate the hypothesis, which in the past was supported by limited numbers of case studies, that activity analysis can improve direct-work rates. The research concluded that activity analysis, as a continuous performance improvement process, is feasible and when continually applied to a construction site, can significantly improve direct-work rates through the life of a project. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)CO.1943-7862.0000375.(C) 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers.