INTRODUCTION
 
 

Work improvement is the analysis of all job tasks in order that the job can be done with less effort, at less cost, in less time, and with greater safety.  The slogan might be to "work smarter, not harder".

There are two major steps to work improvement.  The first is to have a formal system that focuses on details.  The second is to take the operation away from the work area for analysis.

Historically, work improvement techniques have been used very little in the construction industry.  Most firms seem to focus on staying within the budget and not on maximizing profits ("satisficing" vs maximizing).  This fact is probably responsible for the low productivity experienced in the construction industry.  It is estimated that productivity in manufacturing has increased over the years at a rate of 2.6 times faster than did construction productivity.

Is there a good rationale for not using work improvement techniques to a greater extent in construction?  Some critics may contend that construction consists of customized work efforts and that it is not realistic to apply work improvement techniques.  Others say that their crews are only temporal and that they do not want to train workers to do tasks that will later benefit their competitors.

Neither of these reasons are based on a solid foundation.  Construction consists of many repetitive tasks even if the end product might be quite different or customized.  These repetitive tasks include laying bricks, driving nails, finishing concrete, building concrete forms, tying reinforcing steel, erecting steel, etc.  In other words, at the task level, construction work is very repetitive.

The second allegation (competitors benefiting from a contractor's innovations) is also not well-founded.  Workers do tend to stay with their employers over extended time periods. This has been noted in several research studies.  One researcher (de Stwolinski) found that 49% of the workers remained with their employers for over one year.  Another study in the San Francisco Bay area (by Hinze) showed that 66% of the job superintendents said that over half of their workers had transferred with them from a previous job.  In a nation-wide study of utility contractors (by Hinze) it was noted that 92% of the firms kept at least half of their workers for over one year and that 62% kept over 75% of their workers for over one year.  That same study showed that 58% of the firms kept over half of their workers for more than 5 years.  Approximately 20% of the firms kept over 75% of their workers for more than 5 years.  At any rate, workers do tend to stay with their employers and work improvement efforts will surely pay off over a period of time.

THE CALF PATH
Sam Walter Foss

One day through the primeval wood, a calf walked home as good calves should;
But made a trail all bent askew, a crooked trail as all calves do.
Since then three hundred years have fled, and I infer the calf is dead.
But still he left behind his trail, and thereby hangs my moral tale.

The trail was taken up next day, by a lone dog that passed that way;
And then a wise bellwether sheep, pursued the trail o'er vale and steep,
And drew the flock behind him, too, as good bellwethers always do.
And from that day, o'er hill and glade, through those old woods a path was made.

And many men wound in and out, and dodged and turned and bent about,
And uttered words of righteous wrath, because 'twas such a crooked path;
But still they followed - do not laugh - the first migrations of that calf.

And through this winding wood-way stalked, because he wobbled when he walked.
This forest path became a lane, that bent and turned and turned again;
This crooked lane became a road, where many a poor horse with his load,
Toiled on beneath the burning sun, and traveled some three miles in one.

And thus a century and a half, they trod the footsteps of that calf.
The years passed on in swiftness fleet, the road became a village street;
And this, before men were aware, a city's crowded thoroughfare.
And soon the central street was this, of a renowned metropolis;
And men two centuries and a half, trod in the footsteps of that calf.

Each day a hundred thousand men, follow this zigzag calf again,
And o'er his crooked journey went, the traffic of a continent.
A hundred thousand men were led, by one calf near three centuries dead.
They followed still his crooked way, and lost one hundred years a day;
For thus such reverence is lent, to a well-established precedent.

A moral lesson this might teach, were I ordained and called to preach;
For men are prone to go it blind, along the calf-path of the mind,
And work away from sun to sun, to do what other men have done.
They follow in the beaten track, and in and out, and forth and back.
And still their devious course pursue, to keep the path that others do.

They keep the path a sacred groove, along which all their lives they move;
But how the old wood-gods laugh, who first saw the primeval calf.
Ah, many things this tale might teach - but I am not ordained to preach.