Peter Vosbikian is a Certified Cost Engineer and Certified Forensic Claims Consultant with over twenty years of experience in construction claims consulting. For the past ten years, he has worked with Forum Sponsor Greyhawk. Peter has provided three tips on how to document and prove labor productivity claims.
Effectively
Tracking Labor Productivity
Many of us have heard the adage, ‘If it’s
not written, then it didn’t happen.’ We’re
all aware that productivity is an important concept in our industry. Low productivity can result in delays and damages,
which can lead to disputes and claims. Effectively
documenting the work progress and monitoring productivity can provide
stakeholders with the necessary visibility for tracking whether or not they are
working towards a successful bottom line.
It can also help in situations involving damages caused or alleged to
have been caused by productivity loss. While
appropriately documenting the information is important, the daily demands of managing
a construction project can shift focus away from such daily data compilation, and
this in turn could result in challenges to being able to effectively demonstrate
the causation for actual losses incurred.
The following summarizes some of the data that may be helpful for
stakeholders to better track their actual productivity.
1. DOCUMENT material quantity installed
How much material was installed? Track
the quantity of material installed, or work completed on an operation and crew
basis. The units used to track
production for a given material should remain consistent throughout the life of
the project (whether they are cubic yards, cubic feet, lineal feet, or
other). For example a concrete
contractor may track its production in cubic yards. Therefore this unit of measure for tracking
the installed quantity should remain the same unless unique circumstances
dictate otherwise. The installed or
completed quantities should be tracked no less than once per day or shift. Ensure that the tracked quantity is consistent
with the time and labor units expended on that specific material or operation.
2. DOCUMENT
labor expended
How many man-hours were expended performing
the work corresponding to the material installed? Document
the labor that was expended to install the materials noted. The labor expended reflects the required
resources to perform a given amount of work or achieve a specific amount of
output. Record the number of working
laborers, man-hours for each, and the work shift specific to the operation and
crew. It is equally as important to
track downtime, or the number of hours that labor was assigned to work a
specific task or operation, but couldn’t.
3. DOCUMENT
impacts and disruptions
What delays or impacts were encountered in
performing the work and what were the causes? Record
any impact or disruption to the work. In
particular, any start and stops, suspensions, interruptions to the operation, remobilizations,
or any slowed progress. Record any disruption
(disturbance or problems that impacted the work) or any events that caused the
work to not be performed in the fashion or manner intended. Any record of such work disruptions should be
accompanied by an explanation or photos of what event(s) or impact(s) that resulted
in the lower productivity. For example,
merely noting an effect only
description, “The installation of conduit was delayed”, may be
insufficient. Rather, a cause and effect description of, “The
conduit installation on the first floor was impacted during the AM shift
because of a design change that required rerouting previously installed
conduit”, may be more helpful in establishing causation.
For us lawyers, this is a good guide to the kind of information we should be asking our clients to provide to us when they want to make a claim for lost labor productivity. It is also the information that we should request in discovery when faced with such a claim.
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