Strategies to improve the productivity of site level building contractors in Sri Lanka

Abstract

The construction industry is widely recognised as a laggard in terms of productivity improvement. Site level construction productivity is a major influential factor to reduce the overall productivity in the construction industry. The main reason behind this is the critical site level construction productivity problems faced by Sri Lankan contractors. Therefore, aim of the study is to identify the possible solutions to enhance the site level construction productivity of building contractors in Sri Lanka. Accordingly, a mixed approach was used for the research. Initially, an extensive literature review was carried out to identify the site level construction productivity influential factors which was followed by a preliminary survey to investigate the critical problems influencing the site level construction productivity of contractors in Sri Lanka. A questionnaire survey was carried out to identify the most critical site level problems faced by the building contractors in Sri Lanka. Finally, expert interviews were conducted to identify the possible solutions to enhance the site level construction productivity of building contractors. Findings revealed that the most critical site level problems include worker skills problems, worker motivation problems, unavailability of skilled labours, and material management problems on sites. Accordingly, introducing proper training programs, implementing incentive, rewards and appreciation schemes as per the workers’ performance, training unskilled workers, educating site workers on proper usage of materials are the possible solutions for the identified four most critical problems.