An assessment to determine the impact of variation related waste on project performance.

Abstract

The construction industry is very complex, uncertain and susceptible to changes and while stakeholders in the construction industry are interested in minimizing costs accruing from it, they are not always mindful of the occurrence of indirect waste on construction projects and little research has been done by construction stakeholders in studying such indirect wastes. The need to understand construction wasteful activities and how they impact project performance was the sole aim of this study which further expounded on the researcher’s pool of knowledge. The major finding of this research was conducted using questionnaires and it was found that wasteful activities and indirect waste actually exist, which affects construction time and costs and construction stakeholders are generally unaware of the occurrence of construction indirect wastes. A strong correlation between variation activities and indirect waste, their occurrence and impact was determined. In conclusion, the study aimed at identifying the impact the of VRW on project performance and was conducted using questionnaires which greatly revealed that wasteful activities do actually occur on construction projects and have an impact on construction cost and time. However, there are no significant approaches to measure such indirect wastes. Recommended sensitization of construction stakeholders is required to make them aware of the presence of indirect wastes on construction projects. Further to this, a detailed study of such wasteful activities must be carried out. KEY WORDS: Variation Related Waste (VRW), Non-Value Adding Activities, Indirect Waste.