A study on benchmarking the productivity level of the building construction industry of Hong Kong

Abstract

The report of the Construction Industry Review Committee (CIRC) suggested that construction costs in Hong Kong are relatively high and the industry must improve its efficiency and productivity substantially to stay competitive". Related to the study of CIRC are two benchmarking studies conducted by Levett and Bailey (L&B) in 2000 and Davis Langdon and Seah (DLS) in 2002. Both studies confirmed that the construction costs in Hong Kong were higher than other major cities in the World. Yet, the work of both L&B and DLS was conducted on a broad brush basis. Therefore, their observation must be superficial by nature; it can neither confirm that on equal basis construction in Hong Kong is really more expensive nor identify the underlying reasons for the scenarios depicted from their observation. To investigate into the subject, in this research, studies were conducted on the following heads: a) Two forums of construction practitioners were organised to identify contributing factors which may affect construction costs and productivity. b) A questionnaire survey adopting the Delphi Method was administered to identify the implications of each individual contributing factor on construction costs and productivity. c) A comparison of the construction costs, including labour, material and overall project costs, as recorded by well recognized publications. d) Construction project costs, with breakdown to elemental costs level, of various projects selected from Hong Kong, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore and Shekou were compared. e) A labour head-count of three projects selected from Hong Kong and two projects selected from the Mainland China was conducted to identify the labour productivity The findings of the above studies do not support that on equal basis building construction in Hong Kong was more expensive and construction productivity was lower in the predominant period of the study. The phenomenon of apparently high construction costs and low construction productivity can be explained by factors which are largely beyond the control of the local contractors and material suppliers. The research project demonstrates that benchmarking of construction productivity levels across-economy can be made through the use of an integrated approach of sample comparisons - based on data contained in project documents from different places. Recommendations on the mechanism considered as suitable for implementing the integrated approach for benchmarking construction productivity level internationally are made; and recommendations on further studies in the subject are given.

Date of Award	3 Oct 2006
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	City University of Hong Kong
Supervisor	Chi Ming TAM (Supervisor)