Factors Affecting Quality, Time and Cost in Nigerian Construction Industry
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the Study
This study has the following general and specific objectives:
General Objective
The general objective of this study is aimed to identify and examine the major factors that contribute to construction quality, time and cost, their negative effects and possible solutions in Ikeja City Housing Development Project Office.
Specific Objectives
The specific objectives of the research are to:
- Identify the major factors influencing quality, time and cost in Ikeja city housing construction projects,
- Assess by what extent does quality, time and cost have an effect on Ikeja city housing construction?
- Provide the possible necessary and reliable recommendations to reduce the underlying.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITRATURE
Overview of construction project quality, time and cost
This chapter discusses about the literatures under the following heads: definition of time and cost overrun, types of delay, causes of quality, time and cost, effects of quality, time and cost, delay responsibility, project time and cost and their managements, measurements to control quality, time and cost, project overrun and its impacts on socio-economic development of Nigeria, data analysis and inference from literature survey.
Cost and time control is defined as a process by which construction cost and time of a project is managed through best methods and techniques (Otim, Nakacwa, & Kyakula, 2012) so that project stakeholder(s) do not suffer losses as the activities of the project are carried out. Koh (2005) concurs that project cost and time control refers to the process by which the cost of a project is kept within the agreed cost limits and the duration kept within agreed schedule limits respectively.
Furthermore, Raut, Pimplikar and Sawant (2013) opine that construction cost and time control consists of simply monitoring actual cost and time performance of a project against the cost and time estimates earlier designed or stipulated for the project and identifying variances. The authors explain that the aim of cost and time control process is to monitor actual cost and time performance of projects and identify improvement opportunities, which must be dealt with by corrective actions.
Idiake et al. (2015) buttress that time, cost and quality are three major variables that are of primary concern to the main parties involved in procurement of building projects. The management of these variables is usually a complex task for project managers in practice. Ameh and Osegbo (2011) opined that the challenge of controlling project schedule is of global concern. Ineffective controls of time in line with project schedule usually results in the extension of time beyond planned completion dates. Similarly, ineffective control of construction project cost would usually result in a difference between actual cost of a project and its cost limit (Ballhysa & Blloku, 2014). When this difference occurs, it is referred to as cost overrun. Cost overrun on projects occurs when the resultant cost target of a project exceed its cost limits. Cost limit of a project refers to the maximum expenditure that the client is prepared to incur on a completed building project while cost target refers to the recommended expenditure for each element of a project.
When construction cost is out of control, it adds to investment pressure, increases construction cost, affects investment decision making, wastes the national finance and might result in corruption or offence (Rahman et al., 2012). Most construction project are being completed at costs much higher than initial estimate which indicate that initial cost estimates on construction projects can hardly be relied upon by clients (Olawale & Sun, 2010). The problem of poor cost and time management and its respective overruns in project cost and time are serious issues in both developed and developing countries. This needs serious attention for improving the construction cost and time performance as rarely projects are completed within budget and schedule. This study would survey opinions of its sample on the challenges of cost and time control of construction projects within the study area by adopting articulated challenges discussed in this section of the study.
Definitions of quality, time and cost
Definitions of Time Overruns
One of the most important problems in the construction industry is time overrun. Time overrun occur in every construction project and the magnitude of these delays varies considerably from project to project. So it is essential to define the actual causes of time overrun in order to minimize and avoid delays in any construction project.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY
Introduction
The purpose of the study was to establish the factors causing quality, time and cost and to evaluate the influence these factors have on quality, time and cost. Review of literature was carried out to establish those factors influencing overruns of construction projects. This chapter presents the research methodology of the study and the main topics included in this chapter are research approach, research design, sample and sample techniques, instruments of data collection, procedure of data collection, and methods of data analysis and research ethical consideration.
Research Design
Research design refers to the plan or organization of scientific investigation, designing of a study involves the development of a plan that will guide the collection and analyses of data. “Research designs are plans and the procedures for research that span the decisions from broad assumptions to detailed methods of data collection and analysis” (Creswell, 2009, 3).
In order to carry out this research with desired quality, there was a need to design a questionnaire survey to identify significant factors affecting time overruns and cost overruns in Ikeja Housing Development Project. To identify quality, time and cost factors in the construction industry, related literatures were thoroughly reviewed and identified more than 120 major overruns factors. For this study the researcher developed questionnaire based on 41 factors for time overruns and 17 factors for cost overruns and grouped in to 5 and 4 major groups respectively with the consultation of engineers, who have experiences on similar housing projects.
To achieve the main objectives of the study, the proposed research area was Ikeja City Housing Development Project, where a large number of condominium housing construction activities were undertaken since 2005. In order to evaluate and analyze the causes of delay and cost overruns in condominium housing construction activities, owner, contractors and consultant were targeted.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
Introduction
This part of the research deals with the analysis and discussion of the data gathered from the desk study, questionnaire survey, interview and observation concerning quality, time and cost from contractors, consultant and owner viewpoints in Housing Development Projects of Ikeja city. It includes the identification of the existence and extent of quality, time and cost, main causes of quality, time and cost, effects of quality, time and cost on the final or total cost of the project in the sub city.
Data analysis techniques
The purpose of these data analysis was to establish the factors causing quality, time and cost and to evaluate the adverse influence these factors have on quality, time and cost. Two types of data were collected, secondary data from various related literature review and primary data using a survey conducted with project parties in the Ikeja housing construction projects; as well as structural interview discussions with the staffs of the owner, consultant and contractors. A total of 55 questionnaires were distributed to owner, contractors and consultant involved in the housing construction project sits. Out of 55 distributed questionnaires 87% (48) completed set were received back.
Questionnaire response rate
Detailed questionnaire was designed and distributed for the assessment of quality, time and cost on housing construction projects in Ikeja housing development projects, for this purpose the questionnaires were distributed to project parties; these are contractors, consultant and project owner. To make the analysis more comprehensive a total of 55 questionnaire sets were distributed to contractors, consultant, and project owner out of which 48 questionnaires were filled and returned. Table 3 shows the number of questionnaires distributed to contractors, consultant and project owner and the number of questionnaires returned from these project parties including their percentage response rate.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Summary of major findings
Construction industry is considered to be dynamic industry which is constantly facing uncertainties that make the management of time and cost difficult and consequently, causes quality, time and cost. Quality, time and cost are severe problems faced by construction projects. It is resulted from various factors which had been identified in this study. A total of 48 samples were found as valid and analyzed statistically using relative importance index method on 41 and 17 factors on quality, time and cost. A questionnaire-based survey was used to obtain the attitude of owners, consultants, and contractors towards factors affecting the project overrun of construction projects in Ikeja city. 55 questionnaires were distributed as follows: 5 to owners, 5 to consultants and 45 to contractors. 48 questionnaires (87%) were returned as follows: 3 from owners, 3 from consultants, and 42 from contractors as respondents. The respondents were asked to indicate the level of importance of each of the 58 factors of project overruns (quality, time and cost) in Ikeja city as not significant, slightly significant, moderately significant, very significant, and extremely significant. In addition interview and observation of data collection methods are used in order to get necessary and reliable data from the respondents.
Conclusion of the study
A construction project is commonly acknowledged as successful when the aim of the project is achieved in terms of predetermined objectives that are mainly completed the project on time, within budget and specified quality in accordance with the specifications and to stakeholders’ satisfaction. In Nigeria, the number of housing construction projects is increasing from time to time. However, it becomes difficult to complete projects in the allocated cost and time. Many projects experienced quality, time and cost and thereby exceed initial contract time and amount. Quality, time and cost is a severe problems faced by large construction industries in Nigeria. It is resulted from various factors which had been identified in this study. So this implies that a need of urgent attention is to be put on these factors to avoid quality, time and cost; and their effects on projects.
Limitation of the study
The unavailability of adequate literatures on quality, time and cost on Nigerian experiences, and time and financial resources were the major constraints of this study. The second constraint was unwillingness of the project staffs to provide necessary and reliable information to the researcher. The third critical constraint was the respondents’ careless responses to the questionnaires. Although the above mentioned limitations had made the researcher to endure during this research progress, however, the researcher confirms that to the best of his knowledge, all the output of this research is not influenced by the aforementioned limitations. This is due to the researcher’s careful handling of all these issues wisely and diligently.
Recommendations
Most of the construction projects in all countries of the world including Nigeria are subject to quality, time and cost. All stakeholders in the construction industry have to work for improving the out puts and to sustain a healthy growth of the industry. Especially consultants, contractors and clients have to use a holistic approach for solving problems in the construction industry; they have to familiarize themselves to the latest technology and methods to solve problems and look for solution proactively. Institutions and academicians in the construction industry have to work hand-in-hand with practitioners in the industry. A combined effort of stakeholders is necessary to apply the results of researches conduct in the construction industry.
Recommendations for Consultant
Consultants are one of the key role players in construction projects that translate the clients’ needs and ideas into plans and drawings and supervise the translation of these plans and drawings into visible physical structures. Therefore, the researcher provides the following recommendations from the findings of this research for future improvements of the services.
- Drawings and other contract documents should be well detailed and approved before the commencement of the construction activities
- Prepare and facilitate timely payments of contractor to avoid any delay that can create cost overruns to the
- Hire a qualified and professional staffs to manage the project and to overcome any technical or management problems that happen
Recommendations for Contractors
Contractors among other stakeholders’ play a major role for an efficient and effective completion of construction works. Hence the following recommendations are forwarded based on the research findings.
- Hire a qualified engineers and skilled technical staff to manage and administer the project
- Procure the required quantity and quality of construction materials and other items based on the specifications on time.
- Plan and secure enough cash before beginning the project to avoid the financial
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