Methods of measuring production times for construction work

Work study techniques have gained wide acceptance in the manufacturing industry and are regularly used for estimating and planning, setting financial incentives and in determining levels of production efficiency. The building industry, however, has been less enthusiastic, seemingly because the changeable conditions and relatively short duration of projects produce excessive variability in output levels. Indeed the time needed to gather the data has not seemed worth the effort. However, a study into construction productivity has shown that much of the variability can be quickly explained to leave relatively constant levels of output for individual operations (i.e. standard times)