The purpose of this paper is to find the essential factors influencing the loss of labour productivity (LP) in construction in India and substantiate these factors with naturalistic observation method in a building construction project. From the past studies, factors influencing the LP are specifically selected for the survey and statistically analyzed to form into defined group of factors. The influence of these factors is then correlated to the field level LP. For this, a case study is conducted using TMS technique to inspect factors influencing LP in an ongoing multi storied residential building construction site in Telangana State, India. The LP factors identified by survey analysis are quantitatively validated with the field study. It is noted that work characteristics, organizational characteristics, assured and safety work and workers management were responsible for 15% loss of LP in the field. Of these, major loss of about 11% is shown by work characteristics factors such as material delay and tools delay. This method can be utilized by construction personnel to measure the loss of LP with the data available from survey methods and also assists the construction personnel in making timely decisions towards the improvement of LP for various activities on the construction project sites.
The case describes the situation faced by the chairperson of CIIE with respect to commercialization of an innovation of one of the incubatee companies. The incubatee had been working on a prototype of a flow monitor for IV fluids since his diploma days and won the competition organized by CIIE for the best innovation worthy of commercialization. The case describes the problem of nurses spending considerable time in monitoring the administration of IV drugs and the solution that the innovator had developed to reduce the monitoring burden. The case also chronicles the development of infusion systems, a rival method of reducing the burden that was expensive and not well adopted in India. The dilemma that the chairperson is facing is vis-à-vis a marketing and distribution deal that a pharmaceutical company involved in mentoring of the project had offered.
Objective: The objective of this article is to investigate the influence of human parameters on qualitative assessment of labor productivity (LP) in the construction industry. Background: The theories involving workers have identified various parameters on physical efficiency, such as heart rate, relative heart rate, and calorie count, so as to improve the safety and social conditions of construction labor, thereby increasing LP. However, there is no direct emphasis on assessment of LP using human parameters related to physical strength. Method: An exploratory study was conducted on 17 construction workers by observing their task-level LP in real time at a construction site. Human parameters, such as age, body mass index (BMI), handgrip strength, and upper body muscle strength of the laborers, were measured at the construction site. Performance levels of these workers were placed in three categories, and each worker was assigned a typical weightage to each category when correlated to physical strength. Results: Labor categories among the human parameters that included middle age, normal-range BMI, and strong muscular strength were shown as having higher LP than others. A quantitative parameter called the Human Parameter Index (HPI) was developed based on the performance categories developed for an individual worker. Human parameters revealed a significant relationship with respect to task-level LP. Conclusion and Application: The study determines the influence of human parameters on LP in construction. Introduction of human parameters in the construction industry will help in assessment of LP for various labor-intensive activities.
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