Measurement of Construction Productivity: State of the Practice in the UK

Productivity indicates how efficiently resources are utilized to deliver outputs. Studies show that the UK’s construction productivity lags behind similar European countries and the USA. This paper aims to uncover the underlying reasons by examining the industry’s approach to measuring productivity. Our findings stem from semi-structured interviews with 29 industry practitioners and the observations of productivity measurement technologies on three projects. Production rate (output per unit of time) emerges as the most common productivity metric in projects, assessed on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis for decision-making. We also identified several issues in this area. Firstly, the industry tends to prioritize activity outputs over their interdependencies, influenced by earned value management thinking. Secondly, labor productivity (output per worker-hour) is not measured often due to reduced incentives and contractors passing productivity risks onto subcontractors. Lastly, inconsistencies in metrics and data collection limitations hinder the development of company-wide performance measurement frameworks.