THE MEASURED MILE | MULTIPLE IMPACT EVENTS?

WHEN THE MEASURED MILE CONTAINS MULTIPLE IMPACT EVENTS?

Let’s consider a situation in a Measured Mile construction labor productivity analysis wherein both the unimpacted and impacted periods are relatively difficult to identify and quantify:

MULTIPLE IMPACT EVENTS

That same Gulf Coast union piping crew used in the previous example was assigned to fabricate large bore Schedule 80 carbon steel process piping during the winter in an indoor shop. However, from the outset, the crew’s work was impacted to varying degrees by:

1. A move to an outdoor fab shop;

2. Late and unpredictable material deliveries;

3. Design changes;

4. Crew turnover;

5. Changes to crew composition; and,

6. Overtime.

The crew’s production during the impacted period was reduced to 100 weld-inches per day, and the cost account experienced a labor overrun of approximately 33%. In this example, a period of time in the indoor shop might be used as the Measure Mile. Because the cost overrun was caused by multiple events, the challenge for the expert then becomes the allocation of the cost overrun between the parties based on, say, their relative contributions to piping labor cost losses.

EXPLAINING THE MEASURED MILE

There are certain Ph.D.s who would have the industry use linear regression analysis, differential equations or Laplace Transforms to reach mathematical solutions to these construction labor productivity losses. Although their academic peer group, this author and a few other experts may understand the mathematical methodology proposed by these Ph.D.s, there is little, if any, chance that such esoteric analysis would be understood or welcomed by panels, judges or a jury of housewives, truck drivers and insurance salesmen.

Instead, common sense dictates that effective construction experts testifying to construction labor productivity use more easily understood concepts should be used to explain the relative contributions of the parties to the losses. Common sense also dictates that a popular Canadian master’s thesis should not be used blindly to support a claim for construction labor productivity losses due to change order impacts, because, for example, contractors often bid jobs with the hopes in earning all of their job profit from change orders. Similarly, craft labor productivity has been shown to sometimes increase during periods of scheduled overtime.

Disputes in Construction – Holloway Consulting