On-Site Manpower Increasing Impact on Labor Productivity

During a typical construction project, a contractor nay often find that the time originally available or normally expected to perform its work has been severely reduced. To finish the project by the completion date, the contractor is forced to find a way to speed up the progress of its work to compensate for the reduction in available time. The most frequent initial reaction of contractors to this situation is to increase on-site manpower by working longer time (overtime), adding more workers (overmanning), or implementing shift work (shift work) to increase the rate of progress. The goals of this study were to investigate how these three methods affect labor productivity and to quantify their impact on labor productivity by analyzing real project data collected from sheet metal contractors and mechanical contractors in the US.