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Critical Success Factors and Dynamic Modeling of Construction Labour Productivity

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Abstract

Poor construction labour productivity is a major issue within the construction industry because it directly contributes to cost and schedule overrun. Although considerable research has been done on labour productivity factors, few studies have researched construction labour productivity in developing countries. Therefore, in consideration of improving productivity, a questionnaire survey was conducted with construction practitioners involved in the Nepalese construction industry to identify critical factors and to examine the underlying relationships among these factors using fuzzy analytical hierarchical process. The results show that the most critical factors for poor labour productivity are lack of monetary incentive, tools unavailability, insufficient periodic meetings, and unsafe working conditions. The top-ranked factors were compared to those obtained from other countries. The causal relationship diagram and system dynamic models were constructed to examine the inter-relationship between the perceived 30 factors and four criteria to identify the root cause of a decrease in productivity. The system dynamic models will help researchers determine the productivity growth rate in terms of cost and time, and policy makers to revise policies so that the decision maker can draw upon the policy process and its implications. The results not only coincide with the existing body of knowledge on the labour productivity improvement, but also contribute to the growing body of the construction labour productivity research by providing an evaluation method for multi-criteria decision making.

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Palikhe, S., Kim, S. & Kim, J.J. Critical Success Factors and Dynamic Modeling of Construction Labour Productivity. Int J Civ Eng 17, 427–442 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-018-0282-3

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