Improving Productivity in Construction projects in rural Malaysia

Productivity is an important factor contributing to the timely completion and success of a project. Productivity improvements can be made through improvements in labour productivity and through proper planning, scheduling and monitoring of activities. A study was carried out in a WS project at Telupid in Sabah. Labour productivity in the project for trenching, steelwork, brickwork, formwork, concreting, timberwork, piping and painting, is compared with data from elsewhere. A casestudy on concreting work illustrates how activities are planned and scheduled and how close monitoring can lead to improvements in prodictivity. Time –study was carried out to identify unproductive times or processes. Work sampling is done to quantify team performance and site – specific factors affecting productivity.