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A Concern for improving quality and reducing material waste prompted one firm to develop an incentive plan for their craft workers.

Incentive Plans for Mexican Construction Workers

Salvador Garcia, et al

The aim is to reduce the waste of material while improving the quality of the finished work. They focussed on exterior wall construction. This included construction of block wall, the application of external stucco, and the application of internal plaster. They studied workers and then developed an index of productivity linked to quality standards. They developed a bonus plan that could increase base wage by as much as 45% for meeting all the quality standards while productivity was 40% above expected.

"Place attention on providing more homes rather than the productivity of the application of stucco"

Adopting this incentive approach increased productivity 30% and while achieving 3 of the 5 quality standards. Incentives were applied both on individuals and small crews. One surprising conclusion was they think they could make further progress with reducing material waste and increasing quality by providing incentives for architects and construction managers.

They are considering adding safety aspects to the incentive approaches. Currently, the head of the work is bonused on safety and housekeeping.

I wonder how this paper got on the agenda. It doesn't appear to advance our concerns for advancing lean project delivery approaches. Rafael Sacks wondered, too, about local incentives. He suggested that we should place our attention on providing more homes rather than the productivity of the application of stucco. He urged us to look at linking the throughput objectives to the compensation of workers.