Improving Labour Performance in the Management of Wall Plastering Activity for One Storey Buildings in Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

This paper investigated the analysis of labour productivity data of wall plastering work activity from sixty construction sites.  The construction work composed of ongoing one story buildings in the study area Abuja metropolis.  Data used for the study were obtained using daily method of data collection which has the advantage to capture both quantity and time inputs.  A total of 835 observations were made for the wall plastering activity. From these data, the study variables (cumulative productivity, baseline productivity, coefficient of variation and project waste index which is the performance) were computed using conceptual (site-based) model of labour productivity measurement and the results revealed that many of the projects studied had low performance rating while few performed well. A simple regression and correlation analyses were used to determine relationships of the research variables.  The result showed that the coefficient of correlation between coefficient of labour productivity variability and performance index was formed to be 0.764 which is significant at 0.01 confidence level.  The coefficient of determination (R) was calculated to be 0.67.  This showed that 67% variation in crew performance is accounted for by variability in labour productivity.  It was recommended that construction project managers should reduce variability by adjusting labour inputs on site.

Key Words; Variability, Labour, Performance, Productivity, Plastering.