{"id":28140,"date":"2022-09-19T09:23:03","date_gmt":"2022-09-19T09:23:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/?p=28140"},"modified":"2022-09-19T09:24:46","modified_gmt":"2022-09-19T09:24:46","slug":"how-to-reduce-construction-delays-by-more-than-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/how-to-reduce-construction-delays-by-more-than-20\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Reduce Construction Delays by More than 20%?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- SEO Ultimate Plus (https:\/\/seoultimateplus.com) - Code Inserter module -->\n<script async>(function(s,u,m,o,j,v){j=u.createElement(m);v=u.getElementsByTagName(m)[0];j.async=1;j.src=o;j.dataset.sumoSiteId='b68b392479b5981b8acf46565e9fe32a0734fc21a1f7c1e60121eaa6ca1a1c64';v.parentNode.insertBefore(j,v)})(window,document,'script','\/\/load.sumo.com\/');<\/script>\n<!-- \/SEO Ultimate Plus -->\n\n\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A report by McKinsey and Company shows that construction projects usually incur delays of 20 months on average. As well as an 80 per cent overrun on budget.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even worse, constructors have accepted this as a norm, which isn&#8217;t a good sign.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You can&#8217;t blame them, though. Some inevitable causes of delays include adverse weather or epidemics like COVID-19. But these aren&#8217;t the only causes of delays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Construction delays are mainly brought about by administrative reasons, e.g. legal disputes, unpaid wages, cash flow issues, extra charges on materials, etc.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lack of preparedness is the main reason your construction project will likely be 20 months late.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, how do you minimize delays in construction projects? Well, that&#8217;s what this article is about. We give you every little detail you need to help reduce your budget&#8217;s overruns by at least 20 per cent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Let&#8217;s get right into it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h1><b>Identify Potential Blockers and Delays<\/b><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You must identify potential causes of delays and blockers. What&#8217;s the difference?\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While delays are those events that went in a different direction as planned, blockers are those events you have to complete first before taking the next step.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For example, when it ends up raining, this delays your schedule. A two-day window to pour concrete is pushed back by one or two days.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the other hand, an example of a blocker is scheduling a mason to lay bricks. But you can&#8217;t move forward without having the foundation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You have to understand that construction is sequential. This means some things may not go as planned. You need to anticipate all these situations and plan how you&#8217;ll react to them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take your time identifying every possible delay or blocker. Don&#8217;t stop once the construction is underway. You need to continue identifying other possible scenarios based on the ongoing project.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Examples of delays and blockers include:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additional costs on materials\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Legal disputes\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Labour wages\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Cash flow issues\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Damaged reputation\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Adverse weather\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Terrorism\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Epidemics like COVID-19\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">National strikes\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Delays in permissions from relevant agencies\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perils like floods and tsunami<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1><b>Always Plan Ahead\u00a0<\/b><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Now that you&#8217;ve identified potential delays and blockers, what next?\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The next step is planning. Don&#8217;t wait until the delays happen. You need to find solutions even before the delayed events take place. Make sure you have plan A as a solution and a backup plan if plan A fails.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Most constructors rarely have clear timelines and finalized drawings on how to solve the delays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You ought to have a clear communication strategy with subcontractors. This way, you&#8217;ll find yourself at an impasse whenever delays occur.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The project&#8217;s plan should be exhaustive. And it should include comprehensive details required to complete the construction in time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For a plan to be successful, you need to include contingencies for any unforeseen scenarios. Then create clear guidelines for how you&#8217;ll respond to the delays and blockers.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You should be accounting for every variable that may cause delays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, an overlooked cause of delays is faulty machinery. Make sure you have the latest and up-to-date <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fortishd.com\/shop\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">construction equipment<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This way, you don&#8217;t waste time on repairs and maintenance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>Make Sure the Project Plan is Coordinative<\/b><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You&#8217;ve identified the delays and blockers, and you&#8217;ve even found solutions and decided how you&#8217;ll react to the delays. But is that enough?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nope.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You need to make the project coordinative. What does it mean?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, it simply means it&#8217;s essential for the plan to be inclusive and its web spread across every department. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here&#8217;s when your management skills are tested. How great are you at coordinating the different factions of the construction project? <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You ought to assign roles and responsibilities to each subproject head or supervisor. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Communication between these department heads and ensure nothing goes miscommunicated. Otherwise, wrong info may cause misinterpretation, thus resulting in delays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This helps you save time and money whilst saving on resources. As a construction manager, you should possess the skills to juggle different roles.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>Emphasis on Real-time Digitized Updates\u00a0<\/b><\/h1>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-28142\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/digital.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"512\" height=\"327\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The keyword is &#8220;realtime&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Make sure you&#8217;re keeping track of every little progress made. Have them digitized using the right and appropriate app.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s estimated that constructors waste 40% of their project time on updates, attending meetings, and writing reports.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But when the updates are real-time, there won&#8217;t be any time wastage. This also removes the blame culture where we tend to point fingers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once everyone knows their roles and updates are made as the construction progresses, then you won&#8217;t have to worry about delays.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Digitized updates help the team plan for the following process. Each subcontractor knows what&#8217;s waiting the next day. And thus, plan accordingly.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The updates are also significant evidence of every step made during the construction. It helps avoid unnecessary legal issues that may arise. Evidence will be there if anything needs proving.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Also, the updates act as reference points, which keeps subcontractors and supervisors on the same page.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>Assign Clear Roles to Avoid Confusion\u00a0<\/b><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The last thing you need is confusion regarding the roles of the subcontractors and employees.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You don&#8217;t want Team A assuming that Team B is pouring cement on floors 2 and 3, yet they were only supposed to work on floors 4 and 5.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Such confusion can take you back a few days. Therefore, each role and assignment should be clearly defined.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You ought to understand that construction projects have several employees. If some of the employees don&#8217;t understand their roles, they may end up ignoring specific tasks. Hence delays.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The team supervisors should also have their roles comprehensively designed.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ensure they&#8217;re all accountable. This puts pressure on employees and team supervisors to focus on their duties.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">What if you didn&#8217;t anticipate such confusion initially and only notice it during the project?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The best way is to get the involved people in one room and talk it through. It helps further mitigate delays due to assumptions and ignoring duties.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>Establish a Single Source of Information<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s more or less a reiteration of the digitization concept. But with a human involved.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Working in a sequential project like construction tends to open the door to misunderstandings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As expected, this causes delays. That&#8217;s because each stakeholder has their version of the truth. This is the last thing you need as a project manager. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Assign one person to keep track of everything and everyone. That&#8217;s the sole purpose of this individual.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">He or she keeps track of the real-time updates while monitoring what each team is up to. This makes it easier to solve any issues or misunderstandings.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h1><b>Recap<\/b><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you can see, while some delays are inevitable, most are human errors caused by a lack of better planning and poor management.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You simply need to be systematic and strategic. And always have a real-time update on every little progress you make.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Every team should always be on the same page, as you have a centralized system where you monitor everything. Also, ensure your construction machinery is up to date and well maintained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h6><span style=\"color: #999999;\">Ref: 3023.26584\u00a0<\/span><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A report by McKinsey and Company shows that construction projects usually incur delays of 20 months on average. As well as an 80 per cent overrun on budget.\u00a0 Even worse, constructors have accepted this as a norm, which isn&#8217;t a<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/how-to-reduce-construction-delays-by-more-than-20\/\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":28141,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wl_entities_gutenberg":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","spay_email":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"wl_entity_type":[602],"modified_by":"Editor","_wl_alt_label":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/construction.jpeg","wl:entity_url":"http:\/\/data.wordlift.io\/wl0502\/post\/-28140","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28140"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28145,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28140\/revisions\/28145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28140"},{"taxonomy":"wl_entity_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehouseshop.com\/property-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wl_entity_type?post=28140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}