Causes and mitigation for declining productivity in the Australian mid-rise residential construction sector
Built Environment Project and Asset Management
ISSN: 2044-124X
Article publication date: 18 June 2018
Issue publication date: 5 July 2018
Abstract
Purpose
The construction industry is a significant driver of economic activity in many countries. However, there has been a lack of growth in productivity within the Australian construction sector over recent years. The purpose of this paper is to gain an in-depth understanding of the causes for declining productivity within the Australian mid-rise residential construction network.
Design/methodology/approach
Two in-depth case studies have been conducted with a builder and developer, both significant entities of the Australian mid-rise residential construction network. Case study data collection comprised a five-stage process including semi-structured interviews and archival information review.
Findings
Drivers for declining construction productivity were identified under the categories of: industry-, firm- and project-level productivity. The drivers include: incomplete documentation, design changes, inefficient project management, supply chain fragmentation, among others.
Originality/value
The contribution of this study is the identification and categorisation of major issues impacting sector productivity along the mid-rise residential construction supply chain. The research identified that the substructure and superstructure are the construction phases during which most productivity losses occur. Mitigations are discussed in terms of systemic sector productivity increases at an industry, firm and project levels.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This research is funded through the ARC Research Hub for Australian Steel Manufacturing, the Steel Research Hub (Project No. IH130100017) which is jointly funded by the Australian Research Council and industry partners. The authors would like to thank the industry partners, BlueScope, Cox Architecture and Stockland, for their support of the project, and the anonymous reviewers and editor for their constructive comments.
Citation
Böhme, T., Escribano, A., Heffernan, E.E. and Beazley, S. (2018), "Causes and mitigation for declining productivity in the Australian mid-rise residential construction sector", Built Environment Project and Asset Management, Vol. 8 No. 3, pp. 253-266. https://doi.org/10.1108/BEPAM-10-2017-0097
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited