American Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering

| Peer-Reviewed |

Factors Affecting Labor Productivity in the Construction Industry

Received: Sep. 23, 2019    Accepted: Nov. 19, 2019    Published: May 29, 2020
Views:       Downloads:

Share This Article

Abstract

Labor productivity is gaining growing attention as the construction industry faces many challenges related to workforce, but one of the most important is poor labor productivity. Several construction projects were suffering from various problems, including poor management, declining fertility, and thus causing projects delay, and cost overruns. The main goals of this study, therefore, is to identify and rank the factors affecting labor productivity in the construction industry in Libya. To realize this objective, a statistically demonstrative sample of contractors and embassies were demanded to contribute to a structured questionnaire survey. The questionnaire contained 30 productivity factors that were secret under the following three primary categories: (1) Management, (2) Technological, (3) and Human/labor. The Management Group was ranked the first, followed by the Technological and Human/labors group. This study demonstrates that the following five factors, listed in descending order, are the most significant in their effects on construction labor productivity: (1) Lack of labor supervision; (2) Experience and skill of labor; (3) Construction technology; (4) Coordination among construction industry disciplines; (5) Errors in design drawings. The results obtained to fill a gap in knowledge of factors affecting labor productivity in Libya to develop a more in-depth perspective of the factors influencing the efficiency of operatives. This study also has provided some recommendations to be implemented by construction managers at the early stage of the construction project to achieve more effective management of construction labor forces.

DOI 10.11648/j.ajese.20200402.13
Published in American Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering ( Volume 4, Issue 2, June 2020 )
Page(s) 24-30
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Labor Productivity, Relative Importance Index, Rank, Construction Industry of Libya

References
[1] Abdul Kadir, M. R., Lee, W. P., Jaafar, M. S., Sapuan, S. M., and Ali, A. AA. A., (2005). “Factors affecting construction labour productivity for Malaysian residential projects.” Journal of Structural Survey. 23 (1) 42–54.
[2] Alinaitwe, H. M., Mwakali, J. A., and Hansson, B. (2007). “Factors affecting the productivity of building craftsmen-studies of Uganda.” Journal of Civil Engineering and Management. 13 (3) 169–176.
[3] Anu, V., Thomas, J. Sudhakumar, (2014). “Factors influencing construction labour”, Journal of Construction in Developing Countries. 19 (1) 53–68.
[4] Attar, A. A., Gupta, A. K., and Desai, D. BD. B. (2012). “A study of various factors affecting labor productivity and methods to improve it”, Journal of Mechanical and Civil Engineering. 11–14.
[5] Bekr, G. A Mahamid. (2016). “Study of Significant Factors Affecting Labor Productivity at Construction Sites in Jordan: Site Survey.” Journal of Engineering Technology (JET). 4 (1) 92 – 97.
[6] Durdyev, S. and Mbachu, J. (2011) “On-site labour productivity of New Zealand construction industry: Key constraints and improvement measures.” Australasian Journal of Construction Economics and Building. 11 (3) 18–33.
[7] El-Gohary, K. M. and Aziz, R. F. R. F. (2014). “Factors influencing construction labor productivity in Egypt.” Journal of Management in Engineering. 30 (1) 1-9.
[8] Enshassi, A., Mohamed, S., Abu Mustafa, Z., and Mayer, P. E. (2007). “Factors affecting labour productivity in building projects in the Gaza Strip.” Journal of Civil Engineering and Management. 8 (4) 245–254.
[9] Frefer, A. A., Mahmoud, M., Haleema, H., & Almamlook, R. (2018). Overview Success Criteria and Critical Success Factors in Project Management. Industrial engineering & management, 2169-0316.
[10] Alkasisbeh, Maha, Rabia Almamlook, Muna Alkasasbeh, and Muteb Alshammari. Implementation of Six Sigma Tools in Building Construction.
[11] Frefer, A., Almamlook, R. E., & Suwayd, M. (2017). Productivity Analysis of the General Electric Company of. American Journal of Management Science and Engineering, 2 (6), 192-198.
[12] Hinze, W., (1999). “Construction planning and scheduling”, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, USA, 1999. Horner, R. M. W., Talhouni, B. T., and Thomas, H. RH. R., (1989). “Preliminary results of major labour productivity monitoring program.” Proceedings of the 3rd Yugoslavian Symposium on Construction Management. Zagreb Univ., Croatia. 18–28.
[13] Jarkas, A. M. (2015) “Factors influencing labour productivity in Bahrain’s construction industry.” International Journal of Construction Management. 15 (1) 94–108.
[14] Jarkas, A. M., and Bitar, C. GC. G. 2012). “Factors affecting construction labor productivity in Kuwait.” Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 138 (7811–820).
[15] Lema, N. M., and Samson, M. (1995). “Construction of labor productivity modeling.” University of Dar Elsalaam, Tanzania.
[16] Lim, E. C., and Alum, J., (1995). “Construction productivity: issues encountered by contractors in Singapore.” International Journal of Project Management. 13 (1) 51–58.
[17] Liu, M. and Ballard, G., (2008). “Improving labor productivity through production control”, Proceedings of the 6th Annual Conference of International Group for Lean Construction, Manchester, United Kingdom. 657-666.
[18] Mahamid, I. (2013). “Principal factors impacting labor productivity of public construction projects in Palestine: Contractors’ Perspective.”, International Journal of Architecture, Engineering and Construction (IJAEC. 2 (3) 194-202.
[19] Makulsawatudom, A., Emsley, M., and Sinthawanarong, K. (2004). “Critical factors influencing construction productivity in Thailand”, The Journal of King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology, North Bangkok. 14 (3) 1–6.
[20] McTague, B. and Jergeas, G., (2002). “Productivity improvements on Alberta major construction projects”; Construction Productivity Improvement Report / Project evaluation tool, Alberta economic development, Alberta, Canada, 2002.
[21] Olomolaiye, P., Kaming, P., Holt, G., and Harris, F. (1996). “Factors influencing craftsmen's productivity in Indonesia.” International Journal of Project Management, 1996, 15 (1) 21–30.
[22] Almamlook, Rabia, et al. "A Simulation Model to Improve Productivity in the Pipe Manufacturing Industry." Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University 55.2 (2020).
[23] Sincich, T. L., Levine, D. M., and Stephan, D. (2002). Practical statistics by example using Microsoft Excel and Minitab, 2nd Ed., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. Singh, S. P. (2010), “Factors affecting the productivity of construction operations in the United Arab Emirates”, MS thesis, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. [Google Scholar].
[24] Soham, M. and Rajiv, B., (2013). “Critical factors affecting labor productivity in construction projects: case study of South Gujarat region of India.” International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology. 2 (4) 583-591.
[25] Wachira, L. NL. N (1999) “Labour productivity in the Kenyan construction industry”, University of Nairobi, Kenya, 1999.
[26] Wilcox, S., String fellow, B., Harris, R., and Martin, B. (2000). “Management and Productivity.” Transportation Research Board, Committee on Management and Productivity, Washington, DC.
[27] YatesYates, J. K. and Guhathakurta, S. (1993) “International labor productivity”, Cost Engineering Journal. 35, (1) 15–25.
[28] Zakeri, M., Olomolaiye, P., Holt, G, and Harris, F. (1996). “A survey of constraints on Iranian construction operatives’ productivity.” Construction Management and Economics. 14 (5), 417–426.
[29] Van Tam, Nguyen, Nguyen Lien Huong, and Nguyen Bao Ngoc. "Factors affecting labour productivity of construction worker on construction site: A case of Hanoi." Journal of Science and Technology in Civil Engineering (STCE)-NUCE 12.5 (2018): 127-138.
Cite This Article
  • APA Style

    Rabia Almamlook, Mohamed Bzizi, Maha Al-Kbisbeh, Tgarid Ali, Ekbal Almajiri. (2020). Factors Affecting Labor Productivity in the Construction Industry. American Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering, 4(2), 24-30. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajese.20200402.13

    Copy | Download

    ACS Style

    Rabia Almamlook; Mohamed Bzizi; Maha Al-Kbisbeh; Tgarid Ali; Ekbal Almajiri. Factors Affecting Labor Productivity in the Construction Industry. Am. J. Environ. Sci. Eng. 2020, 4(2), 24-30. doi: 10.11648/j.ajese.20200402.13

    Copy | Download

    AMA Style

    Rabia Almamlook, Mohamed Bzizi, Maha Al-Kbisbeh, Tgarid Ali, Ekbal Almajiri. Factors Affecting Labor Productivity in the Construction Industry. Am J Environ Sci Eng. 2020;4(2):24-30. doi: 10.11648/j.ajese.20200402.13

    Copy | Download

  • @article{10.11648/j.ajese.20200402.13,
      author = {Rabia Almamlook and Mohamed Bzizi and Maha Al-Kbisbeh and Tgarid Ali and Ekbal Almajiri},
      title = {Factors Affecting Labor Productivity in the Construction Industry},
      journal = {American Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering},
      volume = {4},
      number = {2},
      pages = {24-30},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ajese.20200402.13},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajese.20200402.13},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajese.20200402.13},
      abstract = {Labor productivity is gaining growing attention as the construction industry faces many challenges related to workforce, but one of the most important is poor labor productivity. Several construction projects were suffering from various problems, including poor management, declining fertility, and thus causing projects delay, and cost overruns. The main goals of this study, therefore, is to identify and rank the factors affecting labor productivity in the construction industry in Libya. To realize this objective, a statistically demonstrative sample of contractors and embassies were demanded to contribute to a structured questionnaire survey. The questionnaire contained 30 productivity factors that were secret under the following three primary categories: (1) Management, (2) Technological, (3) and Human/labor. The Management Group was ranked the first, followed by the Technological and Human/labors group. This study demonstrates that the following five factors, listed in descending order, are the most significant in their effects on construction labor productivity: (1) Lack of labor supervision; (2) Experience and skill of labor; (3) Construction technology; (4) Coordination among construction industry disciplines; (5) Errors in design drawings. The results obtained to fill a gap in knowledge of factors affecting labor productivity in Libya to develop a more in-depth perspective of the factors influencing the efficiency of operatives. This study also has provided some recommendations to be implemented by construction managers at the early stage of the construction project to achieve more effective management of construction labor forces.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

    Copy | Download

  • TY  - JOUR
    T1  - Factors Affecting Labor Productivity in the Construction Industry
    AU  - Rabia Almamlook
    AU  - Mohamed Bzizi
    AU  - Maha Al-Kbisbeh
    AU  - Tgarid Ali
    AU  - Ekbal Almajiri
    Y1  - 2020/05/29
    PY  - 2020
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajese.20200402.13
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ajese.20200402.13
    T2  - American Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering
    JF  - American Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering
    JO  - American Journal of Environmental Science and Engineering
    SP  - 24
    EP  - 30
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2578-7993
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajese.20200402.13
    AB  - Labor productivity is gaining growing attention as the construction industry faces many challenges related to workforce, but one of the most important is poor labor productivity. Several construction projects were suffering from various problems, including poor management, declining fertility, and thus causing projects delay, and cost overruns. The main goals of this study, therefore, is to identify and rank the factors affecting labor productivity in the construction industry in Libya. To realize this objective, a statistically demonstrative sample of contractors and embassies were demanded to contribute to a structured questionnaire survey. The questionnaire contained 30 productivity factors that were secret under the following three primary categories: (1) Management, (2) Technological, (3) and Human/labor. The Management Group was ranked the first, followed by the Technological and Human/labors group. This study demonstrates that the following five factors, listed in descending order, are the most significant in their effects on construction labor productivity: (1) Lack of labor supervision; (2) Experience and skill of labor; (3) Construction technology; (4) Coordination among construction industry disciplines; (5) Errors in design drawings. The results obtained to fill a gap in knowledge of factors affecting labor productivity in Libya to develop a more in-depth perspective of the factors influencing the efficiency of operatives. This study also has provided some recommendations to be implemented by construction managers at the early stage of the construction project to achieve more effective management of construction labor forces.
    VL  - 4
    IS  - 2
    ER  - 

    Copy | Download

Author Information
  • Department of Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, USA

  • Department of Business Administration, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, USA

  • Civil and Construction Engineering Department, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, USA

  • Department of Civil and Construction Engineering, UDM, Detroit, USA

  • Department of Civil Engineering, CU, Colorado, USA

  • Section