Delay Analysis within Construction Contracting Organizations

Delayed completion of a construction project is often caused by a complex interaction of a combination of events, some of which are the contractor’s risks and others are the project owner’s. The apportionment of the liability to give effect to the risk allocation has therefore been a matter of great controversy. Many delay analysis methodologies have been developed over the years for performing this task. This paper reports on an empirical study into the current practice in the use of these methodologies in the United Kingdom, as part of a wider study aimed at developing a framework for improving delay claims analysis. The part of the study reported here was based on a questionnaire survey of key informants. The issues investigated include the categories of staff within contracting organizations who contribute to delay claims analyses, the awareness, use and reliability of existing delay analysis methods and the obstacles to their use in practice. The main findings of the study are that: (1) the preparation of delay claims often requires input from commercial managers (quantity surveyors), schedulers, site managers, external claim consultants and estimators; (2) commercial managers have the greatest involvement; (3) claims analyzed using the as-built versus as-planned and the impacted as-planned techniques are often successful although there is considerable literature on the shortcomings of these techniques; and (4) the main obstacles to the use of the methods relates to deficiencies in project records and scheduling practice.     

Isolated Collapsed But-For Delay Analysis Methodology

Schedule delays are common in construction projects. Although many methods have been developed for analyzing and measuring schedule delays for construction projects, each method has functional limitations and use prerequisites. No one method is acceptable for all project participants under all circumstances. This study presents the isolated collapsed but-for (ICBF) method, an innovative delay analysis method for construction projects. During analysis, the ICBF method requires as-planned and as-built schedules as well as identified liability documents with key delay events to perform its analysis approach. Based on its application to an illustrative case and comparisons with other methods, the ICBF method is effective for delay analysis. Results provided by the proposed method can be easily traced to the actual case in an as-built schedule.     

Computerizing ICBF Method for Schedule Delay Analysis

Schedule delay is a common construction dispute. For analyzing schedule delays, a previous study had proposed an academic analysis method, the “isolated collapsed but-for” (ICBF) method. However, because many construction projects involve numerous complex activities, the procedure of using the ICBF method for schedule delay analysis is time-consuming. Therefore, this study used Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) language and spreadsheet techniques to develop an Excel-based program for rapid delay analysis rather than manual calculation. A case study confirmed that the program automatically produces analytical results with only common delay documents (as-planned and as-built schedules and identified delay events). Compared with previous studies, schedule analysts can obtain analysis results quickly and correctly. Research results provide not only a convenient tool for schedule delay analysis but also a guide to computerize various academic delay analysis methods in the future.     

Avoiding and Mitigating Delay and Disruption Claims Conflict: Role of Precontract Negotiation

Delay and disruption claims often generate conflict and contract dispute in the delivery of building and civil engineering projects. If construction delay claims conflict can be avoided or mitigated, there could be substantial financial savings on projects. This study explores the effect of precontract negotiation as a means of avoiding or mitigating delay and disruption claims conflict. The data collection instrument was a structured questionnaire administered face to face on 41 contractors’ personnel on 41 completed projects in Singapore. The data were analyzed using structural modeling with partial least squares estimation approach. The results indicate that when the contractors received an unfavorable outcome from the contract administrator’s decision on their claims for delay, the intensity of conflict was lower when there was precontract negotiation and precontract agreement regarding the rules for quantifying and assessing the impact of anticipated delays than when there was none. It was also discovered that the higher the level of precontract negotiation and precontract agreement on the rules for quantifying and assessing delays, the higher the contractors perceived the quality of the decision-making process for delay claims during the construction phase. Further, the higher the contractors perceived the quality of the decision-making process for delay claims, the lower the intensity of conflict. At the time of entering into contracts, owners and their project management team need to pay more attention to precontract negotiation and agreement with their contractor to clarify and agree on the rules for quantifying and assessing the impact of anticipated delay and disruption. Aspects that require precontract negotiation, agreement, and clarification include: the rules of evidence for claims, the record requirements for claims and the procedure for keeping the records, form of construction program including the software for the preparation of the program and the procedure updating the program, the methodology for analyzing delay claims, formula for quantifying unabsorbed head office overhead component of prolongation cost, the method for quantifying disruption cost, the handling of concurrent delays, profit—whether claimable and the rate of profit to be paid, acceleration—circumstances under which it will be compensated and basis of compensation, and the question of who owns the float. These are, typically, not adequately covered by most standard forms of contracts. The agreements on these matters may be incorporated as part of partnering agreement or as a supplement to the contract agreement. Precontract negotiation, clarity, and agreements could produce instrumental and noninstrumental (social psychological) effects, which could facilitate delay and disruption claims assessment and their resolution. It could mitigate conflict even when the outcomes are unfavorable to a party.     

Construction Delay Computation Method

Delay is one of the most common problems in the construction industry. This paper presents a method for computing activity delays and assessing their contributions to project delay. The method consists of a set of equations, which can be easily coded into a computer program that allows speedy access to project delay information and activity contributions. The proposed method contrasts the as-planned and as-built schedules. It is not based on critical path analyses; therefore, it does not require the calculation or updating of the critical path, and it is even not necessary to update the as-planned schedule, as required by the traditional delay analysis methods. The results calculated from the proposed method include various variations of activity schedules and their contributions (in days) to the overall project delay. They provide an objective baseline for determining responsibilities of delays. The method can be integrated into any delay analysis system to further improve and automate the construction delay analysis process. Practical examples are used to illustrate the computation mechanism.     

Consultants’ Perceptions on Construction Delay Analysis Methodologies

Resolving the delay claims that usually trail delayed completion of construction projects is beset with immense difficulties that often lead to disputes between the parties involved. The research reported in this paper is a part of a wider study aimed at developing a framework for reducing the attendant disputes and aiding cost-efficient dispute resolution. The focus of the part reported here is owner consultants’ perceptions on existing methodologies for analyzing project delay. Based on a survey of U.K. construction consulting organizations, the study examined, among others, the awareness and use of these methodologies, their perceived reliability, expert involvement, and obstacles to their use. The main study findings are: (i) delay analysis is a multidisciplinary task, with the project quantity surveyor often playing the leading role on the owner’s side; (ii) the simpler methodologies are used more often than the complex ones although the former are known to be less reliable than the latter; and (iii) the principal obstacles to the use of the sophisticated methodologies are: lack of adequate project information, the use of programmes not in CPM network form, and poorly updated programmes. It is thus argued that improvement in current programming and record-keeping practices will promote the use of the more reliable methodologies which, in turn, will facilitate smoother resolution of delay claims.     

Method for Calculating Schedule Delay Considering Lost Productivity

A delay claim often occurs when a difference between the actual completion date and the contract completion date exists. The duration of a delay is an essential piece of information required for determining the cause of a delay. However, it is difficult to analyze a delay claim due to the fact that numerous factors that cause this delay, thereby making it a very complex issue. One of such factors is the lost productivity or loss of productivity. Despite the fact that it is one of the major causes of delay, there have been only a few studies that focus on converting lost productivity into delay duration carried out to date. Claims for productivity losses are generally the result of tension between the contractor and the owner. This tension arises due to the great difficulty involved in quantifying disruption effects. Thus, to calculate accurately the delay duration, a logical method for analyzing schedule delay caused by lost productivity is necessary. Therefore, in this study, we propose a method for analyzing construction schedule delay where this lost productivity is taken into consideration. This methodology was implemented on a case project to ascertain its practicability, and to decide whether it can be utilized in the case of a delay claim related to lost productivity. The significance of this paper is twofold. One is the method to convert the lost productivity into the delay duration, which can be applied to reasonable delay claim settlement. The other is the process to analyze the construction schedule delay considering lost productivity.     

Generic Methodology for Analyzing Delay Claims

It is common for a construction project to encounter delays. There are several reasons that can contribute to delaying a project. Analyzing the various causes that contribute to a project's delay is an important task to resolving it. Determining, in a scientific manner, the impact, timing, and the contributing effect of each of those causes to the overall delay should assist in helping the parties settle the delay without litigation. Project participants are becoming more aware of the high costs and risks associated with delay claims and their litigation. Thus, the construction industry needs to develop methodologies and techniques to prevent and more efficiently resolve delay claims. While many practitioners have been following some kind of a methodology for analyzing delay claims, a written exposition of such a methodology is not widely available in the literature. Thus, this paper presents a written exposition of a generic methodology for analyzing delay claims. This methodology has been developed and successfully used, by the writer, in various projects to resolve delay claims. The developed methodology will be illustrated through its application in those projects. Moreover, this methodology shows that while there are several techniques for analyzing delay claims, very few of these can be considered adequate. The use of such an adequate technique is a key in obtaining a fair allocation of the delay responsibility. This paper's methodology utilizes one of these few adequate techniques for analyzing delay claims.     

Fuzzy Approach to Prequalifying Construction Contractors

Construction contractor prequalification (CCPQ) is a crucial decision making process to select capable potential bidders and ensure the success of construction projects. The purpose of CCPQ is to guarantee a contractor’s characteristic to meet the construction project’s requirements, which has been established worldwide as a standard practice. However, existing methods, i.e., marking method, subjective judgment method, etc., for contractor prequalification have been inadequate because it is difficult for decision makers to investigate contractor’s capabilities against inexact, vagueness, and qualitative criteria. The objective of this paper is to propose a fuzzy framework-based fuzzy number theory to solve construction contractor prequalification issues, which include decision criteria analysis, weights assessment, and decision model development. Finally, a case study for a tunnel construction project was used to demonstrate the feasibility of fuzzy approaches.     

Delay Mitigation in the Malaysian Construction Industry

This paper describes the importance of applying proper management in dealing with delays in construction for a growing economy. The main objective of this paper is to identify the management tools that are practiced in the local construction industry in mitigating delay. It also aims to identify the main factors that lead to project delays and to suggest recommendations on how to overcome or mitigate effects of the problem. Data is gathered from responses from questionnaire survey and interviews with those involved in construction project. The surveys and research findings indicate that delay incidents occur mainly during the construction phase of a project and one or more parties usually contribute to delay. This paper highlights the importance of having more experienced and capable construction managers as well as skilled laborers to enable the industry to develop at a faster rate either nationally or internationally.     

Contractors’ Claims Insurance: A Risk Retention Approach

The negative effects of claims and disputes have serious negative impacts on contracting parties, their projects, the construction industry as a whole, and consequently on the nation’s economy. This paper explores a method for mitigating the negative effects associated with contractors’ claims and disputes using a risk retention approach. This method can help contractors in getting early relief from the financial and economic burdens of construction claims. To meet the goals and objectives of this study, the writers have: (1) investigated the feasibility of pricing insurance premiums using the options pricing theory; (2) explored the applicability of modeling the options pricing theory using Monte Carlo simulation; (3) set up the principles required for optimal design of a risk retention group for construction claims; and (4) tested the possible impact of the newly developed risk retention group using historic data of 10,193 construction projects spanning over 12 different California districts. Pursuant to this study, it was verified that construction claims satisfy the required principles for insurance. Also, based on the used testing framework, the developed risk retention group for construction claims has been proved a success from the insured and insurer sides. It is the writers’ hope that this study will lay the basis for a leading risk management technique that could be extended over the nation for the benefit of relieving the negative consequences associated with lengthy claims and disputes resolution in the construction industry.     

Baseline Determination in Construction Labor Productivity-Loss Claims

Various ways of quantifying damages have been applied to productivity loss claims in construction. All of the ways attempt to be as objective as possible based on the extent of information available in a particular case. The measured mile, a widely accepted method, is employed when an unimpacted baseline period of production can be identified. Although that approach is considered to be the most objective method available in such cases, the method is limited and does not directly account for variation in individual productivity values about a normal or natural level of productivity. A gap exists between the use of existing methods and the availability of an appropriate methodology that specifically addresses variation in productivity. The key lies in the way baseline productivity is measured, which is inherently statistical, yet no truly statistical methods are used to establish such a baseline. Using the measured mile as a backdrop, this article provides an objective, measurement-based approach that can be used to establish a productivity baseline applied to construction productivity loss claims, based on the application of statistical methods aided by a process control chart. The focus is on providing the basic principles and concepts underlying the approach presented.     

Causes of Delay in Building Construction Projects in Egypt

Delay in construction projects is considered one of the most common problems causing a multitude of negative effects on the project and its participating parties. This paper aims to identify the main causes of delay in construction projects in Egypt from the point of view of contractors, consultants, and owners. A literature review was conducted to compile a list of delay causes that was purged based on appropriateness to Egypt in seven semistructured interviews. The resulting list of delay causes was subjected to a questionnaire survey for quantitative confirmation and identification of the most important causes of delay. The overall results indicated that the most important causes are: financing by contractor during construction, delays in contractor’s payment by owner, design changes by owner or his agent during construction, partial payments during construction, and nonutilization of professional construction/contractual management. The contractor and owner were found to have opposing views, mostly blaming one another for delays, while the consultant was seen as having a more intermediate view. Results’ analyses suggest that in order to significantly reduce delay a joint effort based on teamwork is required. Furthermore, causes of project delay were discussed based on the type and size of the project.     

Fuzzy Logic Approach for Activity Delay Analysis and Schedule Updating

This paper presents a fuzzy logic model that integrates daily site reporting of activity progress and delays, with a schedule updating and forecasting system for construction project monitoring and control. The model developed assists in the analysis of the effects of delays on a project’s completion date and consists of several components: An as-built database integrated with project scheduling; a list of potential causes for delays; a procedure to categorize delays; a method of estimating delay durations utilizing fuzzy logic; a procedure that updates the schedule; and, a procedure that evaluates the effects and likely consequences of delays on activity progress. This model is of relevance to researchers since it makes a contribution in project scheduling by developing a complete approach for handling the uncertainty inherent in schedule updating and activity delay analysis. It also advances the application of fuzzy logic in construction. It is of relevance to construction industry practitioners since it provides them with a useful technique for incorporating as-built data into the schedule, assessing the impact of delays on the schedule, and updating the schedule to reflect the consequences of delays and corrective actions taken. The use of fuzzy logic in the model allows linguistic and subjective assessments to be made, and thereby suits the actual practices commonly used in industry.     

Analysis Methods in Time-Based Claims

Assessing the impact of delay and resolving disputes are contentious issues since courts and administrative boards do not specify standard delay analysis practices. First, the advantages and disadvantages of widely used delay analysis methods, including the as-planned versus as-built, impact as-planned, collapsed as-built, time impact, and productivity analysis methods are summarized. Fifty-eight claim cases associated with time-based disputes in government work during the 1992–2005 period are extracted and analyzed to observe issues in time-based claims, including the reasons why they occur and the common practices in their resolution. The effects of various factors on the selection of a delay analysis method are examined. These factors include the type of schedule used, the schedule updating practice, the use of existing versus newly created schedules, and the availability of expertise, information, time, and funds. A project management system that makes use of regularly updated network schedules, and that maintains adequate project records should allow a scheduling expert to select a delay analysis method that would make a claim quite convincing.     

Delay Reporting Within Cost Accounting System

There is an imbalance in the visibility of costs of delays in the daily construction site work routine and the costs of overhead expenditures which to a large extent determine the magnitude of these delays. This imbalance frequently means that overhead expenditures are carefully scrutinized while delay costs may be totally ignored. The resulting suboptimization may not result in the lowest total project cost. A procedure is proposed to address this problem. The procedure works within existing cost accounting systems and is a modification of existing foreman-delay survey methods.     

Diffusion of Network Planning in Construction

The history of the use of network analysis in the construction industry is reviewed. The difficulties encountered in the diffusion process from country to country, from industry to industry, and from company to company are examined. Differences between industrialized and developing countries are also considered. It is found that: (1) Research and development activities in the construction industry are inadequate whereas implementation problems in network applications require thorough investigation; (2) the diffusion of networks in developing countries is taking place with a delay when compared to the diffusion in industrialized countries, mainly because of the smaller sizes of companies and projects, limited resources, and because of the inherent higher uncertainty in the construction industry; (3) most civil engineering curricula have recently been revised and incorporate new management topics; and (4) successful introduction of network planning into construction companies, and therefore the rate of diffusion, seem to be directly dependent on the reasons why they were introduced initially.     

Delay Analysis under Multiple Baseline Updates

Windows delay analysis has been recognized as one of the most credible techniques for analyzing construction delays. To overcome some of the drawbacks of windows delay analysis, this paper introduces improvements to a computerized schedule analysis model so that it will produce accurate and repeatable results. The model considers multiple baseline updates due to changes in the durations of the activities and the logical relationships among them, as well as the impact of resource overallocation. The model uses a daily window size in order to consider all fluctuations in the critical path(s) and uses a legible representation of progress information to accurately apportion delays and accelerations among project parties. A simple case study has been implemented to demonstrate the accuracy and usefulness of the proposed delay analysis model. This research is useful for both researchers and practitioners and allows detailed and repeatable analysis of the progress of a construction project in order to facilitate corrective actions and claim analysis.     

Effective Construction Site Management: A Review

The contribution of site management to the achievement of construction performance objectives is examined. Drawing upon existing empirical data and linking them with research findings in the social sciences, the writers argue that there is often insufficient attention paid towards the range of complex and interdependent variables that can influence construction site activity. As a consequence, the predictive capacity of such research is limited, and the recommendations often derived, particularly concerning appropriate managerial actions, often fail to account for significant variability in circumstances. The applicability of the concept of “leadership” to the construction site situation, and its relationship with key component variables are singled out for attention.     

提高管道安装速度的工程实践及认识

应用科学有效的管理办法充分做好施工准备、严格控制进场材料质量和施工质量,尽可能的减少停工、窝工、误工、返工用时,提高施工效率,保证完成施工任务;同时结合现场具体情况采用最佳的施工办法和合理的施工部署,从本质上提高施工速度,按期完成施工任务。