05-07-2014, 11:17 AM
Critical Causes of Delay in Residential Construction Projects: Case Study of Central Gujarat Region of India
Critical Causes of Delay in Residential Construction.pdf (Size: 180.72 KB / Downloads: 52)
Abstract
Delays are unique one in every of the largest issues
construction companies are facing today. Delays will result in
several negative effects like lawsuits between house owners and
contractors, exaggerated prices, loss of productivity and revenue,
and contract termination. Thus, comprehensive study on delays
in construction projects is important. Present study works on
identification and ranking of causes of delay in residential
construction projects in Indian context. This paper identifies the
causes of delays in residential construction projects of Indian
construction industry. Total 59 causes were identified under 9
major groups. Total 50 respondents comprises of 20 developers,
17 contractors and 13 architects who participated in this field
survey. This paper suggests an approach to carry out ranking of
causes of delay by two different techniques: Relative importance
index and Importance index based on degree of severity and
degree of frequency and also discuss about the ranking of the
causes. Results were shows that out of top 10 factors total 5
factors were common in ranking by both methods. They were
original contract duration is too short, shortage of labours, delay
in material delivery, low productivity level of labours, delay in
progress payments by owner. Moreover, by both methods labour
related factors ranked first while external factor was considered
having least effect on delay as it is ranked last. All three parties
agreed on that labour related factor was most important while
external factor was least important. It is hoped that the findings
of the paper will help the stakeholders to act on critical causes
and further try to reduce delay of their projects.
INTRODUCTION
In construction, delay could be defined as the time overrun
either beyond completion date specified in a contract or
beyond the date that the parties agreed upon for delivery of a
project. It is a project slipping over its planned schedule and is
considered as common problem in construction projects. To
the owner, delay means loss of revenue through lack of
production facilities and rentable space or a dependence on
present facilities. In some cases, to the contractor, delay
means higher overhead costs because of longer work period,
higher material costs through inflation, and due to labour cost
increases. Completing projects on time is an indicator of
efficiency, but the construction process is subject to many
variables and unpredictable factors, which result from many
sources. These sources include the performance of parties,
resources availability, environmental conditions, involvement
of other parties, and contractual relations. However, it rarely
happens that a project is completed within the specified time.
The Construction industry is large, volatile, and requires
tremendous capital outlays. Typically, the work offers low
rates of return in relation to the amount of risk involved.
Delays on construction projects are a universal
phenomenon. They are almost always accompanied by cost
and time overruns. Construction project delays have an
adverse effect on parties (developer, contractor, and
consultant) to a contract in terms of a growth in adversarial
relationships, distrust, litigation, arbitration, cash-flow
problems, and a general feeling of apprehension towards each
other. So, it is essential to define the actual causes of delay in
order to minimize and avoid the delays in any construction
project.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The delay factors were grouped into six major groups. The
results showed that the large and small contractors generally
agree on the importance ranking of the individual delay
variables. In relation to the groups of the delay variable,
however, the result showed that there is no agreement between
the two groups of contractors. The professional management
group was ranked the highest and the external groups were
ranked the lowest by large contractors. Whereas, small
contractors ranked the design and documentation group as the
highest and the execution group as the lowest.
A survey on time performance of different types of
construction projects in Saudi Arabia was conducted by Assaf
and Hejji (2005)[3] to determine the causes of delay and their
importance according to each of the project participants, i.e.,
the developer, consultant and the contractor. The field survey
conducted included 23 contractors, 19 consultants, and 15
developers. Seventy-three causes of delay were identified
during the research. 76% of the contractors and 56% of the
consultants indicated that average of time overrun is between
10% and 30% of the original duration. The most common
cause of delay identified by all the three parties is ‘‘change
order’’. Surveys concluded that 70% of projects experienced
time overrun and found that 45 out of 76 projects considered
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research methodology for present study contains two
phases. The first phase included a literature search and
interviews. The literature review was conducted through
books, conference proceedings, internet and international
project management journals. As the outcome of this phase,
59 causes of delays for residential construction projects were
identified. These causes were categorise in nine main groups
as: Project related, Owner related, Contractor related,
Consultant related, Design-related, Material related,
Equipment related, Labour related and External factors
depending on their nature and mode of occurrence.
Framework of the causes is given in Appendix I.
The second phase includes preparation of two type of
questionnaire based on two different approach used for giving
ranking to causes of delay of residential construction projects.
Present study suggests two different techniques for ranking of
causes of delay. In first technique Relative Importance Index
(RII) of each cause of delay can be calculated and in second
technique Importance index is calculated as a function of
frequency and severity indices.
DATA COLLECTION
The target population included civil engineering and
buildings construction firms of central Gujarat region of India.
The architects, contractors and developers of various city of
central Gujarat were targeted for survey. The details of
various stakeholders and total numbers of were collected
RESULTS AND FINDINGS
The all ranking indices explained earlier were used to rank
delay causes from viewpoints of the three parties (Developer,
Contractors and Consultants). Total 50 respondents
participated in this survey. These respondents included 20
developers, 17 contractors and 13 architects/ consultant
SUMMARY
The delay in construction projects in India is studied
through field survey. It studied frequency, severity and
importance and relative importance of the causes of delay.
The importance index of each cause is calculated as a product
of both frequency and severity indices of each cause. 59
causes of delay were identified through research. The
identified causes are combined into nine groups. The field
survey included 20 developer, 17 contractors, 13 consultants.
Data collected were analyzed by frequency, severity
importance and relative importance. Results shows that out of
top 10 factors total 5 factors were common in ranking by both
methods. They were Original contract duration is too short,
Shortage of labors, Delay in material delivery, Low
productivity level of labors, Delay in progress payments by
owner. Moreover, by both methods labour related factors were
ranked first while external factors were ranked as last. All
three parties agreed on that labour related factor was most
important while external factor was least important. It is
hoped that the findings of the paper will help the stakeholders
to act on critical causes and further try to reduce delay of their
projects.