Quantifying Levels of Wasted Time in Construction with Meta-Analysis
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 131, Issue 1
Abstract
Quantifying the waste present in an operation is an important part of a number of performance improvement initiatives in the architecture engineering construction industry. Contemporary management approaches focus on waste minimization to reduce operating costs and to increase operating responsiveness and flexibility. In construction, studies have been conducted over the past as part of productivity-improvement efforts that have documented levels of wasted time in construction activities. This paper draws on the methodology of meta-analysis to provide a synthesis of the findings across all of these studies. The analysis reveals that an average of 49.6% of time in construction is devoted to wasteful activity, although this amount is widely varied. Among other things, these results demonstrate considerable potential for improvement in construction through initiatives that reduce levels of wasteful activity.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 131 • Issue 1 • January 2005
Pages: 52 - 61
Copyright
© 2004 ASCE.
History
Received: Nov 27, 2002
Accepted: Jun 10, 2003
Published online: Jan 1, 2005
Published in print: Jan 2005
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