Influence of Buildability Factors on Rebar Installation Labor Productivity of Columns
Publication: Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 138, Issue 2
Abstract
Buildability is one of the most important factors influencing labor productivity. A thorough investigation of the literature, however, revealed a dearth of research into its effects on the labor productivity of an integral trade of the in situ reinforced concrete material; namely, rebar installation, especially at the activity levels. Because reinforced concrete columns are among the major encountered activities on construction sites, the objective of this research is to explore primary buildability factors influencing their rebar installation labor productivity. To achieve this objective, a sufficiently large volume of productivity data was collected and analyzed by using multiple and categorical-interaction-regression methods. As a result, the effects of the variability of column sizes, rebar diameter size, reinforcement quantity, and column geometry, are determined and quantified. Although the extent of the size variability and circular geometry show significant negative impacts on the labor efficiency of the operation, the rebar diameter size and quantity of reinforcement installed exhibit positive effects. The results obtained may be used to provide designers and construction managers with feedback on how well the design of this activity considers the requirements of buildability, and the consequences of designers’ decisions on the productivity of the installation operation. Moreover, a set of practical recommendations is presented, which upon implementation can improve the design buildability level of the activity explored and, thus, translate into higher labor productivity and more efficient planning and utilization of operatives.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Adams, S. (1989). “Practical buildability.” Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA), Building Design Rep., Butterworths, London, UK.
Adrian, J. (1987). Construction productivity improvement, Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Aiken, L. S., and West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions, Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA.
Aldana, L. F. (1991). “Measurement and analysis of concrete formwork and steel reinforcement productivity.” M.Sc. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
Alshawi, M., and Underwood, J. (1996). “Improving the constructability of design solutions through an integrated system.” Eng. Constr. Architect. Manag., 3(1/2), 47–67.
Carter, G. R. (1999). “Buildability—Effects of design on labour costs.” M.Sc. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
Chan, D. W. M., and Kumaraswamy, M. M. (1995). “A study of the factors affecting construction durations in Hong Kong.” Constr. Manage. Econ., 13(4), 319–333.
Cheetham, D. W., and Lewis, J. (2001). “Productivity, buildability, and constructability: Is work study the missing link?” Proc., Association of Researchers in Construction Management, 17th Annual Conf., A. Akintoye ed., Vol. 1, ARCOM, Brighton, UK, 271–279.
Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA). (1983). “Buildability: An assessment.” Special Rep. No. 26, CIRIA Publications, Ascot, UK.
Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA). (1999). “Standardisation and pre-assembly: Adding value to construction projects.” Rep. No. 176, CIRIA Publications, London, UK.
Dong, C. J. (1996). “Effects of design on buildability.” M.Eng. thesis, Nanyang Technological Univ., Singapore.
Emmerson, H. (1962). “Survey of problems before the construction industries.” Rep. prepared for the Ministry of Works, HMSO, London, UK.
Ferguson, I. (1989). Buildability in practice, Mitchell’s Professional Library, London, UK.
Fischer, M., and Tatum, C. B. (1997). “Characteristics of design-relevant constructability knowledge.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 123(3), 253–260.
Friedrich, R. J. (1982). “In defence of multiplicative terms in multiple regression equations.” Am. J. Polit. Sci., 26(4), 797–833.
Griffith, A. (1987). “An investigation into factors influencing buildability and levels of productivity for application to selecting alternative design solutions—A preliminary report.” Managing construction worldwide, P. R. Lansley and P. A. Harlow eds., Vol. 2, E&N Spon, London, UK, 646–657.
Hardy, M. A. (1993). “Regression with dummy variables.” Sage Univ. Papers, QASS No. 07-093, Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA.
Hidayatalla, N. A. (1992). “A study of labour productivity on reinforcement steel fixing.” M.Sc. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
Horner, R. M. W., and Duff, R. (2001). “More for less.” A contractor’s guide to improving productivity in construction, Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA), London, UK.
Horner, R. M. W., Talhouni, B. T., and Thomas, H. R. (1989). “Preliminary results of major labour productivity monitoring programme.” Proc., 3rd Yugoslavian Symp. on Construction Management, Cavtat, 18–28.
Horner, R. M. W., and Zakieh, R. (1996). “Characteristic items—A new approach to pricing and controlling construction projects.” Constr. Manage. Econ., 14(3), 241–252.
Hyde, R. (1995). “Buildability as a design concept for architects: A case study of laboratory buildings.” Eng. Constr. Architect. Manag., 2(1/2), 45–56.
Illingworth, J. R. (2000). Construction methods and planning, 2nd Ed., E&FN Spon, London, UK.
Jaccard, J., and Turrisi, R. (2003). “Interaction effects in multiple regression.” Series: Quantitative applications in the social sciences, 2nd Ed., Vol. 72, Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA.
Jaccard, J., Turrisi, R., and Wan, C. K. (1990). Interaction effects in multiple regression, Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA.
Jarkas, A. M. (2005). “An investigation into the influence of buildability factors on productivity of in situ reinforced concrete construction.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
Kim, J., and Feree, G. (1981). “Standardisation in causal analysis.” Socio. Meth. Res., 10(2), 187–210.
Lal, H. (1999). “The use of characteristic productivity modelling in the improvement of site performance and the evaluation of delay and disruption claims.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
Lam, P., Chan, A., Wong, F. K., and Wong, F. W. (2007). “Constructability rankings of construction systems based on the analytical hierarchy process.” J. Archit. Eng., 13(1), 36–43.
Lam, P., and Wong, F. W. (2009). “Improving building project performance: How buildability benchmarking can help.” Constr. Manage. Econ., 27(1), 41–52.
McTague, B., and Jergeas, G. (2002). “Productivity improvements on Alberta major construction projects.” Construction Productivity Improvement Rep./Project Evaluation Tool, Alberta Economic Development, Canada.
Moore, D. (1996a). “Buildability assessment and the development of an automated design aid for managing the transfer of construction process knowledge.” Eng. Constr. Architect. Manage., 3(1/2), 29–46.
Moore, D. (1996b). “Buildability, prefabrication, rationalisation and passive buildings in the UK.” Proc., Association of Researchers in Construction Management, 12th Annual Conf. and General Meeting, A. Thorpe ed., Vol. 1, ARCOM, Brighton, UK, 93–100.
Munshi, A. H. (1992). “Influence of wall panel characteristic on the productivity of brick layers.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
Nima, M. A., Abdul-Kadir, M. R., Jaafar, M. S., and Alghulami, R. G. (2002). “Constructability concepts in west port highway in Malaysia.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 128(4), 348–356.
Noor, I. (1992). “A study of the variability of labour productivity in building trades.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
O’Connor, J. T., Rusch, S. E., and Schulz, M. J. (1987). “Constructability concepts for engineering and procurement.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 113(2), 235–248.
Poh, P., and Chen, J. (1998). “The Singapore buildable design appraisal system: A preliminary review of the relationship between buildability, site productivity and cost.” Constr. Manage. Econ., 16(6), 681–692.
Powers, D., and Xie, Y. (2009). Statistical methods for categorical data analysis, 2nd Ed., Emerald Group Publishing, Bingley, UK.
Pulaski, M. H., and Horman, M. J. (2005). “Organizing constructability knowledge for design.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 131(8), 911–919.
Rakhra, A. S. (1991). “Construction productivity: Concept, measurement and trends, organisation and management in construction.” Proc., 4th Yugoslavian Symp. on Constr. Manage., Dubrovnik, 487–497.
Saghatforoush, E., Hasim, S., Jaafar, M., and Abdul Kadir, M. (2009). “Constructability implementation among Malaysian building contractors.” Eur. J. Sci. Res., 29(4), 518–532.
Salim, M., and Bernold, L. (1994). “Effects of design-integrated process planning on productivity in rebar placement.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 120(4), 720–737.
Sincich, T., Levine, D. M., and Stephan, D. (2002). Practical statistics by example using Microsoft Excel and Minitab, 2nd Ed., Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Song, Y., and Chua, D. (2006). “Modeling of functional construction requirements for constructability analysis.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 132(12), 1314–1326.
Talhouni, B. T. (1990). “Measurement and analysis of construction labour productivity.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
Trigunarsyah, B. (2004). “Constructability practices among construction contractors in Indonesia.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 130(5), 656–669.
Trigunarsyah, B. (2007). “Project designers’ role in improving constructability of Indonesian construction projects.” Constr. Manage. Econ., 25(2), 207–215.
Weisberg, S. (2005). “Applied linear regression.” Wiley series in probability and statistics, 3rd Ed, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Williamson, M. T. (1999). “Buildability—The effect of design complexity on construction productivity.” M.Sc. thesis, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Univ. of Dundee, Dundee, UK.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
Volume 138 • Issue 2 • February 2012
Pages: 258 - 267
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Sep 27, 2009
Accepted: May 25, 2011
Published online: Jan 17, 2012
Published in print: Feb 1, 2012
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.