Grant: Collaborative Science, Technology and Innovation Program - Collaborative R&D Initiatives

This project will tackle the Canadian construction productivity issues, while emphasizing decarbonization by setting a consistent framework for construction productivity metrics and measurement in Canada with input from internal and external construction stakeholders. The proposed framework will be tested at both off-site and on-site construction sites, for the purpose of comparison. This project will be used to demonstrate the ability to better identify where and how productivity improvements can be made across the value chain. Key performance metrics/indicators, such as waste generation, right first time (ie. cost of rework), tool time, etc., will be developed and analyzed to allow consistent and accurate quantitative comparisons between different types of construction practices. The metrics will provide empirical evidence relating to costs, time and emissions. The project consists of three main research activities: 1) identify existing frameworks in use and missing gaps through comprehensive literature review and stakeholder interviews; 2) selecting appropriate key performance metrics at the project and task level to test their relevance and usefulness on offsite and onsite construction projects (using residential projects as case studies); and 3) triangulating the multi-source project data on the metrics to provide insights to managing project performance and deriving the suggested performance framework. The project outcomes, including the case study comparison findings and the suggested performance framework, will help de-risk and provide empirical evidence to the whole construction value chain. The framework can be leveraged to conduct similar studies across the country to build a database and to set future benchmarks that can be used to further improve productivity in the construction sector through off-site solutions, increased automation, adoption of digital technologies, improved collaborative project delivery and the reduction of waste.