A comprehensive approach for assessing the causes of low productivity in the construction sector: a systematic categorization and ranking using Pareto and Fuzzy analysis

Amila Premakumara and Chandana Siriwardana

Construction Management and Economics, 2025, vol. 43, issue 1, 40-58

Abstract: Implementing a comprehensive and globally adaptable assessment approach for causes of low construction productivity has proven to be a contemporary challenge. This prevails since the factors influencing the construction industry vary significantly by geographic region and operational characteristics. Hence, substantial research on this topic has restricted its scope to a particular location without a comprehensive global categorization. Furthermore, much of this research has neglected the influence of subjectivity in the stakeholder response evaluations. To address these shortcomings, this study provides a unique assessment of the construction context initiated by a systematic review of 130 studies published worldwide over the previous 32 years. The 915 unique factors from this systematic review were then categorized into regional and productivity dimensions through Pareto and Frequency analysis techniques. The regional categorization encompassed nine distinct regions spanning the world, while the productivity component encompassed a set of 14 distinctive benchmarks that characterize productivity in the construction industry. These sorted factors were then adapted in the Sri Lankan context as a pilot study through a cross-sectional survey including 117 stakeholders. The following Fuzzy analysis allowed the mitigation of the ambiguity of these survey responses while ranking the factors based on a calculated importance index while also considering the interdependence of the introduced benchmarks. Ultimately, the employed assessment approach for identifying and ranking factors contributing to low construction productivity in this study is proposed as globally adaptable with its successful incorporation of subjective evaluation.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01446193.2024.2377712 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:conmgt:v:43:y:2025:i:1:p:40-58

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/RCME20

DOI: 10.1080/01446193.2024.2377712

Access Statistics for this article

Construction Management and Economics is currently edited by Will Hughes

More articles in Construction Management and Economics from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().