Put a number on lost productivity.
Overtime, stacking, and disruption quietly erode output. Explore all three accepted methods, from your own measured mile to the published MCAA overtime curve, and price the loss in hours and dollars.
There are three accepted ways to prove lost productivity, strongest first:
- 1. Measured mile — compare an unimpacted stretch of the job to the impacted stretch on the same work. Most defensible, drawn from your own data.
- 2. Industry studies — apply a published loss factor (the MCAA overtime curve) when no clean baseline exists.
- 3. Total cost — the weakest fallback: actual cost minus bid. Use only when the first two are impossible.
Switch methods in the explorer below to see the same loss three ways.
Your measured mile
of your baseline output, lost in the impacted stretch
Finding your measured mile is the hard part. POD already has it.
The measured-mile method lives or dies on clean baseline data. POD reads the daily reports and hours your team already produces, so the unimpacted and impacted periods are already recorded, ready to defend a productivity claim instead of reconstructing one after the fact.
Why measured mile wins
Both periods come from the same crew, same job, same scope. That removes the argument that the loss was your own fault, which is why courts and boards prefer it.
The MCAA curve
When there is no clean baseline, MCAA Bulletin OT1 synthesizes four overtime studies into a loss factor that climbs with weekly hours and consecutive weeks. Weaker than a real mile, but defensible.
The math
Efficiency = impacted ÷ baseline rate. Lost hours = impacted hours × (1 − efficiency). Lost cost = lost hours × your burdened rate.
Questions & answers
The measured-mile method compares productivity during an unimpacted period of a project against productivity during the impacted period on the same type of work. Because both periods come from the same job, it is the most widely accepted way to quantify lost productivity and is preferred in claims and disputes.
Method & sources
The measured mile compares an unimpacted baseline against the impacted period on the same work — the most defensible loss method because it uses your own good production as the yardstick. The industry-study option applies the MCAA overtime productivity curve; the values between week 1 and week 10 are interpolated between MCAA's published anchor points and disclosed as such, an estimate applied to your hours rather than a measurement of your crew. Total cost is shown only as the weakest fallback.
Sources: MCAA Bulletin OT1 Revised (2011) — overtime productivity · Business Roundtable Report C-2 (1980) — Scheduled Overtime Effect · AACE International RP 25R-03 (loss of productivity) · US Army Corps of Engineers — Modification Impact Evaluation Guide
Methodology reviewed by the Plan of Day construction team · July 2026
A baseline you can defend beats a number we make up.
Document the loss as it happens.
POD turns the reports you already produce into a live record of hours and output, so your measured mile is captured in real time, not rebuilt under deadline.
Last updated: July 2026