Guidelines to Mitigate Schedule Delay, from the Owner's Viewpoint

摘要

This study analyses the problem of schedule delay on US government construction projects in Italy. Similar problems, regarding US construction projects in Europe, have been reported in literature. This analysis was undertaken from the owner's point of view. The purpose of this article is to identify corrective actions that could be implemented by the owner. Experience shows that many projects suffer schedule delay and that this delay mostly occurs during the "initial phase" of the projects, covering a period from five to seven months from contract award. For a typical construction project of a new facility, the "initial phase" of project start up (preliminary activities) includes the structural system erection (foundations, structures erection, slabs). Schedule delay can also accumulate at the end of the structural erection. This can become a great portion of the final project schedule delay. Difficulties in maintaining the schedule from the early stages of project development create the basis for future problems that will also cause further schedule delay. The contractor is then called upon to prepare aggressive recovery schedules. These have a high probability to fail for a combination of factors,that will be discussed in this article. This study analyzes factors causing schedule delays and suggests guidelines that, in the opinion of the author, could mitigate the problems of schedule delays and improve the control of schedules for similar US government projects in Europe. The guidelines are based on a key concept of a different role for the owner who becomes an agent of project management development. The owner then drives the contractor to make strategic choices at the earliest stage of project development. This is done by driving the contractor to implement effective methodologies and techniques of project planning and control. These actions require a different approach to bidding strategy. Although this article has been developed on specific cases of US government project in Europe, many considerations have a general application for project management.