Adaptive Mechanism for Water and Wastewater Construction Companies in Coping with the Disruption of Projects Due to Crisis

Abstract

The water and wastewater construction company (WWCC) plays an important role maintaining water sustainability for human. It is a very intricate industry vulnerable to disruptions, delays, and disputes in times of crisis or pandemic. It is a system that has internal interactions on its 5Ms of management such as Man, Material, Machine, Method, and Money that are sensitive to change affected by external environment which in turn affected their current projects. One of the external factors that affected WWCC in the year 2020 is the occurrence of coronavirus covid19. During the pandemic, the global construction industry including WWCC have experienced drastically altered risk environment applied to funding, labor shortages, material delays, suspension, and termination of contracts (Barriere 2020). The pandemic has affected WWCC’s 5Ms of management that ranges that eventually affected the triple constraints of projects such as scope, time, and cost. The study has determined the level of severity of the effect before and during covid19 to WWCC’s 5Ms of management that eventually affected the three interdependent constraints of projects. The data gathered before and during covid19 were compared and ultimately utilized in formulating the adaptive mechanism for WWCC in coping with the disruption of projects during crisis. The adaptive mechanism comprises of the precontemplation and contemplation phases. During pandemic, WWCC has to determine if there is a need for change in their organization. They have to adapt through precontemplation through internal and external scanning and situational analysis in order for them to comprehend and adapt to the change. WWCC upon realizing of the needed change, has to continue with the contemplation stage by utilizing the stop, start and continue (SSC) principle. To be more precise with the implementation of change, WWCC has to exercise pause, focus and identify prior to executing the SSC principle, followed by implementation, action, and maintenance.