3rd year CoTM

INSTITUTE OFOF
UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY
GONDAR

DEPARTMENT OF COTM
CONSTRUCTION PLANNING AND SCHEDULING seminar research

Prepared by:-

No Name F/Name ID No
1. YASICHALEW SEFINEH 01212/09
2. KINDIENEH SHAREW 01250/10
3. MULUGETA GUALU 00866/09
4. YOHANNS HAILU 01269/09
5. GIZIEWORK

Submitted to ins. Abaysew. Submission date

may20/2019
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Table of content

Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENT...................................................................................................................................2
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................3
Keywords:...................................................................................................................................................3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.........................................................................................................................4
Planning the Timing and Sequence of Project Activities..............................................................................5
Project Review.............................................................................................................................................7
Project schedule development.....................................................................................................................8
The literature...............................................................................................................................................8
Objective of the Study.................................................................................................................................8
Literature Review....................................................................................................................................8
They have classified them into three groups..........................................................................................10
Data Analysis.............................................................................................................................................11
Classifications:..........................................................................................................................................11
Financial................................................................................................................................................13
Material shortage..................................................................................................................................13
Scheduling and controlling....................................................................................................................14
Contractual relationship........................................................................................................................14
Changes.................................................................................................................................................14
Equipment.............................................................................................................................................14
Environment..........................................................................................................................................14
DELAY FACTORS.........................................................................................................................................15
EFFECTS OF DELAY.....................................................................................................................................16
Summary and Conclusion..........................................................................................................................17
CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................................18
RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................................................................................20
Reference..................................................................................................................................................21

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT

First of all we would like to thank our teacher ABAYSEW in order to give this project PROJECT to
know detail knowledge and understanding about the problems cause, effects and its recommended
remedies action about scheduling on different construction project especially in building construction
project. And we thank you different site engineers to accept our question papers politely and support
different materials for example stump and information about scheduling on construction project.

SCHEDULING PROBLEM CAUSE AND ITS IMPACT ON BUILDING PROJECT

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Abstract
This study investigates the causes of delay of building construction projects to determine the most
important according to the key project participants; clients, consultants, and contractors. Thirty-two
possible causes of delay were identified from the literature and semi-structured interviews of 15 key
players in the implementation process.
These delay factors were further categorised into nine major groups. The list of delay causes was
subjected to a questionnaire survey for the identification of the most important causes of delay.
The field survey included 130 respondents made up of 39 contractors, 37 clients and 54 consultants.
The relative importance of the individual causes and the groups were calculated and ranked by their
relative importance index.
The overall results of the study indicate that the respondents generally agree that financial group factors
ranked highest among the major factors causing delay in construction projects.
. The financial group factors were delay in honouring payment certificates, difficulty in accessing credit
and fluctuation in prices.
Materials group factors are second followed by scheduling and controlling factors.
Keywords: Building construction projects, Delay causes

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The review of related works was done first and then the opinions and views of construction experts
were taken. The questionnaire survey was done on the behalf of the delay causes. There were two
parts of the questionnaire, Part A Par B. Part A asked about the respondent’s personal information,
whether he is client, consultant, contractor, subcontractor etc and how much work experiences the
respond is, what type of association in which he is working, how much monthly salary of him etc.
Part B asked about the information related to causes and factors of delay in large construction
projects of Pakistan. A survey was conducted through mailed two hundred questionnaire were
distributed in Government, private and semi Government organization out of which one hundred and
twenty were given response and in some organization, I had taken interviews vocally by the labors of
private firms. The respondents were asked about the grading and scoring of the causes and factors of
delay. After the analysis of these, the recommendations were made to counter these problems.

The construction delay is a universal evident reality not only in Gondar. However all the countries
faced this global fact? Construction delay can be defined as execute later than intended planned, or
particular period, or letter than specific time that all the concerned parties agreed for construction
project . Delay in project is counted as a common problem in construction projects. On large level
there is no suspicion that the development of country depends upon its achievement of its advance
plain with elevated construction contents. There is a French dictum “when the construction industry
prospers everything prospers”. Escalation of construction industry is of imperative for all regions of
national and international economy, as well as everyone involved in the industry like contractors,
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workers, financiers, architects, engineers etc. The project’s success depends on meeting objectives
within time and budget limits. Tools and techniques play important role in project management. The
major factor of construction problems is project’s delay. Delay means loss of income according to
and for the owner or client. In case of contractor, delay refers to the higher costs due to longer work
time, labor cost increase and higher fabrication costs. On time completion of project is an indicator of
efficiency. But there are many unpredictable factors and variables resulting from various sources
affecting construction projects. Some main sources are the involvement and performance of parties,
contractual relations, environmental and site conditions, resources availability etc. It is very rare to
see that a construction project is completed on time in this study, we discussed most critical factors
causing delay in large construction projects in Gondar.
The schedule is reviewed regularly, and it is often revised while the project is in progress. It continues to
develop as the project moves forward, changes arise, risks come and go, and new risks are identified. The
schedule essentially transforms the project from a vision to a time-based plan

Planning the Timing and Sequence of Project Activities

Organize your schedule methodically.
Can you imagine starting a long car trip to an unfamiliar destination without a map or navigation system?
You're pretty sure you have to make some turns here and there, but you have no idea when or where, or
how long it will take to get there. You may arrive eventually, but you run the risk of getting lost, and
feeling frustrated, along the way.
Essentially, driving without any idea of how you're going to get there is the same as working on a project
without a schedule. No matter the size or scope of your project, the schedule is a key part of project
management. The schedule tells you when each activity should be done, what has already been
completed, and the sequence in which things need to be finished.
Luckily, drivers have fairly accurate tools they can use. Scheduling, on the other hand, is not an exact
process. It's part estimation, part prediction, and part "educated guessing."
Because of the uncertainty involved, the schedule is reviewed regularly, and it is often revised while the
project is in progress. It continues to develop as the project moves forward, changes arise, risks come and
go, and new risks are identified. The schedule essentially transforms the project from a vision to a time-
based plan.
Schedules also help you do the following:
They provide a basis for you to monitor and control project activities.
They help you determine how best to allocate resources so you can achieve the project goal.
They help you assess how time delays will impact the project.
You can figure out where excess resources are available to allocate to other projects.
They provide a basis to help you track project progress.
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Project managers have a variety of tools to develop a project schedule – from the relatively simple
process of action planning.

For small projects, to use of Gantt Charts and Network Analysis for large projects. Here, we outline the
key tools you will need for schedule development.
Schedule Inputs
You need several types of inputs to create a project schedule:
Personal and project calendars – Understanding working days, shifts, and resource availability is
critical to completing a project schedule.
Description of project scope – From this, you can determine key start and end dates, major assumptions
behind the plan, and key constraints and restrictions. You can also include stakeholder expectations,
which will often determine project milestones.
Project risks – You need to understand these to make sure there's enough extra time to deal with
identified risks – and with unidentified risks (risks are identified with thorough Risk Analysis).
Lists of activities and resource requirements – Again, it's important to determine if there are other
constraints to consider when developing the schedule. Understanding the resource capabilities and
experience you have available – as well as company holidays and staff vacations – will affect the
schedule.
A project manager should be aware of deadlines and resource availability issues that may make the
schedule less flexible.
Scheduling Tools
Here are some tools and techniques for combining these inputs to develop the schedule:
Schedule Network Analysis – This is a graphic representation of the project's activities, the time it takes
to complete them, and the sequence in which they must be done. Project management software is
typically used to create these analyses – Gantt charts
and PERT Charts are common formats.
Critical Path Analysis – This is the process of looking at all of the activities that must be completed, and
calculating the "best line" – or critical path – to take so that you'll complete the project in the minimum
amount of time. The method calculates the earliest and latest possible start and finish times for project
activities, and it estimates the dependencies among them to create a schedule of critical activities and
dates. Learn more about Critical Path Analysis.
Schedule Compression – This tool helps shorten the total duration of a project by decreasing the time
allotted for certain activities. It's done so that you can meet time constraints, and still keep the original
scope of the project. You can use two methods here:
Crashing – This is where you assign more resources to an activity, thus decreasing the time it takes to
complete it. This is based on the assumption that the time you save will offset the added resource costs.
Fast-Tracking – This involves rearranging activities to allow more parallel work. This means that things
you would normally do one after another are now done at the same time. However, do bear in mind that
this approach increases the risk that you'll miss things, or fail to address changes.

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Use of Project Stages:
One of the biggest reasons that projects over-run is that the "final" polishing and error-correction takes
very much longer than anticipated. In this way, projects can seem to be "80% complete" for 80% of the
time! What's worse, these projects can seem to be on schedule until, all of a sudden, they over-run
radically.
A good way of avoiding this is to schedule projects in distinct stages, where final quality, finished
components are delivered at the end of each stage. This way, quality problems can be identified early on,
and rectified before they seriously threaten the project schedule.

Project Review
Once you have outlined the basic schedule, you need to review it to make sure that the timing for each
activity is aligned with the necessary resources. Here are tools commonly used to do this:
"What if" scenario analysis – This method compares and measures the effects of different scenarios on
a project. You use simulations to determine the effects of various adverse, or harmful, assumptions – such
as resources not being available on time, or delays in other areas of the project. You can then measure and
plan for the risks posed in these scenarios.
Resource leveling – Here, you rearrange the sequence of activities to address the possibility of
unavailable resources, and to make sure that excessive demand is not put on resources at any point in
time. If resources are available only in limited quantities, then you change the timing of activities so that
the most critical activities have enough resources.
Critical chain method – This also addresses resource availability. You plan activities using their latest
possible start and finish dates. This adds extra time between activities, which you can then use to manage
work disruptions.
Risk multipliers – Risk is inevitable, so you need to prepare for its impact. Adding extra time to high-
risk activities is one strategy. Another is to add a time multiplier to certain tasks or certain resources to
offset overly optimistic time estimation.
After the initial schedule has been reviewed, and adjustments made, it's a good idea to have other
members of the team review it as well. Include people who will be doing the work – their insights and
assumptions are likely to be particularly accurate and relevant.
Key Points
Scheduling aims to predict the future, and it has to consider many uncertainties and assumptions. As a
result, many people believe it's more of an art than a science.
But whether you're planning a team retreat, or leading a multimillion-dollar IT project, the schedule is a
critical part of your efforts. It identifies and organizes project tasks into a sequence of events that create
the project management plan.
A variety of inputs and tools are used in the scheduling process, all of which are designed to help you
understand your resources, your constraints, and your risks. The end result is a plan that links events in
the best way to complete the project efficiently.
Project schedule development is a key element of project management. Maintaining the project schedule
requires constant attention - keeping it current, as you have rightly put it.

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Schedules also help you do the following:
 They provide a basis for you to monitor and control project activities.
 They help you determine how best to allocate resources so you can achieve the project goal.
 They help you assess how time delays will impact the project.
 You can figure out where excess resources are available to allocate to other projects.
 They provide a basis to help you track project progress.
The literature is replete with studies of construction delays and their negative impact on project success
and company performance and the following objectives:
• To analyse the reasons and factors of project delays
•To classify and evaluate delays, claims and related issues
• To understand, comparing and specifying their issues
Delays are insidious often resulting in time overrun, cost overrun, disputes, litigation, and complete
abandonment of projects.
Many projects are of such a nature that the client will suffer hardship, expense, or loss of revenue if the
work is delayed beyond the time specified in the contract. Then again, delay has cost consequences for
the contractor: standby costs of non-productive workers, supervisors, and equipment, expenses caused by
disrupted construction and material delivery schedules and additional overhead costs.
Consultants, owners, and contractors agreed that project financing, economic and natural conditions and
material supply were the four major categories of causes of delay and cost overrun factors. This
important research leaves a gap which the current study sought to fill, namely to find the causes of delay
in building construction projects.

Objective of the Study

The main objective of this study is to identify the major causes of delays of building construction
projects.
The primary aim is to identify the perceptions of the three main parties regarding the causes of delays and
to suggest possible ways of eradicating or minimising them.

Literature Review
Define delay as an event that causes extended time to complete all or part of a project. Delay may also be
defined as the time overrun, either beyond the date for completion specified by the contract or beyond the
extended contract period where an extension of time has been granted. The type of delay we focus on in
this study is the time overrun beyond the date for completion specified by the contract not considering
whether an extension of time has been granted.
Delay in construction is a global phenomenon affecting not only the construction industry but the overall
economy of countries. Delay involves multiple complex issues all of which are invariably of critical
importance to the parties to the construction contract. These issues concern entitlement to recover costs of
delay or the necessity to prolong the project with the consequential entitlement to recovery costs for
adjustments to the contract schedules. Questions arise as to the causes of delay and the assigning of fault
often evolves into disputes and litigation. Today, many stakeholders in construction are becoming
increasingly concerned about the duration of construction projects because of increasing interest rates,

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inflation, commercial pressures and of course, it’s potential to result in disputes and claims leading to
arbitration or litigation.
Classification of Delay
Delays in construction are caused by several factors. Grouped delays into two categories – internal
causes and external causes. Internal causes arise from the parties to the contract (e.g. contractor, client,
and consultant). External causes, on the other hand, arise from events beyond the control of the parties.
These include the act of God, government action, and material suppliers.
Classifies delay as Follows:
• Excusable but non-compensable delay -these are delays caused by occurrences which are not
attributable to any of the parties.
• Compensable delay - these delays result from acts or omissions of the owner or someone for whose acts
an owner is liable.
• Inexcusable delay - these delays result from a contractor's own fault or his subcontractors or material
suppliers.
Related Studies
A number of studies have been carried out to determine the causes of delay in construction projects. The
causes of delay in residential projects and concluded that financial difficulties faced by the contractor and
too many change orders by the owner are the leading causes of construction delay.
The In most important causes of delay 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 no utilization of professional construction/contractual management.
A few important factors of these construction problems have been identified and they are the following:
Bad Organizational Structure
the construction project management practice’s decision making and procurement processes do not have
the capacity for the current speed and scale demand.
Deficient Communication
The lack of a central data system results to delayed and inconsistent sharing of information and reports.
This leads to subcontractors, contractors, and owners not having a common understanding of the project’s
state at any given time.
Weak Performance Management
Midstream changes, inadequate communication and lack of accountability lead to unresolved issues piling
up.
Non-Universality of Information
when a different team carries over work to a different team for the next process and when a problem
comes up arising from the previous process, the construction project manager may have a hard time
understanding how to proceed. For example, the procurement team deals with complicated contracts and
when a problem with the contracts arise while in the middle of construction, it may confuse the CPM
(construction project management) lead.

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Connection Gaps
planning spans a lot of aspects; it includes high-end preparation and daily tasks. If daily work does not
align with the day’s goal, schedulers should be notified but often are not. This system ends in delays due
to the absence of real-time updating of task priorities.
Poor Short-Term Calculations
another construction issue is that companies are good at planning and forecasting outcomes in the next 3
months but fail to identify and calculate work in the next week or two. This often results in delays that
may be caused by unavailability of an equipment or materials.
Inadequate Risk Management
Construction managers and contractors are usually looking into long-term risks of planning, design,
construction, operations, and maintenance. Risks that just pop up on the job are usually overlooked. These
tiny construction issues may just have a snowball delay in decision making and compound to major
schedule overruns.
Limited Skill Capabilities
another cultural problem in construction is that companies tend to work with previous people and teams
and fail to connect with more capable firms and manpower suited for the job.
The factors that cause delay in construction projects are many and vary from country to country and from
one circumstance to another. However, in developing economies have reported that there are distinctive
problems that cause delays in construction
They have classified them into three groups:
(a) Problems of shortage or inadequacies in industry infrastructure (mainly supply of resources),
(b) Problems caused by clients and consultants and
(c) Problems caused by contractor incompetence/inadequacies.
Data Collection
The data collection process involved two stages. The first stage consisted of literature search for
information on the causes of delay in other countries and non-structured interviews of 15 key players
involved in the implementation process selected by a non-probabilistic snow ball technique. The purpose
of interviewing the key players was essentially to validate a preliminary set of construction delay causes
gleaned from the literature and to determine from their experience other factors which cause construction
delay. To ensure a balanced view, the interviewees consisted of 5 each of contractors, client’s
representatives and consultants.

Respondents Questionnaire Responses Percentage of

Distributed Returned Responses
Client 55 37 67%
Contractors 55 39 71%
Consultants 55 54 98%
Total 165 130 79%

This phase resulted in the identification of thirty-two (32) causes of delay. The second stage involved the
development of questionnaire incorporating the 32 causes of delay identified and data collection. The
questionnaire was organized in the form of an importance scale. Respondents, were asked to indicate by
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ticking a column the relative importance of each of the causes of construction delay (in terms of 4 = ‘very
important’, 3 = ‘important’, 2 = ‘somewhat important’, 1 = ‘not important’). A total of 165
questionnaires were distributed to respondents where the concentration of contractors and consultants is
highest. Fifty-five (55) questionnaires were dispensed to each category of the respondents – clients,
consultants and contractors. The convenience or availability sampling approach was used in the selection
of respondents,

Data Analysis
The survey data consisting of the 32 causes of delay were analyzed and grouped into nine major areas
Classifications: materials, manpower, equipment, financing, environment, changes, government action,
contractual relationships, and scheduling and controlling techniques. Seventh major classification was
‘Government relations’ which these researchers substituted with ‘Government action.’ It was felt that the
relevant causes of delay grouped under this heading could more appropriately be described as actions of
government.

1. Material
• Shortages of materials on site or market
• Late delivery of material

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2. Manpower
 Shortage of unskilled labor
 Shortage of skilled labor
3. Equipment
• Equipment failure or breakdown
• Unskilled equipment operators
4. Financing
Delay in honoring payment certificates
Difficulties in assessing credit
Fluctuation of prices
5. Environmental
 Bad weather conditions
 Unfavorable site conditions
6. Changes
 Client initiated variations
 Necessary variations
 Mistakes in soil investigation
 Poor design
 Foundation conditions encountered on site
7. Government action
Delays in obtaining permit from municipality
Public holidays
Discrepancy between design specification and building code
8. Contractual relations
• Legal disputes
• Insufficient communication between parties
• Poor professional management
• Delay in instructions from consultants
• Delay by subcontractors
9. Scheduling and controlling techniques
 Poor site management
 Poor supervision
 Lack of programmed of works
 Accidents during construction
 Construction methods
 Underestimation of costs of projects
 Underestimation of complexity of projects
 Underestimation of time of completion
Generally, all major stake holders agreed that the top ten most important factors causing delay.
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 Delay in honoring certificates
 Underestimation of the cost of project
 Underestimation of complexity of project
 Difficulty in accessing bank credit
 Poor supervision
 Underestimation of time for completion of projects by contractors
 Shortage of materials
 Poor professional management
 Fluctuation of prices/rising cost of materials
 Poor site management
 Based on the different groups of delay, the respondents generally agreed that the top
three groups of delay are:
 Financial
 Materials
 Scheduling and control.

The following brief discussion is focused on the nine groups of delays in descending order of their
ranking.

Financial
The financial group of delay was ranked highest by all the respondents put together. This result agrees
with found that financial problems are the main factors that cause delay in the construction of
groundwater projects.
Financial difficulties have also been identified as the first major factor causing delay in construction
projects. The inability of clients (building owners) to honor payments on time was determined by all
respondents under the financial group of delays as the first major factor that causes delays in building
construction projects.
It is encouraging to note that clients interviewed also admitted that their inability to provide the needed
funds on time is the most important delay.
Failure to pay contractors regularly for work done impedes progress and causes delay. And failure to
provide adequate funding resources to contractors will make it impossible for contractors to meet project
of objectives.
Material shortage the material group delay factors were ranked the second most important factors
responsible for construction delay. This is not surprising because barring the shortage of material on the
market, the availability of materials on site.

Material shortage
The material group delay factors were ranked the second most important factors responsible for
construction delay. This is not surprising because barring the shortage of material on the market, the
availability of materials on site at the right time and in the right quantities is directly related to the ability
of the client to honour certificates as and when they are due. Liquidity problems make it difficult for
contractors to procure materials. Again, materials suppliers are reluctant to supply materials on credit
because contractors will normally pay suppliers only when they themselves are paid.

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Scheduling and controlling
Contractors, clients, and consultants together ranked scheduling and controlling of work as the third most
crucial factor in the delay of building construction projects with the relative importance index of 0.753,
0.742, and 0.747 respectively. Within this group, contractors ranked occurrence of accidents on site the
most important factor in the delay of construction projects. Clients on the other hand ranked
underestimation of construction costs by contractors the most important. Yet still, consultants ranked
underestimation of time of completion by contractors as the most important delay factor. Put together, this
may be due to the lack of personnel with management and estimating skills within the contractors’
organization. There is abundant anecdotal evidence to support the assertion that many local contractors
are reluctant to employ high level skilled staff, such as University graduates. Indeed, many contractors in
developing countries are entrepreneurs are in the business to make more profit.
Therefore, may not be willing to pay highly skilled staff.

Contractual relationship
Contractual relationship as a delay group was ranked fourth. Within this group, clients and consultants
agreed that poor professional management was the most important factor in the delay of building projects.
On the other hand, contractors ranked delay in the receipt of instructions from consultants the most
important factor. The purpose of conditions of contract which are incorporated in construction contracts is
to amplify and explain the basic obligations of parties to the contract. The conditions also provide the
administrative mechanisms for ensuring that the correct procedures. Unfortunately, there is the perception
that some parties are not very familiar with the conditions of contract resulting in breaches causing delay.

Changes
This delay group factor was ranked fifth. Contractors and clients agreed that within this group, client
initiated variations is the most important delay factor in causing construction delay. However, consultants
ranked poor design highest.

Equipment
The equipment group of delays factor was ranked sixth. It is not surprising that equipment group factors
were ranked among the least important. Construction is labour intensive with basic hand tools and
equipment. The extensive use of major equipment is rare on many projects. Where equipment is required,
the contractors have the option to hire. In the rare cases where some plant and equipment are owned by a
contractor, breakdown is a major delay factor perhaps owing to old age or lack of planned maintenance.

Environment
Clients and consultants both agreed that within the environment group of delay factors, an unfavourable
site condition was a major delay factor. On the other hand, contractors ranked bad weather conditions as
the most important factor. Relatively, environmental conditions as a delay factor is ranked low. Bad
weather conditions are natural events which cannot be controlled by the parties. In Ghana, the effect of
inclement weather on progress may not be significant but needs to be taken into account. The climate is
tropical with wet and dry.
Government action
As a delay group was ranked relatively low. All parties agreed that obtaining approval from the
municipality was the most important factor in this category causing construction delay.
Manpower
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All parties ranked the manpower group factor the lowest. Regarding all the factors in the group, all three
parties ranked shortage of skilled labour high. As indicated by the respondents, shortage of labour is not a
problem in Ghana currently, but there is anecdotal evidence that skilled labour in construction trades is
becoming rarer. This challenge requires construction companies and other stakeholders to take steps to
entice and train youth in carpentry, masonry, and other trades.

DELAY FACTORS
Delays are also caused by some fundamentals and things which go wrong during the construction project.
A sign of delay in work is when contractor do not takes care of the schedule. Delay in completion of
project is also caused by equipment breakdowns and labor disputes. The major factors due to which delay
occur are client problem, service provider problem, sources problem and universal problem.

The client related factors are concerned with client’s type, individuality, experience, financial status,
awareness, organization, construction complexity, confidence, extent and risk dealing. The contractor
related factors are concerned with the contractor’s cash flow, site management, experience,
subcontractors, supervision, information flow and control system. Resource problem are more often
related with dealer, late delivery of equipments, deficiency of workers, non efficient equipment use
during construction, late delivery of materials, inflation, low quality material etc. General problem which
faced during the project are environmental problem, weather problem, ground problem, natural disasters
like earthquake, flood etc. The owner makes some changes during the project delaying the project.
Construction plans can be changed by change of zoning laws causing the delay. The contractor can stop
the work due to late delivery of payments or payments are not on time. The influencing delay factors

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affecting the construction projects are given below.

EFFECTS OF DELAY
Several factors cause the overall delay in the construction project such as some within contractor’s
liability and some are within owner’s liability. It is hard to distinguish due to overlapping nature of the
events that which party or parties are responsible and what ingredients of the delay cause. It is mostly
seen that delay problems are cause of dispute, negotiation, lawsuit, total desertion, litigation and
abandonment. We can say that the parties included in contract through claims agree on the additional
capital and extra time linked with construction delay. The consequences of delay are different for
different parties. The general consequences are the loss of wealth, time and capacity. For owner, delay
means the loss of income and unavailability of facilities. For contractor, delay means the loss of money
for extra spending on equipment and materials and hiring the labor and loss of time.

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Summary and Conclusion

This study focused on delay of construction of building projects in Ghana. The study sought the views of
clients, consultants, and contractors on the relative importance of the factors that cause delays in building
construction projects in Ghana. The study showed that all the three groups of respondents generally
agreed that out of a total of 32 factors the top ten influencing factors in causing delay arranged in
descending order of importance are:
Delay in honouring certificates
Underestimation of the costs of projects
Underestimation of the complexity of projects
Difficulty in accessing bank credit
Poor supervision
Underestimation of time for completion of projects by contractors
Shortage of materials
Poor professional management
Fluctuation of prices/rising cost of materials
Poor site management.

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CONCLUSION
The survey results indicated that the majority of delay factors are relevant to client factor. It is
concluded from survey for dipping in delay client must have strong economical ability and financial
arrangement for project, correctly time decision. He must give proper time and priority on his
construction project and tacking appropriately time verdict. Most factors related to consultant it is
due to not understanding the client necessities, not having proper project information, absence of
some detail in drawing etc. It is examine from survey due to contractor that mostly delay occur
because of deficient in obtaining up-to-date equipments, unwarranted material used in construction.
Due to which cause of dispute occur in construction so it is necessary that excellent material is used
in construction. Providence of material is also most significant causes due to which delay occur in
construction so it is essential that material supply must be in time. From survey it is predicted that
some delay occur in projects due to shortage of labors. There may be variation among labors,
injuries, and low yield of work. In other factors due to which delay occurs are project conditions like
site, complexity, complication in work due to weather. Delay also occurs due to external factor like
change in government, regulation and location etc. Client must be mentally and financially strong for
starting a new project due to which we can reduce delay in projects.

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 Recommended Remedies for Delay

The importance of adequate and timely provision of financial resources in building construction project
management cannot be over emphasised. Adequate finance is the hub around which everything else
revolves.
Everybody and everything connected with construction is adversely affected by lack of sufficient cash
flow. The project is not only delayed but the morale of workers plummet because of non-payment or
irregular payment of wages. Subcontractors and suppliers of materials and components and their
employees are likewise affected.
The challenge to construction managers and of course, clients, is to identify ways to eliminate or at least
reduce the occurrence of financial crisis during the construction process. In that regard, the following
recommendations are made.
• Construction clients must ensure that funds are available or adequate arrangements for funds are made
before projects are started.
• The long and bureaucratic processes involved in honouring payments to contractors in Ghana must be
shortened for efficiency and contractors’ payments must be honoured as and when they due in strict
compliance with the provisions of the contract.
• Contract provisions which allow contractors to claim interest on delayed payments must be strictly
enforced to serve as deterrent to clients.
• The idea of establishing a commercial bank for building and construction is worth revisiting so that
contractors can have access to credit in times of liquidity difficulties.
Again, to overcome some contractors’ ineptitude which correlates directly with delay factors such as
underestimation of cost, time of completion and complexity of projects, poor scheduling and control and
poor site management, the researchers recommend the following actions.
• The Civil Engineering and Building Contractors Association must institute measures to ensure that its
members go through continual education so that the technical and managerial competences of contractors
who belong to it can be improved. The acquisition of a certain number of credit hours in continual
education should be a criterion for membership renewal.
• The Ministry of Works and Water Resources, the body responsible for the registration and classification
of contractors wishing to execute public projects, must insist on its requirement that contractors must
have in their employment certain key technical staff as a condition for registration. Above all, effective
ways must be designed to verify the list of staff produced by contractors in support of their application
and to ensure also that these key staff positions are continually filled by technically competent
individuals.

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RECOMMENDATIONS
To decrease the delay in large construction project following particulars are very significant. It is
suggest that vendor must be give imbursement to contractor at time because it is liability of
contractor to manage the economic record and due to which work growth is efficient. For decreasing
delay in project diminish the change in drawing during the construction. It is necessary for contractor
that by increasing number of labors productivity in construction increased. For reducing delay in
project contractor must have knowledge about his resources strength and obtain up-to-date
Machinery, and try to obtain new equipment for construction. It is contractor liability that he must
manage the capital resources throughout the project and use it appropriately because he doesn’t
countenance economic and cash flow problems. For reducing delay managerial and technical staff
should be acquired for site management and supervision. It is necessary to include skilled and
experienced workers in staff because of them the performance of work is improved. For completion
of project it is necessary that client must be fait on contractor and consultant. In Pakistan mostly
delay occur in large construction projects is change of government due to which construction is
stopped and new government propose new design for construction as well as bill are not easily
passed by new government. We must be use new machinery and getting training and obtaining new
ideas of construction from developed countries like China, Japan etc. Electricity is also issue in
construction due to which many of hours equipments can’t take production and due to which delay
occur in large construction in Ethiopia.

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Reference
1. Construction Project Scheduling and Control Second Edition (Saleh Mubarak)
2. American Institute of Architects, The 2007. General Conditions of the Contract for Construction
3. Oglesby, C., H. Parker, and G. Howell. 1989. Productivity Improvement in Construction. New
York: McGraw-Hill.
4. Site engineer’s

5. PROBLEMS OF PROJECTS AND EFFECTS OF DELAYS IN THE CONSTRUCTION

INDUSTRY OF PAKISTAN

6. S. Al-Kass, M.F. Mazerolle, Harris. Construction delay analysis techniques. Construction management and
economics Vol. 14 (1996), p. 375-394
7. Etc...................................

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