Productivity Improvement in Wooden House Construction

Abstract: There has long been a continuous debate regarding the construction industry. Building costs are said to be too high, and many critics have complained about an industry considered to be very ineffective, underdeveloped and conservative. At the same time scholars have long presented philosophies, frameworks and ideas in response, but these initiatives do not seem to have gained traction. Studying the issues of productivity, one can indeed find a rich literature highlighting the problems and solutions. However, studies regarding how well the academic framework has been adopted by the industry are perceived as scarce, creating a shortage of research. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how contractors within the Swedish wooden house industry approach productivity improvement. Through an exploratory research method, primary empirical data has been collected from on-site construction managers engaged in wooden house assembly. The findings revealed an industry highly affected by the economic environment, project attributes and short-term thinking. The adaptation of frameworks for productivity improvement was found to have been implemented on an ad hoc basis, highly individualized and with few elaborated thoughts on improvement among respondents.