Productivity of multi-trade support for installation of mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems in construction industry
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Journal Title
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Insinööritieteiden korkeakoulu |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2022-08-22
Department
Major/Subject
Production Engineering
Mcode
Degree programme
Master's Programme in Mechanical Engineering (MEC)
Language
en
Pages
85 + 1
Series
Abstract
Construction industry’s productivity growth and the lack of it has been widely discussed in Finland during the last years. Productivity of construction industry has been nearly flat for decades without remarkable improvements. Productivity has been studied and areas of development recognized, but implementing the suggested solutions is either not done or solutions are not efficient. Productivity growth has been argued to be partially lost to increased demands and the increase in complexity of buildings. Inspired by the poor productivity development, this thesis clarifies the current state of mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) sector, phenomena affecting to productivity and benefits of multi-trade MEP supports in large construction projects. In addition to literature review, study included interview research, which was performed to recognize main issues related to multi-trade MEP supports. In addition, MEP installation method comparison tests were done to compare the differences in work productivity by changing the installation method. Literature review focused to find latest information about MEP sectors productivity barriers and enablers. Empirical case study recognized clear issues related to MEP supports, which were: owner’s role in dividing responsi-bilities related to MEP, state of MEP engineering and issues of MEP engineering. MEP installation tests proved that multi-trade method can increase the productivity of construction project and especially MEP project. Areas for development of MEP processes and engineering MEP supports are found in the thesis. Project owners should define responsibilities related to MEP support engineering, sourcing and installation in bidding letters and contracts. MEP engineering should include support engineering as a separate task to make the MEP design feasible. Role of MEP engineering should be raised, and decisions related to MEP systems done earlier to avoid unnecessary over-lapping of design and construction. In large projects it is beneficial to utilize multi-trade support on MEP corridors and riser shafts, since multi-trade in-stallation method increases MEP installation work productivity by 18 %. MEP contractor can increase their work productivity by even 50 % by utilizing pre-installed multi-trade supports.Description
Supervisor
Partanen, JouniThesis advisor
Kiuru, MikaelKeywords
MEP, multi-trade, productivity, MEP engineering, construction productivity