A Framework For Construction Labor Productivity Improvement in Egypt

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A FRAMEWORK FOR CONSTRUCTION LABOR PRODUCTIVITY

IMPROVEMENT IN EGYPT
Ahmed H. El-Batreek1, Ahmed S. Ezeldin2, Mohamed M. G. Elbarkouky3
Downloaded from ascelibrary.org by GRAINGER ENGINEERING LIB E on 10/16/13. Copyright ASCE. For personal use only; all rights reserved.
Master candidate, Construction Engineering and Management, The American

University in Cairo (ahbatreek@aucegypt.edu),
Professor of Construction Engineering and Management, The American University in

Cairo (aezeldin@aucegypt.edu),
3
Assistant Professor of Construction Engineering and Management, The American

University in Cairo (barkouky@aucegypt.edu)
ABSTRACT
Being the human input of the construction process, construction labors are the most
dynamic elements of the construction industry. The cost of labor represents almost half of
the overall construction cost. This paper proposes a framework to determine the
significant factors impacting labor productivity, considering the Egyptian construction
market as a case study. First, a craftsmen questionnaire is devised in light of a list of
major factors affecting labor productivity that were specifically extracted from
international studies on labor productivity. Second, a site-based survey is conducted with
site operatives of different projects in Egypt through the craftsmen questionnaire to
determine the particular factors affecting productivity in Egypt. Third, the factors that
were commonly agreed upon by the surveyed sample of labors are evaluated and ranked
by industry experts through a subsequent importance factor survey. Fourth, the most
important factors are plotted in a factors matrix, which enable the quantification of their
relative influences on labor productivity and their interrelated influence through a third
survey. Fifth, the output of the factors matrix is planned to model labor productivity
using system dynamics. This technique permits the identification of areas where effort
should be exerted to achieve maximum labor productivity by testing the different
management strategies that would improve the influencing productivity factors.
Validating the model's findings is proposed through a work sampling study on a real-life
construction project in Egypt to measure the productivity improvement before and after
applying the recommendations extracted from the model. The analogy of this research is
not to assign a specific focus on a particular trade; however, the surveys are intended to
depict the major factors influencing labor productivity within an entire work site. Upon
applying the model findings, the work sampling study is to be repeated to measure the
improvement of manpower productive time, which improves the overall site productivity.
In the interim, the main outcome of this paper is the identification of the factors with the
most influence on labor productivity in Egypt, those were: availability of material, respect
for craft workers and foremen, availability of health and safety training, availability of
power tools, availability of drawings, absenteeism, jobsite orientation program,
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coordination between the trades, and waiting for people and/or equipment to move
material. As a future plan currently under implementation, the nine factors are to be
incorporated in the factor matrix survey and in modeling productivity via system
dynamics approach. The findings of the system dynamics model is expected to enable
researchers and members of the construction industry to pinpoint the areas requiring more
focus on improving labor productivity.
KEYWORDS
Construction Management, Labor, Productivity, Craftsman Questionnaire, System
Dynamics.
INTRODUCTION
The construction industry in Egypt is suffering from severe market shrinkage. After the
Egyptian revolution and its consequential political instability conditions, Egypt witnessed
stringent funding issues. Both the public and private sectors have equally suffered from
these circumstances. The government, as the major bid-letting entity for infrastructure,
services, and industrial projects, currently lacks the power to issue new bids during the
transition period; post revolution government officials are afraid from corruption
allegations. On the other hand, the private sector has sustained heavy losses under the
strain of revealed cases of corruption. This situation has reflected negatively on major
construction projects, leading to a fierce competition between contracting companies to
win new projects regardless of their size to survive this harsh period. The competition
between construction companies forced them to minimize their costs.
Since the construction labors are the most dynamic element in the construction industry
and their cost represents almost half of the overall construction cost (Rivas et al. 2011;
Harmon and Cole 2006; and Hanna 2001), improving labor efficiency has become a
target for construction companies in Egypt. One of the most efficient ways to increase
labor efficiency is that of improving their productivity. Hence, by increasing labor
productivity, less number of workers can achieve the same production rate, which leads to
lower cost and enhances the company's chance to win new contracts.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Labor productivity is an important topic that always gains researchers interest. Because
of its importance as a key factor in the construction process, several studies of the factors
affecting labor productivity have been carried out over the last three decades. Arditi
(1986) conducted a survey among the top 400 contracting companies in the U.S. and
found that further research in marketing practices, planning and scheduling, labor
management relations, site supervision, industrialized building systems, equipment
policy, and engineering design should be conducted in order to improve productivity.
Thomas and Raynar (1997) studied the effect of scheduled overtime over labor
productivity, and concluded that scheduled overtime is a source of disturbance, as it may
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cause loss of labor productivity because of the shortage in providing the required
materials and tools. This conclusion was supported by Hanna et al. (2005) who
developed a model to predict the productivity loss due to extended overtime according to
actual working hours and average working hours per week.
Thomas et al. (1999) studied the factors affecting labor productivity in erecting steel
structures. He found that the material delivery method has influenced productivity; it is
better to prefabricate the steel elements before site delivery and to directly erect the steel
section from the truck. Hanna and Gondoz (2004) studied the effect of change orders on
labor productivity; they developed a model that can predict the productivity loss due to
change orders. Moselhi et al. (2006) investigated the impact of change orders on
construction productivity using a neural network model to quantify this impact. Ibbs
(2005) studied the impact of change timing on labor productivity. Data from 162
construction projects were statistically analyzed and a series of three curves representing
the impact that change has on the labor productivity for early, normal, and late timing
situations were developed. Hanna et al. (2005) studied the reason for absenteeism and
quantified the impact of frequent absenteeism on labor productivity. Dai et al. (2009)
studied the factors that affect labor productivity from labors' point of view. The study was
initiated with 19 focus groups from different crafts to generate a list of factors that affect
productivity; the effect of these factors on productivity was quantified by 1996 craftsmen
in various working trades. Rivas et al. (2011) utilized craftsmen questionnaire to study the
factor affecting labor productivity in mining project in Chile. The research identified the
major productivity factors with higher effect on labor productivity to be materials, tools,
equipment, trucks, and rework.
Other approaches, such as benchmarking and trend analysis have become a major area of
productivity research. Arditi and Mochtar (2000) studied productivity trends in the U.S.
construction industry. Park et al. (2005) developed a construction productivity data
collection tool that has a standard metric definition for construction productivity. Lee et
al. (2005) presented the development of CII Benchmarking and Metrics program which is
an online data-base that provides participants in the US construction industry with
sufficient data available.
RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
The main purpose of this research is to develop a framework to identify the means for
improving labor productivity, with a focus on the Egyptian case. This paper determines
the major factors impacting labor productivity in Egypt through a set of surveys that have
been conducted with both craftsmen and supervising teams of Egyptian construction
projects to rank the factors impacting productivity. The weight of each factor is then
intended to be quantified and the major factors are to be modeled using system dynamics
to simulate the real life project. The future contribution of this research shall provide
project managers with a crucial decision-making tool that will grant them the ability to
effectively tackle such factors and subsequently maximize labor productivity. The scope
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of this research considers the Egyptian construction market as a case study, yet its
outcomes could be generalized by following the proposed framework.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Data collection
As shown in Figure 1, the first step of the framework to improve labor productivity is to
identify major influencing factors. In order to achieve this objective, a craftsmen
questionnaire is proposed to gather site-based operatives opinions. Site operatives are the
key players in executing construction activities; they are in the ideal position to express
the factors that most affect their performance. The craftsmen questionnaire is devised in
light of a list of major factors influencing labor productivity (Table 1) that were
specifically extracted from previous studies on labor productivity. The craftsmen were
asked to choose only the factors that affect their work from their view point. After
collecting data from a sample population of 50 craftsmen, the number of times each
productivity factor was selected by the craftsmen was counted. Then, the arithmetic mean
of the total counts was calculated to eliminate the factors below the average (Table 2).
Currently, more craftsmen are being called to participate in this survey, as the plan is to
gather more than 500 responses from different craftsmen. The output of this process is a
comprehensive list of factors which have the major influence on labor productivity in the
Egyptian construction industry (Table 2).
Figure 1 - Methodology block diagram
Second, industry experts were requested to rank the factors according to their relative
impact on labor productivity. The target experts of this pilot survey were site-based senior
employees who directly managed the workforce, including general foremen, site
engineers, construction managers, trade superintendents, and project managers in Egypt.
The first section of the questionnaire that was used to conduct this survey covered the
demographic data of experts (Figure 2), while the second section enquired about the
impact of each factor on labor productivity, using a 5 point Likert scale. Based on the
responses of ten experts, the Relative Impact Index (RII) was calculated for each factor
(Table 3) so that the top ranked factors were determined for conducting further studies. In
order to ensure the quality of data, the questionnaires targeted the workforce, operatives,
and supervisors working in the first category of the Egyptian contracting companies, only
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those who participated in Egyptian construction projects of a price not less than 30
million EGP (approx. 5M USD).
Table 1 Preliminary list of factors affecting labor productivity (Dai et al., 2009)
SN
1
Factor
Inadequate instruction provided
SN
26
27
Not receiving directions due to size

of the project
Different languages spoken on a
project
Shortage of personal protective
equipment
Availability of consumables
Restrictive project policy on
consumables
Availability of hand tools
32
Availability of power tools
33
9
10
11
34
35
36
23
24
Lack of power source for tools

Lack of extension cords
Slow response to questions with
drawings
Misplaced tools
Poor quality power tools
Availability of material
Poor material quality
Availability of bulk commodities
Errors in prefabricated material
Availability of drawings
Inexperienced tool room attendants
Availability of crane or forklift
Availability of manlift
Waiting for people and/or
equipment to move material
Delay in work permits
Out of sequence work assignments
48
49
25
Absenteeism
50
2
3
4
5
6
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
28
29
30
31
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
Factor
Receiving compliments for doing a
good job
Being notified of mistakes when they
occur
Foremen allowing crafts to work
autonomously
Lack of construction knowledge on
behalf of foremen
Lack of proper resource allocation
Proper managerial and administrative
support
Disregard of crafts productivity
improvement suggestion
Lack of communication among site
management
Superintendents people skill
Incentive for good performance
Material storage area too far from
workface
Coordination between the trades
Slow decisions
Correct crew size
Availability of skill training
Jobsite orientation program
Availability of health and safety training
Respect for craft workers
Weather protection
Craft workers trust in supervisors
Maintenance of power tools
Pulling people off a task before it is
done
Jobsite congestion
Different pay scales for the same job on
a project
Respect for craft workers and foremen
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Table 2 First questionnaire results, The Top 30 factors

SN
27
42
4
39
50
Factor
Being notified of mistakes
when they occur
Availability of health and
safety training
Shortage of personal
protective equipment
Correct crew size
Score
Rank
SN
Factor
Score
Rank
33
31
29
16
33
37
29
17
32
46
Proper managerial and

administrative support
Coordination between the
trades
29
18
31
11
28
19
31
13
Inexperienced tool room

attendants
28
20
30
14
28
21
30
35
28
22
30
27
23
30
16
Incentive for good

performance
Lack of power source for
tools
Availability of bulk
commodities
27
24
27
25
27
26
27
27
27
28

and foremen
Not receiving directions due
to size of the project
Different languages spoken
on a project
consumables
30
10
18
22
30
11
26
43

30
12
32
10
29
13
40
Receiving compliments for

doing a good job
Disregard of crafts
productivity improvement
suggestion
21
29
14
41
27
29
25
Absenteeism
29
15
45
Craft workers trust in

supervisors
27
30
2
3
6
Academic Qualification:
Masters Degree
Bachelor Degree
Years of Experience:
5-10 years
10-15 years
3
7
Position in the Organization:

Quality Engineer
Site Engineer
HSE officer
2
7
1
6
4
Figure 2 The demographic data for the participants in the pilot survey
Based on the output of the second questionnaire (Table 3), the relative impact of each
factor on labor productivity was determined. It can be concluded from Table 3 that the
factor availability of material received the highest score in Relative Impact Index RII
with a value of 6.48, and inexperienced tool room attendants got the lowest score of
2.2. Based on the Pareto principle, only the top 20% of the factors are proposed to be
listed in a matrix called the Factor Matrix (Figure 3), which aims at quantifying the
negative or positive impact of each factor on productivity. Besides, productivity factors
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have significant influence on each other, thus the Factor Matrix will be used for
determining and quantifying the interrelationship between factors. This will provide the
necessary numerical information for modeling labor productivity using systems
dynamics. The purpose of limiting the factor matrix to the top 20 % of the factors was to
allow the surveyed sample a reasonable time and minimize the effort for filling the factor
matrix. By applying the Pareto principle, the top 20% of the factors were: availability of
material, respect for craft workers and foremen, availability of health and safety training,
availability of power tools, availability of drawings and absenteeism. It can be noticed
that the following three factors have a RII equal to 5.12 which is almost the same RII for
absenteeism, the 6th factor; therefore, it was decided to add them to the top ranked list and
to be used in further analysis. These factors were jobsite orientation program coordination
between the trades, and waiting for people and/or equipment to move material.
Table 3 Relative impact questionnaire results
Rank
Factor
RII
Rank
Factor
RII
6.48
16
5.64
17
5.44
18
Respect for craft workers and

foremen
Availability of health and
safety training
5.4
19
Disregard of crafts productivity

improvement suggestion
4.24
5.24
20
4.24
Absenteeism
5.16
21
3.96
5.12
22
3.48
5.12
23
5.12
24
4.84
25
4.72
26
4.68
27
13
4.52
28
Shortage of personal
protective equipment
Availability of bulk
commodities
consumables
Proper managerial and
administrative support
Not receiving directions due
to size of the project
3.48
12
Coordination between the

trades
Different languages spoken
on a project
Being notified of mistakes
when they occur
Correct crew size
14
Lack of power source for

tools
4.48
29
2.68
4.48
30
Incentive for good

performance
Inexperienced tool room
attendants
9
10
11
15
Craft workers trust in

supervisors
Receiving compliments for
doing a good job
4.4
4.28
4.24
3.36
3.28
3.28
3.08
2.76
2.2
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W aiting for people and/or

equipm ent to m ove m aterial
C oordination between the trades
Absenteeism
Availability of draw ings
R espect for craft w orkers and

forem en
Availability of health and safety
training
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Availability of m aterial
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Impact on Productivity
5 4 3 2 1 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5
Respect for craft workers and foremen
Availability of health and safety training
Absenteeism
Coordination between the trades
Waiting for people and/or equipment to move material
Figure 3 The Factor Matrix
Modeling labor productivity

Labor productivity is proposed to be modeled by virtue of system dynamics. System
dynamics is an approach to model complex problems. It was created in 1960s by Jay
Forrester. It is a useful tool for modeling variables that change over time. System
dynamic technique has gained recognition in the field of project management since its
creation that can be used for supporting managerial decision regarding staff productivity,
introducing new technologies and effort on rework discovery among many other
applications (Rodrigues and Bowers, 1996). Tung and Ogunlana (2003) used system
dynamics to model the dynamic performance of a construction organization. Mawdesley
and Al-Jibouri (2009) utilized system dynamic to model project productivity; they
concluded that planning, control, safety, motivation and disruptions are the major factors
that affect productivity, and according to their model, further investment in planning
would increase labor productivity.
The proposed model in this paper calculates a productivity index (PI) which is a function
of the +ve or ve impact of each factor on productivity multiplied by the value of each
factor at a certain time. The value of each factor at a certain time is a function of the value
of this factor at the pervious time and the interrelationship between the factor and other
factors. This can be translated to an equation form as shown in Equations 1 and 2.
Productivity (t) = P1 factor 1 (t) + P2 factor 2 (t) + ............ Pn factorn (t)
(1)
where P1, P2. Pn: are coefficients which represent the +ve or ve impact of each factor
on productivity from the Factor Matrix.
Factor 1(t) = a12 factor 2 (t-1) + a13 factor 3 (t-i) ..+ a1n factor n (t-1)
(2)
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Where: a12, a13, a1n are the coefficient of the interrelationship between factor 1 and each
other factor from the Factor Matrix, and factor 2 (t-1) is the value of this factor in the
previous period.
The output of the Factor Matrix will be used in labor productivity modeling. As
mentioned earlier, the Factor Matrix aims at quantifying the impact of each factor on
productivity either negatively or positively. These values will be the coefficient (Pn).
Besides, the significant influence of a factor on other factor, which was determined via
the Factor Matrix, will constitute the (a) coefficients in the aforementioned equations.
The model, currently under preparation, is proposed to simulate the labor productivity. If
used efficiently, it can be used to evaluate the best case scenario to improve labor
productivity among selected several strategies and test their effect on productivity. Some
preliminary experiments were performed though to determine if it was possible to provide
general advice to managers as to where to concentrate expenditure and efforts, based on
the result of a sample system dynamics model. The sample model discussed the effect of
adding the same attention to all factors, so the values {F1, F2, F3.Fn at time (to)} would
be the same. After one time interval, the PI values have changed because the relative
impact of the factors on each other modified the values of {F1, F2, F3.Fn at time (t1)}
and so on. For 5 time intervals the PI value showed the pattern illustrated in Figure 4.
Figure 4 Illustration of the model behavior
VALIDATION
The validation step is proposed using work sampling method for measuring overall
process productivity; work sampling aims at determining the proportion of productive
time to nonproductive time in addition to determining the distribution of workers time
during the working day (Gouett et al., 2011). The notion behind work sampling is
reducing the non-productive time, which provides the project with more productivity.
Liou and Borcherding stated that "In order to improve productivity, one has to measure
labor performance against some sort of standard before and after improvement measures
have been introduced to reveal the usefulness of the corrective action" (Liou and
Borcherding 1986).
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The proposed validation method for improvement is to conduct a work sampling study for
three running construction projects. First, the work sampling study will be conducted in
these three projects before applying the model findings to draw the line for the existing
productivity index. Subsequently, the project managers for those projects will be advised
with the areas that they can increase their efforts in order to achieve a tangible
improvement in labor productivity. A three-month period will be given to the project
manager to allow the application of the manager's course of actions for improving
productivity. After the three-month a work sampling study will be conducted again to remeasure the proportion of productive time to nonproductive time. This will show whether
these projects have gained an increase in the productivity or not.
CONCLUSION
Construction productivity is an important field of research. Labors, as the human input in
the construction industry and the dynamic resource in any construction process, gain
more interest to study their productivity. This research aims to create a useful tool to be
used by project managers to improve labor productivity. In order to achieve that, the main
factors that affect labor productivity were determined via a craftsmen questionnaire, and
then they were evaluated and ranked by industry experts. The findings of this stage are
the main influencing factors which are availability of material, respect for craft workers
and foremen, availability of health and safety training, availability of power tools,
availability of drawings and absenteeism, jobsite orientation program coordination
between the trades, and waiting for people and/or equipment to move material. As a
future work, the nine factors are to be incorporated in a Factor Matrix survey whose
outputs will be applied in modeling productivity via System Dynamics approach.
Following this framework will enable researchers and members of the construction
industry to pinpoint the areas requiring more focus on improving labor productivity.
REFERENCES
Arditi, D., and Mochtar, K. (2000) "Trends in Productivity Improvement in the US
Construction Industry." Construction Management and Economics 18.1, p 15-27.
Arditi, D. (1985) "Construction Productivity Improvement." Journal of Construction
Engineering and Management 111.1.
Dai, J., Goodrum, P. M., Maloney, W. F., and Srinivasan, C. (2009) "Latent Structures of
the Factors Affecting Construction Labor Productivity." Journal of Construction
Engineering and Management 135.5, p. 397.
Hanna, A. S., and Gunduz, M. (2004) "Impact of Change Orders on Small LaborIntensive Projects." Journal of Construction Engineering and Management 130.5, p. 726.
Hanna, A. S., Menches, C. L., Sullivan, K. T. and Sargent, J. R. (2005) "Factors Affecting
Absenteeism in Electrical Construction." Journal of Construction Engineering and
Management 131.11, p. 1212.
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Hanna, A. S., Taylor, C. S., and Sullivan, K. T. (2005) "Impact of Extended Overtime on
Construction Labor Productivity." Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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Harmon, K. M., and Cole, B. (2006). Loss of productivity studiesCurrent uses and
misuses. Constr. Briefs., 8.1, p. 119.
Ibbs, W. (2005) "Impact of Changes Timing on Labor Productivity." Journal of
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Gouett, M., Haas, C., Goodrum, P., and Caldas, C. (2011). Activity Analysis for DirectWork Rate Improvement in Construction. Journal of Construction Engineering and
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Lee, S., Thomas, S. R. and Tucker, R. L. (2005) "Web-Based Benchmarking System for
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Liou, F., and Borcherding, J. D. (1986). Work sampling can predict unit rate
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Mawdesley, M. J., and Al-Jibouri, S. (2010) "Modelling Construction Project
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Moselhi, O., Assem, I. and El-Rayes, K. (2005) "Change Orders Impact on Labor
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Park, H., Thomas, S. R. and Tucker, R. L. (2005) "Benchmarking of Construction
Productivity." Journal of Construction Engineering and Management 131.7, p. 772.
Rivas, R. A., Borcherding, J. D., Gonzlez, V. and Alarcn, L. F. (2011) "Analysis of
Factors Influencing Productivity Using Craftsmen Questionnaires: A Case Study in a
Chilean Construction Company." Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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Rodrigues, A., and Bowers, J. (1996) "System Dynamics in Project Management: A
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Thomas, H. R., and Raynar, K. A. (1997) "Scheduled Overtime and Labor Productivity:
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181.
Thomas, H. R., Riley, D. R. and Sanvido, V. E. (1999) "Loss of Labor Productivity Due
to Delivery Methods and Weather." Journal of Construction Engineering and
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A Framework For Construction Labor Productivity Improvement in Egypt

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