New output quality indicators in construction productivity measurement

Paper in proceeding, 2011

Productivity increase in the construction industry is often seen as low. Construction innovation projects could be prioritized partly based on expected contribution to industry productivity. Quality change in construction outputs and inputs is crucial. The purpose is to explore new output quality indicators. The analysis draws upon life cycle analyses for facilities, project benchmarking schemes and environmental assessment systems. Disruption of client core activities due to technology and method choice in construction projects should be taken into account, and also the willingness of clients to pay for risk reduction. The result is a set of output measures. Primary output is identified as ‘useful area’. Secondary output measures, with estimates provided by expert panels, would include effects on future energy consumption, effects on other future operations and maintenance resource needs, effects on client/user disruption, reduction of client/user risk during operation and maintenance, user comfort, architectural quality, and external societal effects. However, it would not be feasible or even desirable to collect a wider range of data routinely for the production of official statistics at the industry level.