Quantified Impacts of Project Change
Publication: Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 133, Issue 1
Abstract
Changes almost always occur on construction projects. Among other things, they can hurt labor productivity. The relationship between change and labor productivity, though commonly acknowledged, is not well understood. In this paper, such causal linkages are illustrated to capture the interactions of changes, disruptions, productivity losses, and the responsible parties. They go an extra step from the current mechanism of changes, disruptions, and inefficiency to underline the critical role of causing parties in cumulative impacts. From these causal linkages it is visible that: (1) even when disruptions are initially caused by one party (e.g., the owner), the other party (e.g., the contractor) may be able to reduce or escalate the disruptions and inefficiency throughout the course of work; and (2) productivity losses rarely result from a single causing factor but multiple and concurrent ones for which both parties can be responsible. Also, the methods available for quantifying lost productivity are systemized in this paper to visualize relationships among uncertainty, effort and expertise to use, and the level of contemporaneous project documentation required of these methods. A conceptual framework is also proposed herein to help project participants match the relevant quantifying analysis with their project circumstances.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Ackermann, F., Eden, C., and Williams, T. (1997). “Modeling for litigation: Mixing qualitative and quantitative approaches.” Interfaces, 27, 48–65.
Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE) International, Inc. (2004). “Estimating lost labor productivity in construction claims.” AACE International Recommended Practice No. 25R-03.
Borcherding, J. D., and Alarcon, L. F. (1991). “Quantitative effects on productivity.” Constr. Lawyer, 11(1).
Calvey, T. T., and Zollinger, W. R. (2003). “Measured mile labor analysis.” AACE Int. Transactions, EST.03, 1-6.
Cooper, K. G. (1980). “Naval ship production: A claim settled and a framework built.” Interfaces, 10(6), 20–36.
Diekmann, J. E., and Nelson, M. C. (1985). “Construction claims: Frequency and severity.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 111(1), 74–81.
Eden, C., Williams, T., and Ackermann, F. (2005). “Analysing project cost overruns: Comparing the ‘measured mile’ analysis and system dynamics modelling.” Int. J. Proj. Manage., 23, 135–139.
Eden, C., Williams, T., Ackermann, F., and Howick, S. (2000). “On the nature of disruption and delay.” J. Oper. Res. Soc. Jpn., 51, 291–300.
Finke, M. R. (1998a). “A better way to estimate and mitigate disruption.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 124(6), 490–497.
Finke, M. R. (1998b). “Statistical evaluations of measured mile productivity claims.” Cost Eng., 40(12), 28–30.
Forrester, J. (1961). Industrial dynamics, Pegasus Communications, Waltham, Mass.
Gulezian, R., and Samelian, F. (2003). “Baseline determination in construction labor productivity-loss claims.” J. Manage. Eng., 19(4), 160–165.
Halligan, D. W., Demsetz, L. A., Brown, J. D., and Pace, C. B. (1994). “Action-response model and loss of productivity in construction.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 120(1), 47–64.
Hanna, A. S., Camlic, R., Peterson, P. A., and Lee, M. J. (2004). “Cumulative effect of project changes for electrical and mechanical construction.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 130(6), 762–771.
Hanna, A. S., Lotfallah, W. B., and Lee, M. J. (2002). “Statistical-fuzzy approach to quantify cumulative impact of change orders.” J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 16(4), 252–258.
Hanna, A. S., Russell, J. S., Gotzion, T. W., and Nordheim, E. V. (1999a). “Impact of change orders on labor efficiency for mechanical construction.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 125(3), 176–184.
Hanna, A. S., Russell, J. S., and Vandenberg, P. J. (1999b). “The impact of change orders on mechanical construction labour efficiency.” Constr. Manage. Econom., 17(6), 721–730.
Howick, S. (2005). “Using system dynamics models with litigation audiences.” Eur. J. Oper. Res., 162, 239–250.
Ibbs, C. W. (1997). “Quantitative impacts of project change: Size issues.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 123(3), 308–311.
Ibbs, C. W., and Allen, W. E. (1995). “Quantitative impacts of project change.” Source Document 108, Construction Industry Institute, Univ. of Texas at Austin, Austin, Tex.
Ibbs, W. (2005). “Impact of change’s timing on labor productivity.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 131(11), 1219–1223.
Ibbs, W., and Liu, M. (2005a). “Improved measured mile analysis technique.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 131(12), 1249–1256.
Ibbs, W., and Liu, M. (2005b). “System dynamic modeling of delay and disruption claims.” Cost Eng., 47(6), 12–15.
Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC). (2001). “Review of construction costs and time schedules for Virginia highway projects.” House Document No. 31, Commonwealth of Virginia.
Jones, R. M. (2001). “Lost productivity: Claims for cumulative impact of multiple change orders.” Public Contract Law J., 31(1), 1–46.
Jones, R. M. (2003). “Update on proving and pricing inefficiency claims.” Constr. Lawyer, Summer, 3–11.
Klanac, G. P., and Nelson, E. L. (2004). “Trends in construction lost productivity claims.” J. Profl. Issues Eng. Educ. Pract., 130(3), 226–236.
Leonard, C. A. (1987). “The effect of change orders on productivity.” Revay Rep., 6(2), 1–4.
Loulakis, M. C., and Santiago, S. J. (1999). “Getting the most out of your ‘measured mile’ approach.” Civ. Eng. (N.Y.), 69(11), 69.
Mechanical Contractors Association of America (MCAA). (1994). “Fac-tors affecting labor productivity.” Labor estimating manual, bulletin No. PD2, Rockville, Md., 1–3.
Moselhi, O., Assem, I., and El-Rayes, K. (2005). “Change orders impact on labor productivity.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 131(3), 354–359.
Nguyen, L. D., and Ogunlana, S. O. (2005). “Modeling the dynamics of an infrastructure project.” Comput. Aided Civ. Infrastruct. Eng., 20(4), 265–279.
Oglesby, C. H., Parker, H. W., and Howell, G. A. (1989). Productivity improvement in construction, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Orczyk, J. J. (2002). “Skills and knowledge of cost engineering: Change management.” AACE Int. 46th Annual Meeting, Portland, Ore.
Richardson, G., and Pugh, A. (1981). Introduction to system dynamics modeling with dynamo, Pegasus Communications, Waltham, Mass.
Revay, S. O. (2003). “Coping with changes.” AACE Int. Transactions, CDR.25, 1–7.
Sanders, M. C., and Nagata, M. F. (2003). “Assessing methodologies for quantifying lost productivity.” AACE Int. Transactions, CDR.18, 1–8.
Schwartzkopf, W. (1995). Calculating lost labor productivity in construction claims, Wiley, New York.
Semple, C., Hartman, F. T., and Jergeas, G. (1994). “Construction claims and disputes: Causes and cost/time overruns.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 120(4), 785–795.
Sterman, J. D. (2000). Business dynamics, system thinking, and modeling for a complex world, Irwin McGraw-Hill, New York.
Thomas, H. R. (1991). “Labor productivity and work sampling: The bottom line.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 117(3), 423–444.
Thomas, H. R. (2005a). “The baseline analysis.” Construction claims online, WPL, 3(6).
Thomas, H. R. (2005b). “Causation and cause-effect analyses.” Construction claims online, WPL, 3(4).
Thomas, H. R., and Napolitan, C. L. (1995). “Quantitative effects of construction changes on labor productivity.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 121(3), 290–296.
Thomas, H. R., and Raynar, K. A. (1997). “Schedule overtime and labor productivity: Quantitative analysis.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 123(2), 181–188.
Thomas, H. R., and Sakarcan, A. S. (1994). “Forecasting labor productivity using factor model.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 120(1), 228–239.
Thomas, H. R., and Sanvido, V. E. (2000). “Quantification of losses caused by labor inefficiencies: Where is the elusive measured mile?” Constr. Law Bus., 1.
Thomas, H. R., and Završki, I. (1999). “Construction baseline productivity: Theory and practice.” J. Constr. Eng. Manage., 125(5), 295–303.
Williams, T. M., Ackermann, F., and Eden, C. (2003). “Structuring a disruption and delay claim.” Eur. J. Oper. Res., 148, 192–204.
Zink, D. A. (1986). “The measured mile: Proving construction inefficiency costs.” Cost Eng., 28(4), 19–21.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice
Volume 133 • Issue 1 • January 2007
Pages: 45 - 52
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: Sep 8, 2005
Accepted: Jul 10, 2006
Published online: Jan 1, 2007
Published in print: Jan 2007
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.