A discussion on building technology in the 1980s - Productivity in the building industry

Abstract
This paper sets out to identify the best courses open to the building industry and its clients to obtain higher productivity. Although there is common ground that the concept involves the relationship between inputs and outputs, it eludes precise definition. From the standpoint of this paper productivity is taken to mean the optimum use of resources to obtain an acceptable goal, thus avoiding one contentious aspect of productivity, the relative utility of the goals obtained. High productivity is not, of course, an end in itself. It includes wider issues including the value of the output to society, the quality of life of those engaged in the operations involved and of those affected indirectly by the activity or the outcome, or by both. Single-minded pursuit of higher productivity assumes scarce resources or at least an imbalance between the intentions of an organization and practical achievement. Social benefit from higher productivity is obtained when the resources made available by higher productivity are deployed on the next most important activity, or when work is allocated to share the benefits of higher productivity, e.g. by working shorter hours.

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