# How to measure a crew's actual productivity > A crew's actual productivity is measured by dividing the quantity executed by the crew-days spent on it. The formula, a full worked example and the mistakes that distort it. - Author: Carlos Pérez (Comandos) — CEO of Paladio - Published: 2026-08-06 - Original: https://usepaladio.com/en/blog/rendimiento-real-cuadrilla/ - Productivity --- A crew's productivity is the amount of work it executes per unit of time and resource. It is calculated by dividing finished work by the days or crew-days it took to produce it, and it is expressed in the same unit as the line item: square metres per crew-day, cubic metres per day, kilograms per man-hour. It is the number that connects what happens on site with the budget and the schedule. Everyone on site has an intuition about whether a crew is performing. The problem is that intuition cannot go into a forecast, cannot be defended in a meeting, and does not tell you whether a line item is going to close at a loss. This article is about turning that intuition into a number. ## The formula There are two ways to express it, and the difference matters, because mixing them is the most common mistake. **Crew productivity** — how much the whole team produces in a day: ``` Quantity executed R_crew = ───────────────────────── Days worked ``` **Productivity per crew-day** — how much each person produces in a day: ``` Quantity executed R_person = ──────────────────────────────── People × Days worked ``` The first one is for scheduling: if you know the crew does 10 m² a day and you have 200 m² left, that is 20 days with that crew. The second is for costing, because the unit price computes labour per unit produced. A third form, more common in industrial erection and structural steel, is **man-hour consumption**, which is the inverse: how many man-hours it costs to produce one unit. It is the same information turned around, and it is better to use whichever convention your unit prices already use than to introduce a new one. ## What you have to measure on site Only three figures, but all three have a catch. 1. **The quantity executed.** It must be in the same unit as the budget line item. If your schedule of rates bills the wall by square metre net of openings, measure net of openings. If you measure gross and compare against a unit price that deducts, your productivity comes out inflated and the surprise arrives when you bill. 2. **The actual crew.** Not the one in the budget: the one that was actually there. If the helper spent half a day supporting another front, that day is not a full crew-day. This is where most measurements get distorted. 3. **The effective days.** Days on which the crew worked on that line item. Days it stood idle waiting for material do not count, nor do days it spent on another front. That last point matters more than it seems. If you include stoppage days you are no longer measuring productivity: you are measuring productivity plus interference, stirred into a single number. And the two are solved in different ways. Low productivity is attacked with method, training or a change of crew. Interference is attacked with logistics and coordination. If you do not separate them, you do not know which of the two problems you have. Keep both numbers: effective productivity and lost days. The second is usually the more expensive finding. ## A full worked example Concrete block wall, unit m². From 3 to 12 June, the masonry crew raises grid line B on level 2. | Figure | Value | |---|---| | Quantity executed and verified | 62 m² | | Crew composition | 1 mason + 1 helper | | Calendar days elapsed | 8 | | Effective days on the line item | 6 | | Days lost for lack of block | 2 | **Crew productivity:** ``` 62 m² ÷ 6 days = 10.3 m² per crew-day ``` **Productivity per person-day:** ``` 62 m² ÷ (2 people × 6 days) = 5.2 m² per person-day ``` **And the uncomfortable figure:** in 8 calendar days, 62 m² were produced — that is 7.75 m² per calendar day. The crew performs at 10.3 but the project advances at 7.75. That 25 % gap is not a productivity problem. It is a supply problem, and it shows up in the schedule even though productivity looks fine. ## The three mistakes that ruin the measurement 1. **Measuring in units other than the schedule of rates.** The classic case: the unit-price analysis says m² of finished wall and the site measures blocks laid. The numbers are not comparable and whatever you conclude will be false. 2. **Not recording the actual crew composition.** When people come and go from the front and nobody writes it down, the denominator is invented. At month-end it gets reconstructed from memory, and memory always rounds in your favour. 3. **Measuring at month-end instead of daily.** If you measure once every thirty days you get an average that hides everything: the good week, the rainy week, the day material ran out. Long averages are comfortable and useless for deciding. Productivity is measured at whatever frequency you want to be able to react. ## What to do with the number Productivity on its own says nothing. It becomes useful when you compare it. **Against your own budget.** That is the comparison that matters, because that is where your cost is. If you budgeted 12 m² per crew-day and you are at 10.3, your labour per square metre is 16 % more expensive than budgeted. Multiply by what is left and you have the projected deviation of the line item — today, not at closeout. **Against the same line item in previous weeks.** The trend says more than the absolute value. A new crew almost always starts below and climbs; if it has been three weeks and it is not climbing, something else is going on. **Against other crews on the same line item under the same conditions.** With the obvious caveat: if one works at ground level and another on level 7 with vertical hauling, the comparison is not valid. ## Frequently asked questions **How often should I measure productivity?** Daily if the line item is on the critical path or represents a large share of the budget. Weekly for the rest. Monthly is useless for deciding: by the time the number arrives, the line item has already closed. **Do I count the whole crew even if only part of it is producing?** Yes, if they are assigned to that front. If the helper spends the day hauling material for the mason, that is part of the cost of producing the wall and belongs in the denominator. What does not belong is anyone who moved to another line item. **What do I do with rain days or stoppages?** Take them out of the productivity calculation and log them separately as lost days, with the cause. They are two different indicators and both matter: one measures productivity, the other measures conditions. Besides, lost days documented with date and cause are the basis of any time-extension claim. **Should productivity improve over time?** Usually yes, through the learning curve, especially on repetitive work. A 10 to 20 % jump between the first weeks and steady state is what you should expect. If after three or four weeks it is still flat and below the unit-price analysis, it is no longer learning. **How do I measure productivity on non-repetitive work?** On one-off work, historical productivity is of little use. There, what helps is measuring progress against planned budgeted man-hours, rather than chasing a unit rate that will never repeat.