Masonry Magazine July 1969 Page. 31
Hidden Cost
(Continued from page 29)
showed that after working seven 12-hour days a month, a man's productivity is down to 50 per cent?
Mr. Harlan felt that it depended on the length and the complexity of the job. He said if a crew of men works overtime on a complex job, even with extra supervision, the labor inefficiency will increase to a greater degree than on a simple job that doesn't require as much thinking. As the men become more tired they don't think as fast and the job slows down.
Mr. Zakem felt the figures were a little high because they were derived from jobs that had 50, 60 and 70 men or more. He said, "If you have a job with 8 to 10 men and you work them seven 12-hour days for 28 days, you would have a pretty sizeable deficiency factor, but I don't think it would be in the area of 50 per cent. We kept track of a project that had 8 men on it working six 10's and we experienced a nonproductivity factor of 8 to 12 per cent. So I think the number of men on the job is a big contributing factor."
Rod Turner touched on the subject of productivity factors and what the customers will do about them. He said that even though the customer recognizes there is a nonproductivity factor involved when the job goes on overtime, he wants the job speeded up. But he doesn't want to pay for the nonproductivity.
Some of the contractors reported that they have discussed the nonproductivity factor with customers and insisted on being paid extra to cover it. At that point the customer often decided that he really didn't need to accelerate the schedule quite as much as he had thought.
Another problem, at least in the Detroit area, is that many contracts have clauses that allow someone other than the electrical contractor to put the job on an overtime basis. Mr. Harlan explained, "Many of us have found ourselves with contracts that we had signed giving the owner permission to accelerate the job and pay only the premium wage cost. When they requested that the job be accelerated most of us merely complied with the owner's wishes and did what we could to minimize the cost to ourselves. The only way that we can combat this type of arrangement is to, first, avoid clauses of this sort in the specifications, and second, immediately upon receiving instructions from the owner to go to an overtime basis, ask for a conference and sit down and discuss the problem at that time, rather than working the job and hoping to settle the difference later."
Mr. McFadden suggested that when it looked like a job would require extended overtime, the contractor should include the nonproductivity factor in his bid.
"About the only thing you can do," he added, "is to make the owners and architects realize exactly what they are doing to a contractor when a job goes on overtime. You know, it's funny if they are paying a bill to get a job done and you work a 40-hour week basis, everybody figures they are getting the full benefit of the labor. Then all of a sudden you are working 9 hours a day, five days a week. And pretty soon, you are working five 10-hour days and then the owner comes up and says, let's work a sixth day. After awhile you get used to the pain. You're getting acclimated; you're being brainwashed; you're numb. This is how overtime gets out of hand. It becomes a sneaking cancer that you can never pick out until it's too doggone late and you've had it."
Rod Turner summed up the problem this way: "I don't think we are going to eliminate overtime, and by the same token, I don't think we are going to eliminate the inefficiency created by excessive overtime. But there are some things that could be done either locally or nationally to educate the owners and architects that we do have this problem, we have these increased costs, due to this extended overtime."
All of the contractors interviewed agreed that the real cost of overtime is far more than the immediate hours worked. For instance, although figures are not available, there is the question of what extended overtime does to the contractor's overhead costs back at the shop and office. A contract which provides reimbursement for only a net dollar cost of any overtime required, is going to cost the contractor money.
As Mr. Turner said, overtime cannot be eliminated. But the cost of operating beyond scheduled overtime periods can be conpensated for. This can be achieved by understanding the relationship between overtime and inefficiency and by insisting that contracts include a clause providing for compensation based on an inefficiency factor.
Miss Metric, a bikini-clad brunette, is appearing on posters in Britain to prepare the public for the conversion to the metric system of measures and weights. Her measurement in inches opposite the right places-36-24-36- is compared with the metric equivalent in millimeters-914-610-914. Seems they have made a difficult transition more appealing.
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THE ORIGINAL MESONY ALLENFORCEMENT WITH THE TRUSS DESIGN
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