The Link Between Strategy and Measurement

The Link Between Strategy and Measurement:

At the Level of the Individual, the Team, and the Organization

In a recent request from the our department's Facilities Manager to measure the operational performance of two competing construction contractors X, and Y in flow lines construction activities. This was requested in order to award certain contractual benefits to either X or Y contractors. In the beginning, it seemed as a straight forward task of comparing both contractors efficiencies and the amount of output per crew per day. However, we found it difficult to measure the productivity rate of each contractor due to the large amount of variables involved in determining the rate of output and due to our historical deficiency in recording the performance of our contractors in the past.

There are several existing variables attributed to effectively measure the rate of production, such as, the varying locations, the distinct requirements of each job site, and most importantly labour, material, and equipments used.

Field facilities construction operations are highly dependable on the effective use of project management techniques of utilizing the elements of labour, construction material, and equipments used. Organizational productivity especially in the in field we are operating in is highly dependable on the processes developed for labour productivity improvement, material inventory control, and the use of readily available fit-for-the-job equipments. Also, in comparison to the elements of material and equipment, labour on the other hand has the greatest amount of budget requirements and influential impact on the management's decisions.

Labour productivity in construction activities is defined as the output per labour hour, where the overall efficiency of an operating system is a measure of labour productivity. The operating system in construction operations is considered effective by collectively utilizing labour, material, and equipments since any improvement in any of these elements shall improve the total output of labour productivity, i.e. the introduction of a new technology in the equipments used will increase output or purchasing fully- processed material is time saving for labour than preparing semi-processed material at the site location.

The labour force is divided into different categories depending on their line of trade and the associated skills, i.e. electrical, mechanical, automation, and civil. This division helps the owners and the contractors in identifying the potential resources available, crew allocation, fulfilling training needs, and mobilizing decisions

Material

The second element in the operating system of field facilities construction project management is material procurement, and delivery of construction bulk material. The process involved in ordering and shipping the exact material with sufficient amounts in our department is as follow;

Task. Duration. Cumulative Duration

- Preparing material requisition by designer. 0. 0

- Team Lead approval. 1. 1

- Requisition sent to buyer. 3 4

- Requisition forwarded to vendors. 2. 6

- Vendors reply to Buyer. 6. 12

- requisition evaluation by project engineer 3. 15

- Placing a purchase order by material coordinator. 6. 21

- Material delivery to town warehouse. 14-90 35-111

- Material receival at site location. 7-10. 42-121

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