Masonry Magazine August 1999 Page. 15
Construction Delay
Handling & Avoiding the Inevitable
by Steve S. Saucerman
Ask a contractor: "What's the most frustrating part of your job?", and nine times out of ten, the response will be: dealing with construction delays. Interruptions in project schedule are a killer - and not just because they create ulcers for the project superintendent. Delay is deadly because it invariably requires extra time, extra attention, and extra labor by the contractor to correct the delay all of which cost time & money.
Now, spending money's not a bad thing if you'd planned on spending it. Unfortunately, most of the cost expended correcting delay is (probably) unaccounted for during estimating- and therefore absorbed as loss.
Delay is a slippery thief silently, steadily encroaching on the bottom line. Sometimes it's easy to spot- maybe stoppage caused by a busted hose on a backhoe but other times, delay isn't so discernable, perhaps manifesting itself as a lost hour waiting for a generator or a worker chronically showing up late to work.
The Effects of Delay
Delay affects a job in many different ways. The loss of money through expended man-hours is easy to visualize, but what about the negative impact on morale and productivity? Let's look at an example: Imagine you're a superintendent overseeing a million-dollar project and you have the enviable day-to-day responsibility of coordinating perhaps 16-20 different skilled trades (in different unions), scores of workers, and perhaps hundreds of material deliveries for your project. Broken into a sweat yet? Good... read on!
Now, let's suppose that every one of the individual skilled-trade people has their own agendas, attitudes, and opinions (of which they're seldom afraid to share) regarding virtually everything effecting their work. Now, during the course of a construction project, the interaction between these variable parties can grow to be quite tense and quite enlightening (if you happen to be an anthropologist studying de-evolution of man). Even on a normal day, a typical exchange between say an electrician and the super may go something like this:
Electrician (to super): "Hey - you! There's a hundred g*@-d*#* carpenter guys in my way and there's no g d# way I can get any of my g*@-d*#* pipe in the g*@-d*#* ceiling until
Super (to himself): God, I need a drink! Getting a little warm in here? Our superintendent has certainly got his hands full and this is just a fraction of his duties. Keep in mind that the owner, architect, and perhaps his own employer, are making almost daily changes to the scope of work - many of which have to be priced, argued over, and approved before proceeding.
Now remember, this is a normal (now there's an oxymoron) commercial building situation. Now imagine what happens when we introduce unexpected and unanticipated interruptions and delays into the project. Not a pretty picture is it? Let's help our super out.
Like so many things learned in life, the most important tool needed when