FEB 9 — Watch a construction site anywhere around Singapore for a while, and you may start to wonder why it takes so long to build a building or construct a tunnel. You are not the only one wondering.
Last year, the Economic Strategies Committee (ESC) said that “in construction, productivity levels are half that of the United States and one-third that of Japan”. Along with causing slower construction due to lower efficiency and higher costs from needing more staff, that lower productivity creates other difficulties as well.
One is simply the number of workers and the congestion they cause. Recent Department of Statistics data for 2010 showed that about 75 per cent of the more than 394,000 workers in the construction sector were non-residents.
While doubling productivity to US levels doesn’t automatically mean the industry would need 197,000 fewer people, both the number of workers and congestion could drop if productivity rises. Instead of requiring fewer people, however, Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan has said the sector may need 27,000 more workers from abroad over the next few years to build Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats.
Another issue is the quality of construction. Contractors here often use non-standard sizes for windows and doors or other materials, which can reduce quality and may result in leaks or other defects. Standardisation can enhance quality and, as the Building and Construction Authority’s chief executive John Keung said, solutions like using prefabricated materials can “ensure higher quality and consistency”.
While solutions are starting to be put in place, construction companies still seem to be throwing people at the problem rather than increasing productivity rapidly. And even if construction productivity grows at the ESC target rate of 2 to 3 per cent per year, it could take more than two decades for productivity to reach current US or Japanese levels.
One difficulty is that productivity is not a key focus for many construction companies. As one construction industry insider explained, contractors have little reason to change their practices when construction costs are only 20 to 50 per cent of land costs and they feel productivity has relatively little impact on project profitability.
Another issue is the relatively less sophisticated labour force in Singapore.
Whereas most construction workers in countries like Australia and the US are locals with long experience, explained Dragages Singapore managing director Ludwig Reichold, the vast majority of construction workers here are foreigners who often only stay for one to two years. Employers are less likely to train lower-skilled foreign workers who are unlikely to stay here for very long.
Lowering the current quota on foreign workers, rather than just raising levies, would force employers to look beyond getting the job done through sheer worker numbers. It would be unpopular, but apart from that, this move on its own may not directly address the problem of less than efficient processes. If the construction industry sees little reason to change rapidly on its own, other initiatives are needed to increase construction productivity quickly.
One is to require more training of both the supervisors who manage construction as well as the workers.
The Mason Contractors Association of America said “studies show that workers on a construction project are unproductive for 50 per cent of their time” and that better planning, training and communications can increase productivity.
Increasing training so that supervisors plan better and workers are more efficient, as well as changes in policy to enable better-trained workers to stay longer — so that companies benefit from the training — would help increase productivity. And to make sure companies don’t just go through the motions of training, staff should be required to actually use what they learn.
Another way is technology. While prefabrication is part of the solution, other technologies can also help. A study by the US Construction Industry Institute, for example, found that using RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags and GPS (Global Positioning System) increased productivity by improving the retrieval of materials and reliability. Promoting research on technology for construction and making sure that new technology is implemented quickly could make a real difference.
Standardisation is vital. While contractors in Australia or even countries like China use standard products, this practice is less common here. Industry experts say some developers in Singapore, for example, use non-standard sizes so they can eke out another couple square feet of space and make more money.
One solution could be to create incentives for standardisation, such as allowing a higher gross floor area to increase the buildable space if contractors use standard materials. Increasing standardisation, as minister Khaw has said, is a key part of increasing productivity.
The current ramp-up in the building of HDB flats as well as lots of private construction provides a unique opportunity for requiring changes like these to jump-start improvements to raise productivity faster than the targeted 2 to 3 per cent a year. If a bigger push to improve productivity doesn’t start soon, however, that window could be lost. — Today
* Richard Hartung is a consultant who has lived in Singapore since 1992.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication. The Malaysian Insider does not endorse the view unless specified.
