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Study on Factors Influence of Resource Constraints in Time Overrun of

Construction Projects

Article in International Journal of Scientific Research · June 2013

DOI: 10.15373/22778179/JUNE2013/80

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Venkatesh Parath Umarani Gunasekaran

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 Volume : 2 | Issue : 6 | June 2013 • ISSN No 2277 - 8179
Research Paper

Engineering
Study on Factors Influence of Resource
KEYWORDS :
Constraints in Time Overrun of
Construction Projects

M. P. Venkatesh Research Scholar, Division of structural Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering,

Anna University, Chennai-600025, India
C.Umarani Associate Professor , Division of structural Engineering, Department of Civil
Engineering, Anna University, Chennai-600025, India

ABSTRACT Resource constraints plays an important role in Indian construction projects. Effective resource manage-
ment is a prerequisite for project success. This paper aims to identify the factors affecting resource scheduling in
Indian construction projects, in the private and public sectors. From an extensive literature survey and based on experts’ opinion, thirty
three factors affecting resource scheduling were identified. For the quantitative confirmation of the effectiveness of factors affecting
resource scheduling during the construction stage of a project, a questionnaire survey was conducted with construction professionals
like clients, consultants and contractors. Subsequently, the collected data was analyzed, using the factor analysis method. The factor
analysis was employed to group the factors under the principal factors, which were extracted into seven factors: Lack of equipment and
manpower managerial incompetence, financial deficiencies, improper resource allocation, difficulties in special materials, improper
construction and personnel management, lack of awareness and lack of mobilization. This paper recommends some critical factors to
be considered during the resource scheduling process to minimize the construction time overrun.

Introduction strikes, migrant of labour, lack of mobilization, lack of motiva-

In India, construction is the second largest economic activity tion, obtaining permits for migrant labour, personal conflicts
next to agriculture. It makes a significant contribution of nearly among labour, shortage of labour, lack of skilled labour, and un-
11 per cent of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The sec- qualified work force team 2. Equipment: availability of equip-
tor’s contribution is likely to increase in the coming years. In- ment, complication of advanced technology equipment, compli-
frastructure, road projects, highways, and power constitute a cation of hire, disruption of accessories, idle time, maintenance
significant portion of this sector. A good construction project of equipment, and transportation of equipment 3.Materials:
management lies in achieving the goal within a specific time, damage of materials in storage , damage of sorted materials
accomplishing technical performance, maintaining its schedule, while they are needed urgently, slow delivery of materials , im-
and sticking to the budgetary cost of the project. A construction ported, ordered materials and plant items, manufacturing dif-
project involves a series of activities and each activity requires ficulties of special materials , materials selection and changes in
a certain resource. Management involves effectively managing types and specifications during construction, poor procurement
resources such as manpower, material, equipment and finance. of materials, proportion of offsite prefabrication , poor quality
In some projects the resources are not effectively and efficiently of materials and shortage of construction materials 4.Financing:
managed, leading to overruns in the project duration. Unfortu- cash Flow (Inflow & Outflow), financing between the owner and
nately, over 40% of the Indian construction projects face time contractor, financing by contractor during construction ,slab of
overruns ranging from 1 to 252 months (K. C. Iyer and K. N. payment during construction and unavailability of financial in-
Jha, 2006) and there are several studies that discuss about the centives.
factors affecting project overruns (Chan and Kumaraswamy,
1997; Frimpong et al , 2003; Acharya et al 2006; Sambasivan The Sampling method
and Soon, 2007). The success of a project is measured in terms The random sampling technique was adopted in this study. The
of its performance on schedule, cost, quality, and no disputes. questionnaire survey were distributed to 463 randomly select-
Schedule overrun could control a major part of the cost over- ed construction professionals associated with different organi-
run. Hence, this study discussed the major factors affecting the zations related to owners, consultants and contractors in the
resource constraint in time overrun in Indian construction pro- Indian construction Industry through India . The respondents
jects. There are many factors that affect the resource constraint were chosen through friends and referral networks. About 50%
performance either positively or negatively. of the respondents who participated had more than ‘10 years’
experience. A total of 240 responses were received from various
Research Methodology professionals; 184 (69%) from contractors, 30 (23%) consult-
Questionnaire Design ants and 26 (40%) clients out of the 265, 133 and 65 distributed
A questionnaire was prepared to assess the perception of cli- questionnaires, respectively.
ents, consultants and contractors on the relative importance
of factors affecting resource scheduling in Indian construction Factor Analysis
projects. The questionnaire contained two main parts: the first The factor analysis technique is applied to sort out the main fac-
part requested general information about the respondents, and tors in the resource schedule. The factor analysis was employed
the second part focused on the factors affecting the resource to define 33 numbers of factors into small sets of composite
scheduling in Indian construction projects. The respondents variables. The 33 factors were intercorrelated with the prin-
were asked to indicate their responses on 33 well recognized cipal factor component method, and rotated to form a simple
factors affecting resource scheduling as identified. These factors structure by means of varimax rotation. Variables found to be
were categorized into four groups, according to the origin of the factor loadings less than 0.4 and cross-loadings less than 0.10
resource, i.e., i) Manpower, ii) Material, iii) Equipment and iv) were eliminated from the list. The statistical package for social
Finance related. The respondents were asked to rate the factors sciences (SPSS) was used for the factor analysis. Both these pa-
by using the Likert scale ranging from 1 (very low) to 5 (very rameters justify that the factor analysis is applicable.
high) to find the degree of importance.
Based on Kaiser’s criterion (Eigen value greater than 1), seven
Identification of Factors factors were extracted, and they represent 67.31percent of
A list of 33 factors affecting resource schedules are identified the total variance as shown in Table 1. However, before apply-
from the literature review and experts interview. Each factor is ing this technique, the suitability of data must be enquired. In
categorized by major groups such as 1. Manpower: absenteeism this regard, Barlett’s test of sphericity having significance at
of labour, lack of Communication, labor injuries, disputes and 0.000 indicates that the correlation matrix is an identity matrix

250 IJSR - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

Research Paper Volume : 2 | Issue : 6 | June 2013 • ISSN No 2277 - 8179

without significant correlation between variables. The Kaiser- Availability of equipment 0.62
Meyer-Olkin measure of sampling adequacy is sufficient with
Complication of advanced 0.58
the value of 0.944, which is found to be greater than 0.7, which technology equipment
means the data set is likely to factor excellent. Both diagnostic
tests confirm that the data are suitable for the factor analysis. Poor quality of materials 0.58
Transportation of equipment 0.51
Table1. Total Variance Explained
Materials selection and changes
in types and specifications 0.49
Initial Eigenvalues Extraction Sums of Rotation Sums of
Squared Loadings Squared Loadings during construction
Poor procurement of materials 0.46
Component

Cumulative

Cumulative

Cumulative
% of Vari-

% of Vari-

% of Vari-
DC3: Lack of finance difficulties 1.50 5.51
Total

Total

Total
ance

ance

ance
Financing by contractor during 0.75
construction
%

%
Slab of payment during 0.69
1 13.57 40.61 40.61 13.57 40.61 40.61 5.17 15.87 15.87 construction
Financing between the owner 0.68
2 2.00 7.02 47.63 2.00 7.02 47.63 4.83 14.84 30.71 and contractor
Unavailability of financial 0.63
3 1.50 5.51 53.14 1.50 5.51 53.14 4.22 12.98 43.69 incentive
4 1.43 5.30 58.44 1.43 5.30 58.44 3.57 11.00 54.69 Cash Flow (Inflow & Outflow) 0.61

5 1.20 3.63 62.07 1.20 3.63 62.07 2.53 7.38 62.07 DC4: Deployment of resource 1.43 5.30
Lack of Motivation 0.80
Interpretation of factors
An analysis of the thirty three factor affecting resource sched- Lack of Mobilization 0.74
ule items, yielded five factors. These five factors have a smaller
set of composite variables. With respect to lack of Communi- Absenteeism of labour 0.59
cation, poor procurement of materials, damage of materials in Lack of Communication
storage, absenteeism of labour, poor quality of materials were
eliminated in the final factor loading list because of these vari- DC5: Unavailability of human 1.20 3.63
resource issues management
ables having a factor loading of less than 0.4 and a cross- load-
ing of less than 0.1. The variables which comprise one factor Shortage of labour 0.70
component with factor loadings, communalities, eigen value
Lack of skilled labour 0.51
and variance are given in Table 2 and figure 1. The extracted
factors are provided with a little cross loading and evidence of Unqualified work force team 0.45
good convergent and discriminant validity. The five factors are
weighted, based on the eigen value (1 to 7 in the descending Migrant labour 0.47
order). The five factors are named: i) Resource barrier (DC1);
ii) Inadequacy of resource (DC2); iii) Lack of finance difficulties Scree Plot
(DC3); iv) Deployment of resource (DC4); and v) Unavailability 1

of human resource issues (DC5). 0.8

Eigen value

0.6

Table 2 Factor Analysis Loading Results 0.4

0.2
Variance
Factors Loading Eigen
value Explained 0
(%) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33
Component

DC1: Resource barrier 13.57 40.61

Personal conflicts among labour 0.69 Figure 1 Scree Plot
Manufacturing difficulties of 0.68 Result and Discussion:
special materials
From the analysis results, we can conclude that the factors dis-
Labor injuries, disputes and 0.66
strikes cussed below are the critical factors affecting resource schedul-
ing.
Disruption of accessories 0.62
Damage of sorted materials Resource barrier
while they are needed urgently 0.62 The first factor consisted of elevent positively loaded variables.
Damage of materials in storage 0.59 It has an eigen value of 13.57, and accounted for 40.61 percent
of the total variance. Table 2 showed that this factor is related
Idle time of equipment 0.58 to barrier of resource, that was caused during the construction
Imported, Ordered materials phase. The elements of this factor are personal conflicts among
and plant items 0.58
labour, manufacturing difficulties of special materials, labor
Obtaining permits for migrant 0.58 injuries, disputes and strikes, disruption of accessories, dam-
labour age of sorted materials while they are needed urgently, dam-
Proportion of offsite 0.55 age of materials in storage, idle time of equipment, imported,
prefabrication
Ordered materials and plant items, obtaining permits for mi-
Complication of hire 0.45 grant labour, proportion of offsite prefabrication, and compli-
cation of hire. These activities are related to obstruction of re-
DC2: Inadequacy of resource 2.00 7.02
source.
Slow delivery of materials 0.69
Inadequacy of resource
Shortage in construction 0.64
materials This factor consisted of nine positively loaded elements. It has
an eigen value of 2.00and accounted for 7.02 percent of the total
Poor maintenance of equipment 0.64 variance. The elements of the factors are slow delivery of mate-
rials, shortage in construction materials, poor maintenance of

IJSR - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH 251

 Volume : 2 | Issue : 6 | June 2013 • ISSN No 2277 - 8179
Research Paper

equipment, availability of equipment, complication of advanced Unavailability of human resource issues management
technology equipment, poor quality of materials, transporta- This factor consisted of four positively loaded elements. It has
tion of equipment, materials selection and changes in types an eigen value of 1.20, and accounted for 3.63 percent of the to-
and specifications during construction, poor procurement of tal variance. The elements of the factors are shortage of labour,
materials. All these activities are due to the inadequacy of the lack of skilled labour, unqualified work force team, and migrant
contractors and sub-contractors during the construction stage. labour. These factors are related to the inefficiency of personnel
management.
All these activities are due to the incapability of the owners and
contractors during the construction stage. Conclusion
This study identified problems related to factors affecting the
Lack of finance difficulties resource schedule, due to overruns during the construction
This factor consisted of five positively loaded elements. It has an phase from different viewpoints of the parties with respect to
eigen value of 1.50 and accounted for 5.51percent of the total three types of indices. The factor analysis is employed to group
variance. The elements of the factors are financing by contrac- them as the principal factors. With the factor analysis technique,
tor during construction, slab of payment during construction, seven factors were extracted in 67.3 percent out of the 33 prin-
financing between the owner and contractor, unavailability of cipal factors based on the eigen value (factor loading less than
financial incentive, and cash flow (Inflow & Outflow).These fac- 0.4 and cross- loading less than 0.1) as follows: lack of equip-
tors are related to incapability of the owners and contractors ment and manpower managerial incompetence, financial de-
during the construction stage. ficiencies, improper resource allocation, difficulties in special
materials, improper construction and personnel management,
Deployment of resource lack of awareness and lack of mobilization . The findings could
This factor consisted of four positively loaded elements. It has help the practitioners to gain a better understanding of the
an eigen value of 1.43, and accounted for 5.30 percent of total problems influencing the budget and time of the projects during
variance. The elements of this factor are lack of motivation, lack the construction stage. By taking care of these potential factors
of mobilization, absenteeism of labour, and lack of communica- in their present and future projects, construction participants
tion. This factor is related to a lack of awareness of the contrac- can reduce and control the extent of delays and cost overruns.
tors and sub-contractor involved in the manpower of custom-
ized items.

REFERENCE [1] Chan D.W.M and Kumaraswamy M.M, “ A comparative study of causes of time overruns in Hong Kong construction projects”, International
journal of project management, Vol. 15 (1977), No 1, pp. 55–63. | [2] Iyer K. C and Jha K. N., “Critical Factors Affecting Schedule Performance:
Evidence from Indian Construction Projects. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, Vol. 125 (1999), No3, p. 142–150. | [3] Murali Sambasivan and Yau Wen Soon,
“Causes and effects of delays in Malaysian construction industry”, International journal of project management, Vol. 25 (2007), No 4, p. 517–526. | [4] Nirmal Kumar Acharya,
Young Dai Lee, Soo Yong Kim and Jong Chool Lee, ‘Analysis of Construction Delay Factor: A Korean Perspective’, Proceeding of the 7th Asia Pacific Industrial Engineering and man-
agement Systems conference, 17-20 December (2006), Bangkok, Thailand | [5]Yaw Frimpong , Jacob Oluwoye, Lynn Crawford, “ Causes od delay and cost overruns in construction
of ground water projects in a developing countries; Ghana as a case study”, projects”, International journal of project management, Vol. 21 (2003), pp. 321–326.

252 IJSR - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH

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