Table Of Content“As governments seek to achieve construction objectives using poor labour-
intensive methods plagued by ineffcient policies and practices, weak institutions
and adverse business environment, complicated by complex social and cultural
practices, which makes it diffcult for the indigenous contractor in Africa to
perform effciently. This book addresses the issues of the productivity of the
labour-intensive work practices that has emerged; with special regard to Road
Construction Works in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa as Construction Industry
Practitioners contend with the twin issues of poor human resource base and low
technology environment.”
Ozo Professor Nathaniel Anny Aniekwu,
University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
Measuring Productivity of Labour-
Intensive Work Practices in Road
Construction in Africa
This book examines an issue of constant concern in the construction industry, that of
productivity. Using data from Ghana and South Africa, it presents research into the
productivity of local contractors in these countries whilst examining the predominance of
labour-intensive production methods.
The book begins by considering the theoretical and conceptual perspectives on labour
productivity in the construction industry in the existing literature, before reviewing current
productivity measurement frameworks. The book then explores the productivity of labour-
intensive public works projects in South Africa and Ghana alongside a general discussion
of key factors affecting construction productivity in these countries. Whilst the focus is on
road construction, the framework developed can be applied to any number of construction
projects to measure and ultimately improve productivity.
This book is useful reading for researchers and practitioners looking to understand the
factors infuencing labour productivity in construction at both the industry and the project
level, including construction managers, quantity surveyors, cost engineers, and project
managers.
Emmanuel Bamfo-Agyei is the Head of the Department of Environmental Management
Technology; a senior lecturer at the Building Technology Department at Cape Coast Technical
University, Cape Coast, Ghana; and a professional member of the Ghana Institution of
Surveyors. He is also a Research Fellow with the Department of Civil Engineering, College of
Science, Engineering, and Technology, University of South Africa (UNISA), South Africa.
Clinton Aigbavboa is a professor in the Department of Construction Management and
Quantity Surveying and director of CIDB Centre of Excellence and Sustainable Human
Settlement and Construction Research Centre, University of Johannesburg, South Africa.
Before entering academia, he was involved as a quantity surveyor in several infrastructural
projects in Nigeria and South Africa. He has published several research papers and more
than ten research books in housing, construction and engineering management, and
research methodology for construction students. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of
Construction Project Management and Innovation.
Wellington Didibhuku Thwala, PhD, is Research Professor in the Department of Civil
Engineering, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, University of South
Africa (UNISA), South Africa. He has varied research interest, including project
management, construction management, supply chain management and leadership in the
construction industry, construction digitilisation, Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and
smart cities. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Construction Project Management
and Innovation. He has more than 300 published and peer-reviewed journals, chapters in
books, and conference proceedings locally and internationally.
Routledge Research Collections for Construction
in Developing Countries
Series Editors: Clinton Aigbavboa, Wellington Didibhuku
Thwala, Chimay Anumba, David Edwards
A 21st Century Employability Skills Improvement Framework for the
Construction Industry
John Aliu, Clinton Aigbavboa & Wellington Didibhuku Thwala
Construction Project Monitoring and Evaluation
An Integrated Approach
Callistus Tengan, Clinton Aigbavboa and Wellington Didibhuku Thwala
Developing the Competitive Advantage of Indigenous Construction Firms
Matthew Kwaw Somiah, Clinton Aigbavboa and Wellington Didibhuku Thwala
Construction Digitalisation
A Capability Maturity Model for Construction Organisations
Douglas Aghimien, Clinton Aigbavboa, Ayodeji Oke and
Wellington Didibhuku Thwala
Sustainable Construction in the Era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Ayodeji E. Oke, Clinton Aigbavboa, Stephen S. Segun and
Wellington Didibhuku Thwala
Construction in Indonesia: Looking Back and Moving Forward
Toong Khuan Chan and Krishna Suryanto Pribadi
Measuring Productivity of Labour-Intensive Work Practices in Road
Construction in Africa
Emmanuel Bamfo-Agyei, Clinton Aigbavboa, and Wellington Didibhuku Thwala
Measuring Productivity
of Labour-Intensive
Work Practices in Road
Construction in Africa
Emmanuel Bamfo-Agyei,
Clinton Aigbavboa, and
Wellington Didibhuku Thwala
First published 2023
by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Emmanuel Bamfo-Agyei, Clinton Aigbavboa and Wellington
Didibhuku Thwala
The right of Emmanuel Bamfo-Agyei, Clinton Aigbavboa and Wellington
Didibhuku Thwala to be identifed as authors of this work has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identifcation and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Names: Bamfo-Agyei, Emmanuel, author. | Aigbavboa, Clinton, author. |
Thwala, Wellington, author.
Title: Measuring productivity of labour-intensive work practices in
road construction in Africa / Emmanuel Bamfo-Agyei, Clinton O.
Aigbavboa, and Wellington D. Thwala.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifers: LCCN 2022007780 (print) | LCCN 2022007781 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032244402 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032252322 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003282204 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Road construction industry—Labor productivity—Africa. |
Road construction workers—Africa. | Roads—Africa—Design and
construction.
Classifcation: LCC HD9717.5.R63 B37 2022 (print) | LCC HD9717.5.R63
(ebook) | DDC 625.7096—dc23/eng/20220215
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022007780
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022007781
ISBN: 978-1-032-24440-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-25232-2 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-28220-4 (ebk)
DOI: 10.1201/9781003282204
Typeset in Goudy
by Apex CoVantage, LLC
Contents
Foreword viii
1 Introduction 1
2 Construction productivity measurement 14
3 Frameworks on construction labour productivity 31
4 Productivity of labour-intensive works Africa 52
5 Productivity labour-intensive public works in Ghana 67
6 Factors infuencing productivity in labour-intensive
public works in Ghana 85
Index 105
Foreword
Construction operations are highly specialized and distinct, making it challeng-
ing to quantify labour productivity because of the industry’s outputs and inputs’
variety. In the construction business, it is diffcult to boost productivity due to
the absence of accurate methods for measuring the effciency of labour-intensive
construction tasks. There is a difference on how the two activities are measured.
It has been shown in this book that productivity is an important term in the
construction business and that there is a pressing need for defnitions that are
relevant to the industry. “Productivity” in the sense of performance measurement –
that is, how well resources are utilized to achieve a goal – is widely acknowledged
among construction industry stakeholders.
Workers’ skill and the equipment and tool components used in the work were
the focus of earlier theories of labour productivity, such as Smith, Marx, Tylor,
Fayol, Ford, and Barnard; however, newer theories of labour productivity have
shifted the focus from the workers to the machines and their components.
On the industry, project, and operational levels, methods for measuring pro-
ductivity in construction and challenges related to them have been studied. Meth-
ods like work-study have been used to assess operational productivity. There has
been a lot of focus on activity sampling in work-study.
An effective workforce size can be determined by doing work sampling, which
can also be utilized for other purposes. In terms of cost-effectiveness and ease of
usage, time study is the best. It necessitates the use of a stopwatch and an interval
timer capable of recording a specifc sequence of events.
This book has shed light on previous studies on labour productivity frameworks
that have helped anticipate the productivity of building activities in different
nations.
The factors, activities, tasks, expectations, and regression frameworks were used
to establish the labour productivity framework for predicting the optimal Con-
struction Labour Productivity of labour-intensive road construction projects
in Ghana.
As a result, a daily progress report containing all the essential information to
obtain the baseline productivity for the construction industry in Ghana, which
may lead to an improvement in productivity, are provided.
Foreword ix
It was found that seventy-two factors affecting labour productivity had been
identifed and classifed into six categories: management and control; equipment
and tool; worker; work-based circumstances; material; and temperature.
Labour productivity, on the other hand, had a low association with the Equip-
ment and Tools component. It’s because heavy machinery and tools aren’t neces-
sary for a labour-intensive operation; instead, hand tools and the dead-weight
rollers are utilized for compacting the road’s construction.
In addition, because construction is mostly an outside activity involving per-
sonnel working directly in the sun for an extended amount of time, the tempera-
ture component must be taken into account frst when making management
decisions.
Dr Gabriel Nani
Fellow, Ghana Institution of Surveyors
