The impact of design errors on initial cost of a construction project

Abstract

The construction industry is complex compared to other industries such as manufacturing industries. Therefore, there are different professionals involved and each professional tends to work independently. The architects carry out the design work and leave the construction work to the contractors and consultants. The different professionals tend to always have different interests in terms of cost and design, and this has consistently increased the level of design errors in the industry which has caused increased cost variations. Design errors are unavoidable in any construction project and can adversely affect the cost, schedule and safety, and project performance (Robert & Peter , 2014) . Despite stringent rule sand procedures, regulations, and standards, errors still manage to propagate within the design process (Robert & Peter , 2009). Even at the project level design error costs are rarely measured, although a proclivity exists for them to manifest as change orders or claims (Robert Lopez, 2016.). A large proportion of international rework and non-conformance costs are also directly due to deficiencies in design and contractual documents and in the transfer of information during the design process (Robert & Peter ,