In majority, the
time and cost over-run in the project can be assumed to either unforeseen or
foreseen events for which uncertainties are not properly accommodated (Perry &
Hayes, 1985). Similarly, the
construction industry in Cambodia is also currently suffering from project
delay and cost over-run because of low productivity. The main reason is being
almost all contractors have a very limited knowledge in construction
management. They persist on their past experience and professional ability
only.
Moreover, in the
book “The Construction Industry” (WorldBank,
1984) concluded that
due to the limited skills, knowledge and resources on developing countries, a
large amount of projects were won by foreign contractors. Other problems identified
in the report included inefficiencies in using material, tool and equipment,
imbalances in organizational structure, limited funds, poor planning and lack
of human resource development. Many of these problems are endemic within the
Cambodia construction industry nowadays.
In other to deal
with this problem, the current weaknesses must be found out. It means one of
the important things that have to be considered now is the productivity. It has
been remarked that productivity improvement can significantly reduce overall
project costs and schedule delays. Failure to improve productivity to match the
increasing labor wages has pushed the construction cost. Then, productivity
improvement is something that every Cambodian contractors should be aware of advantage
pursue. Construction personnel understand the importance of productivity
improvement and know how to improve productivity is prerequisite of
productivity improvement.
The site
productivity problems/inefficient encountered by the construction workforce
first has to be tackled as they are the root causes leading to the low
productivity. If the most important affecting factors in any contracting
organization are identified, measures can then be taken to apply them in order
to upgrade the contractor’s performance (Ofori &
Chan, 2001). With an increasing
productivity, the local contractors are able to mitigate the construction cost
and therefore benefit from a higher profit. Likewise, the contractor can even
offer a lower bidding price to increase his competitiveness. That is the reason
why a site level investigation is conducted in this research. Mr. Hong Meng
made a case study to assess the management understanding on productivity. The
knowledge and understanding in productivity among the construction personnel is
the basement of productivity improvement. His research also aimed to:
(2)
investigate
what are the management practices effect construction productivity of Small and
Medium Project in SMEs in Cambodia.
(3)
investigate
the critical factor effecting construction productivity in Cambodia.
(4)
provide
some recommendations and suggestions for productivity improvement under the
construction situation in Cambodia.
Conclusion
1. Study the productivity of Small and Medium project in SMEs
The finding
indicated that in term of Labor Productivity (LP) and Percentage Plan Complete
(PPC), Small Project had higher productivity than in Medium Project. The main
reason is that Small project has smaller scope of work than the Medium one. By
the way, there is no significant difference between the productivity of Small
and Medium Company because they are both using similar management style: follow
pass experience, same technologies and type of labor skill.
2. Effect of management practice on productivity of Small and Medium
Project in SMEs
The outcome of
this objective is that in Cambodia, there were similarly seven factors of
practical management which has effect on productivity between Small and Medium
Project. There are payment to staff on time, conduct activity checklist, develop
WBS, assign the work base on their skill, reward outstanding performance, recruit
skill worker, and team building trust.
Likewise, there
were also seven critical factor of management practice which affect the
productivity between Small and Medium Company such as assign the work base on
their skill, payment to staff on time, conduct activity checklist, reward
outstanding performance, team building trust, develop WBS, and assign clear
responsible to staff.
All in all, among
30 factors of management practice improve construction productivity in
Cambodia, the majority of respondents agreed that the first top ten critical
factors needed to consider in order to increase productivity of small and
medium project in SMEs are ranked from the most important to the less important
as following; Rank1:Assign the work base on their skill, Rank2: Conduct
activity checklist, Rank3: Payment to staff on time, Rank4: Reward outstanding
performance, Rank5: Develop WBS, Rank6: Recruit skill worker, Rank7: Develop
method statement, and Team building trust, Rank9: Develop site layout plan, and
the last ranking is Assign clear responsible to staff.
3. Factors
effecting construction productivity in Cambodia
The results from the analysis showed that the top ten
critical factors which have positive effect on productivity are: (1) Skill
& Experience workers, (2) Good site layout, (3) Competent and Experience
manager, (3) Quality Construction, (5) Qualify sub-contractor, (6) On time
procurement and material supply, (7) Good project scheduling, planning, and
controlling, (8) Competent supervisor, (8) Provide complete and accurate
drawing, and the last one (10) No change order from owner. Among overall factors affecting construction
productivity, it was found out that Engineer and Sub-contractor are the most
critical group and the second one is H.O & Management factor. Material,
equipment and tool are the third important group.
Recommendation
Base on the
result of this study, construction productivity shall be improved and met their
goals if they will be able to alleviate the effect of adverse factors, and be
focused on the top 10 critical factors as mentioned above. Moreover, more
effective management methods and techniques are required to improve the
construction productivity too. Since the productivity improvement will not only
make an organization more profitable, but also increase its chance of survival
in the industry, especially as there is very high competition due to economic
crisis. If improvement in many organizations’ productivity can be facilitated,
overall construction productivity in Cambodia will also be improved.
Further
recommendations from the respondents reveal that construction productivity
could be improved if contractor must have enough assets for processing the
project and have clearly contract with the owner.
His thesis
abstract is copied below.
Abstract
Construction
productivity in Cambodia is still low which required to be improved in order to
compete with foreign contractor. As we know that in a rapidly developing and
competitive market, the importance of delivering a project on schedule within
cost and quality is high priority. Moreover, by running the project with high
productivity, the contractor can gain benefit in terms of earlier revenue,
financial return. And more than that, the unquantifiable benefit is from the
improvement of company reputation in market, and the risk on construction can
be earlier transferred. On the contrary, the local contractor company nowadays,
they are mostly managing the project by following their pass experiences which
is often delayed with overrun budget.
By the
questionnaire survey and data analysis, the results of this study show that
construction productivity in Cambodia shall be improved and met their goals if
the contractor be able to alleviate the effect of adverse factors. The outcomes
show that the high impact productivity improvement factors are (1) Skill &
Experience workers, (2) Good site layout, (3) Competent and Experience manager,
(3) Quality Construction, (5) Qualify sub-contractor, (6) On time procurement
and material supply, (7) Good project scheduling, planning, and controlling,
(8) Competent supervisor, (8) Provide complete and accurate drawing, and the
last one (10) No change order from owner.
Keyword : Construction Productivity, Labor Productivity, Percentage Plan Completed, Small and Medium Project, SMEs
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