Abstract
The price of construction project delays is too substantial to pay. Electrical construction is a critical activity influencing project completion, but research on its delay factors was limited. Aimed at contributing knowledge to this niche area, a study was conducted in Hong Kong. 56 delay factors, in 10 groups, were found with electrical construction. Processing the data of a survey on 64 consultants and 68 contractors revealed “insufficient labour”, “late decision making of client” and “insufficient electrical contractor” as the top delay factors. Strong agreements on the importance rankings of the delay factors existed between the consultant and contractor groups, and the principal factor components were “incompetent project team members”, “lack of skillful labour” and “poor on-site planning”. Besides discussing the common problems underlying the delay factors, recommendations were made for avoiding the problems. An understanding of the delay factors would help construction stakeholders in taking proactive measures to prevent project delay. The approach of the study can serve as reference for similar, future research in construction management.
Highlights
The traditional philosophy in project management places a great deal of emphasis on the extent to which the planned progress and outcome of projects are fulfilled
The results showed that “improper site co-ordination and management of electrical and mechanical installations”, “late decision making of the client” and “insufficient project staff” were the major delay factors
As a typical critical path activity in construction projects, electrical installation has to be completed on schedule in order not to cause project delay
Summary
The traditional philosophy in project management places a great deal of emphasis on the extent to which the planned progress and outcome of projects are fulfilled. I.e. time overruns beyond the prescribed project completion date (Assaf, Al-Hejji 2006), are invariably common in the construction industry. These often result in the overrun of the construction budget allocated at project inception as well as the delay of potential income that could be obtained within the operation of constructed facilities (Kazaz et al 2012). Any late completion of such events in the critical path of a construction programme would result in an overall project delay. Identification of their delay factors, is of vital importance in ensuring timely project completion (Fong et al 2006; Odeh, Battaineh 2002)
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