A critical examination of new constructional techniques and their influence on productivity in the building industry with special reference to housing in south-east Scotland
In these notes which follow, an attempt is made
in the first instance to sketch in the background to this
investigation of the effect of new constructional techniques
on productivity. Then in Vol. 2 a representative selection
of new techniques is critically examined, and wherever
possible the effect of the new method on productivity is
discussed. In Part Two the aspects of productivity and cost
are considered more closely by summarising the data already
assembled in Vol. 2 of Part One, together with certain
additional notes and analyses relating to productivity and
cost.The scope of this study is limited to constructional techniques and therefore does not take account of, or
seek to enter into such fruitful fields of enquiry as site
organisation and management, architectural design, etc. In
the early stages of this study it was soon found that it
would indeed be necessary to exercise some discrimination
in the selection of suitable techniques for examination
owing to the bewildering variety of new constructional methods
now being applied in the industry.Occasionally there have been instances where these
enquiries have included a process which is not strictly a process/
L}
process of construction. For example, the packaging of
bricks has been discussed and also a number of mechanical
aids to more productive building. Wherever possible,
however, I have endeavoured to confine my studies to methods
of construction.The scope of this thesis was further limited . by confining all study to new methods employed in house - building. This limitation was applied, firstly because the
housing aspect of the building industry is worthy of a considerable amount of study and secondly because the field
would otherwise have been Duch todlarge for any reasonable
concentration of thought. Indeed, in the study of the
many types of buildings which can properly be described as
houses, the field has been wide enough and it may be that
as a consequence of this, there has perhaps been slightly
more emphasis on the two or three- storey type of house types
rather than multi- storey flats.It was intended that this study should have
special reference to housing in South East Scotland because
it was originally considered that there should be ample
opportunity for site studies in this area. In particular
it was hoped that a certain amount of time and motion
study/
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study might be applied experimentally to a pre = planned scheme
of four- storey maisonettes to be carried out by the Dept. of
Health in Edinburgh during 1955. These maisonettes were to
incorporate a number of interesting techniques of cost - saving construction. It turned out, however, that the
Dept. was not interested in my offer to carry out, partly as
a College project, observations and cost analyses based on
labour expenditure. This was in spite of the fact that the
consultant quantity surveyor for this scheme had said that
he would welcome my assistance in this connection.A substantial number of the techniques which
have been examined do, however, relate to Scottish house - building and wherever possible the examples have been
drawn from the South East area of Scotland. From time to
time it will be noted that Scottish building terms are
used when describing the various constructional processes
or parts of buildings, e.g. scarcement, deafening, rhone,
slapping, etc.; in most instances the meaning of the term
will be obvious from tho text, but where any doubt arises
reference should be made to the Glossary of Scottish
Building Terms included as an Appendix.In a number of instances the critical
examination of new methods has been supported by
laboratory tests or trial, and for the facilities necessary to do this work I am indebted to the Principal and
Governors of the Heriot-Watt College.The difficulties encountered in the study of
the economic aspects of the new methods proved to be far
greater than were anticipated. Many contractors and
others connected with the industry were approached for data
on labour expenditure applied to particular processes, and
in practically all instances there was a complete inability
or unwillingness to provide the desired information. A
similar result was experienced when attempts were made to
obtain a representative selection of priced bills of
quantities relating to house -building work that had included
new building methods designed to save costs. My intention
here was to analyse a substantial number of priced bills on
an elemental basis, but it was possible to obtain only
a relatively small amount of this type of cost data. The
cost analyses based on these data are inserted in Appendix A
to Part 2. Many letters of enquiry were sent to
various contractors, manufacturing firms, architects, etc.,
and some extremely useful information was obtained in this way. But it was quite the exception to receive a prompt
and really informative reTTly to these enquiries. In many
cases the enquiries were siinply ignored - even by a number
of local authority and private architects, who, one might
have thought would have had the courtesy to reply, however
unhelpfully.These difficulties that have been described are
in no way unusual: an extract from the 1956/57 Report of
the Advisory Council on Building Research and Development
reads - "It is difficult to establish the actual cost of
the construction of separate structural components because
few builders outside the largest firms operate exact systems
of cost recording and there is an understandable reluctance
to divulge detailed figures even when they are available;
Government departments suffer from the same reluctance.
In any case it is necessary to find out what kind of cost
data would be most helpful to architects and how such data
would best be compiled ".In spite of this regrettable dearth of detailed
information it has been possible, with the co- operation of
such organisations as the Scottish Special Housing Association
and one or two research- minded contracting firms, together
with personal observation, much reading, and experiment to
make a critical assessment of a selected group of techniques
and in many cases, to publish factual information on
productivity and cost.Some extracts from this thesis have already been
published in the Transactions of the .Royal Institution of
Chartered Surveyors and other technical journals, (copies of
these publications are deposited with this thesis). It is
hoped that a substantial part of the findings in the thesis
will eventually be published in professional and technical
journals and will serve, in a modest way, to inform the
professions and the industry on these vital matters of
productivity and cost
