Thesis Abstract

<p>               <b>ABSTARCT&nbsp;</b><br></p><p> In construction projects whether small or large scale, in the design and construction phases, contractors and owners face numerous reworks which finally leads to schedule delays and cost overruns. Although studying the causes of the rework has been of interest of many scholars and researchers, they have mainly focused on identifying the entity-based rework indicators. It is pivotal to identify the key project, organizational, and human factors that lead to the rework. Therefore, this study investigated, identified, and prioritized the human, organization, and project-based manageable indicators of rework. In addition, successful strategies which lead to overcoming rework challenges were evaluated. More than 112 previous research were reviewed to identify the leading rework indicators and rank them, based on their frequency of occurrence in the literature. Then, a survey was developed and distributed among experienced practitioners to identify the significant rework leading indicators and successful overcoming strategies. 44 case studies and response from 44 different industrial, infrastructure, and building projects were collected and analyzed. PM’s experience in the construction (6.06%) and design (5.68%) phase, and number of PM staff (5.87%) was evaluated as most weighted indicators. It was concluded that design related issues, a vague scope definition, and owner/client involvement issues are the project-based indicators; ineffective coordination and poor communication are the organizational-based rework indicators; and lack of experience and expertise, level of skill, and experience are the most critical human-based rework indicators. Concluded results were implemented in two construction projects. Reviewing this study will help practitioners identify the causes of rework early in the project to implement suggested best practices to reduce the number of rework cases and mitigate the consequences of rework undesired outcomes. <br></p>

Thesis Overview

<p><b>1.0 INTRODUCTION</b></p><p><b>1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY</b></p><p>Rework are bound to happen in all sort of construction projects. They have great significance or value in a project’s success or failure, as they impact the cost of a project, generate scheduling delays, and fall in productivity. Rework and their reactions or effects vary significantly on the different project because of the uniqueness of each budget; calculated schedule; and availability of resources for planning, such as time, funds, and crew. Rework is usually implemented in order to change the design during the design and construction phases but can be issued for various reasons by the owner or stakeholders. They have a huge potential for making genuine difficulties for proprietors, designers, and contractual worker partners, and may likewise cause clashes among them. Henceforth, it is basic to distinguish the reasons for change orders and measure their effects on the execution of construction projects (Wu et. al 2004, Sunday 2010, Desai 2015; Safapour et al. 2018; Safapour et al. 2019; Safapour and Kermanshachi 2019). Rework negatively affects construction performance and efficiency (Kermanshachi and Rouhanizadeh 2019). According to Baxendale and Schofield (1986), rework can be defined as any change that veers from the agreed upon and signed contract. Ssegawa et al. (2002) expressed that changes of plans or in the construction procedure itself must be normal in light of the multifaceted nature of construction projects and change orders in both the design and construction phases are unavoidable. Along these lines, the construction industry is liable to poor cost management and schedule performance due to design alterations (Ssegawa et al. 2002; Habibi et al. 2018a, 2018b, 2019). In this investigation, through a comprehensive literature review, 124 causes of rework were identified according to the studies of Hsieh et al. (2004), Keane et al. (2010), Love et al. (2012), Forcada et al. (2014), Karthick et al. (2015), Ye et al. (2015), and Safapour and Kermanshachi (2019).&nbsp;</p><p>According to the comprehensive research of CII (2012), of the identified manageable causes for rework, 35 were manageable by implementing BPs during the execution of a construction project. Most of the remaining causes for the rework were attributed to uncontrollable situations (e.g., weather conditions) and the need for more resources, including allocations related to additional management strategies (e.g., owner’s change of schedule because of financial problems). According to explore directed by CII (2012), the usage of BPs aids the administration of attributes related to organizations, projects, and team members. Alluding to the works of Love et al. (2012) and Forcada et al. (2014), the recorded manageable causes of rework were grouped into three primary classes: organization, project, and people. The general objective for this examination is to decide the IMRCs and explore how the usage of suitable BPs decreases the expense of rework, with regards to total budget baseline, related with the difficulties from IMRCs in construction projects; in this manner, this investigation was intended to respond to the accompanying exploration questions:&nbsp;</p><p>1. What are the early IMRCs?&nbsp;</p><p>2. What are the suitable BPs to decrease the cost of rework related with IMRCs?&nbsp;</p><p>The accompanying targets were defined to respond to the exploration questions:&nbsp;</p><p>(1) distinguish potential IMRCs through a review of the existing literature;&nbsp;</p><p>(2) group the recognized IMRCs based on past examinations;&nbsp;</p><p>(3) decide IMRCs with a huge effect on rework through statistical methods;&nbsp;</p><p>(4) research the advantages of actualizing each BP for tending to the issues of IMRCs; and</p><p>&nbsp;(5) figure how much each BP adds to the decrease in the expense of rework in connection to the total contract budget baseline.&nbsp;</p><p>In outline, the capacity to anticipate design changes from the get-go in construction extends altogether benefits industry specialists, explicitly partners (i.e., proprietors, architects, and contractors) and project managers (PMs). Moreover, executing the fitting BPs at the right time aids the administration of undesired results and empowers the decrease in the expense of the rework as it identifies with the expense for the whole project. For example, the scope of a common vast scale project is intricate, and exact elucidation of the scope of the project is embraced at the construction stage. In this way, owners can allocate adequate assets in the pre-planning stage to actualize the fitting strategy. Executing an appropriate strategy results in the early elucidation of the project scope and lessens the requirement for rework of a project. For instance, when designers need adequate abilities or skills in new technology, the execution of a suitable methodology might be helpful for the aversion of design blunders. The paper is sorted out is portrayed. Initial, a Literature review is introduced and the examination approach for this investigation is then depicted with definite case studies and information gathered from 44&nbsp; construction projects. At that point, the procedures utilized and the outcomes from the descriptive data analysis are exhibited. The method for the way huge IMRCs were resolved is tended to. Next, the research discoveries are examined to delineate the manner in which the execution of BPs deals with the expense of rework related to IMRCs. Last, the confirmation of the results of this examination is depicted.&nbsp;</p><p><b>1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM&nbsp;</b></p><p>Throughout the recent twenty years, numerous researchers have attempted to identify the critical causes of rework. Despite the investigation of a few rework indicators, still, there is no definitive list of project, organization, or human based rework indicators in the literature. Moreover, although extensive research has been conducted to identify the manageable causes of rework indicators, few studies have focused on project-based, organization-based or people-based rework indicators. Herein, finding the key causes of rework and change orders in a construction project has been the center of attention in the literature and as a result, the significance of using best practices to reduce rework costs have been neglected by the industry. According to literature, the issue of design errors or changes was mostly examined indicator of rework or change orders in building, infrastructure, and heavy industrial projects.&nbsp;</p><p><b>1.3 SCOPE OF STUDY</b>&nbsp;</p><p>This research is based on finding indicators of manageable rework causes using literature review and categorizing them based on project, organization and human based manageable rework indicators. Significance of each indicator is calculated using statistical analysis and significant successful best practices are implied on significant IMRCs.&nbsp;</p><p><b>1.4 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES</b></p><p>The primary goal of this research is to find indicators of rework and change orders and to use best practices in order to mitigate factors leading to rework. Thus, the objective of this study is to conduct a comprehensive review of related papers written on rework, to provide a list of human, project, and organization rework indicators. For this purpose, this study first critically examined the research efforts pertaining to rework indicators that belong to the project, organization, and human categories. Then, the effectiveness assessment methods that were used in the reviewed journal articles to collect the rework indicators were studied. Next, the most frequently mentioned human, organization, and project-based rework indicators were investigated and listed. In summary, the ability to predict potential causes of rework early in the design and construction phases offers significant benefits to industry practitioners and project managers.&nbsp;</p><p><b>1.5 RESEARCH&nbsp;HYPOTHESES</b></p><p>To identify the early rework or change order indicators that truly affect the project cost, the cost of the issued rework was normalized on the bases of project size. Details about statistical tests, methods and the weight of best practices were discussed in the data analysis section. The main research hypothesis was proposed to statistically determine significant indicators of rework.&nbsp;</p><p>The hypothesis is as follows:&nbsp;</p><p>Null Hypothesis (H0) – The identified indicators of manageable rework causes are not significant in the construction phases of a project.&nbsp;</p><p>Alternative Hypothesis (H1) – The identified indicators of manageable rework causes are significant in the construction phases of a project.&nbsp;</p><p>The second research hypothesis of this research is to examine if identified best practices truly reduce the cost of rework associated with indicators of manageable reworks. Like the first hypothesis, if any of the best practices were not statistically significant for reducing the cost of rework associated with rework indicators, it was excluded from the list. The following research hypothesis was proposed:&nbsp;</p><p>Null Hypothesis (H0) – The identified best practices are not significant in reducing the cost of rework associated with their indicators.&nbsp;</p><p>Alternative Hypothesis (H1) – The identified best practices are significant in reducing the cost of rework associated with their indicators.&nbsp;</p><p><b>1.6 EXPECTED OUTCOME</b></p><p>List of significant indicators of manageable rework causes is obtained and prioritized based on project, people and organization. Successful strategies are suggested for different IMRCs and their significance and effectiveness will be evaluated.&nbsp;</p><p><b>1.7 CONTRIBUTION&nbsp;</b></p><p>The findings of this study not only can help construction practitioners to identify the most significant rework or change order indicators and the appropriate best practices available to reduce cost, but also will enable them to make proper decisions in difficulties faced due to rework or change orders in a construction project. Furthermore, these findings help construction experts to allocate their resources and consideration into relevant activities and other affecting factors saving a large amount of time and money. The findings of this study also provide guidance for academic scholars to conduct further research and give insight on rework and change order indicators in other construction projects including airports, ports and entertainment projects and find best practices for these mitigating factors.&nbsp;</p><p><b>1.8 THESIS LAYOUT&nbsp;</b></p><p>In summary, chapter 1 of this thesis gives a general introduction about the importance of the research topic and the problem statement, objectives, research hypothesis and contributions of this research for future work.&nbsp;</p><p>Chapter 2 provides an extensive literature review about the past efforts for identification of rework and change order indicators and their best practices in a different sector of industries.&nbsp;</p><p>Chapter 3 explains the research methodology.&nbsp;</p><p>A vast range of data and information were collected through literature reviews and case studies of different projects and classified based on different factors like based on industry type in chapter 4.&nbsp;</p><p>In chapter 5, different data analyses are utilized to determine the significance of different indicators and best practices to reduce cost.&nbsp;</p><p>Finally, in chapter 6 conclusion is drawn and recommendations are given for future studies. It should be noted that the complete list of the rework and change order indicators and abbreviations used in this study are presented in the appendix B section of the research.&nbsp;</p>