Snapshot of the article
- Analyse challenges causing delays in Construction projects
- Make Ready steps are important to reduce duration or prevent delays
- Application of best practices from various management concepts together in
construction
projects can significantly improve the performance
- We need to have right Strategy to improve the Construction Project Delivery
Can we reduce the Construction Project time and also prevent or minimize delays using management best practices?
Is there any solution to catch up and get back on track after lockdown?
The answer is YES!
The systematic & structured ways of adopting best practices can significantly
improve the way we manage projects and overcome Time, Cost, Quality, EHS challenges we face in construction projects.
Construction & Real Estate industry in India was on a slow path to recovery but is
facing yet another blow from #Covid-19. The construction project delays due to
several reasons and to mitigate these it is very common to add unrealistic time
buffers into schedule and yet the projects get delayed!
We are good in preparing schedules but often find it difficult to Execute as per the
plans. The GAP between the Macro & Micro planning can be minimized with MAKE
READY efforts. We need to Rethink Construction, Revamp Project Management,
and Redefine the Project Delivery Strategy to overcome the challenges that prevent
us from completing projects ON TIME! Amongst many, 5 key challenges faced by
Construction Professionals in the context of Indian projects are discussed in this
article.
5 key challenges faced by Construction Professionals in the context of
Indian projects,
- Clarity & Availability of Right Information plays a vital role in the success of
projects. On the other side Scope mismatch, Design Changes, Missing
Information etc delays the activities and take more time to complete projects.
So, it’s important to bring information transparency and ensure ‘Same Page-
Same Fact’ among all stakeholders.
The scope of work including requirements, functionality, features etc and
who need to does what, steps to follow, compliances to meet etc can be
established by developing Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) in projects. The
product WBS brings transparency in what to deliver as part of project while
Project Management WBS brings clarity in steps to perform, stakeholders to
be involved and the outcome expected from process (like Design Processes,
Material Approval etc). When Client, Consultant & Contractor work together
to establish WBS in the early stage of project, it can avoid delays and time
loss caused due to confusion at later stage of projects.

Failure to Engage & Entertain Stakeholder at Appropriate Time may lead to
Project Delay, Cost Overrun, Turbulences and even Project cancellation.
Identifying stakeholders, understanding their power & influence as well as
balancing their demand, needs & expectations from the early stage of
project, ensures that ALL HANDS are working with a Project Vision to achieve
common project objectives & less Resistance. Stakeholder dissatisfaction
happens when their issues are not addressed at the apt time.
A structured analysis of stakeholders’ power/ influence and their interest in
projects will help the project to refine and redefine strategies. This will aid in
meeting the expectations of all stakeholders. Assessing the stakeholder’s
current engagement periodically will help us to study their support,
resistance & efforts taken to lead the project. This understanding will enable
the project to define a better way of engaging the stakeholders.
Also use appropriate template to manage issues or constraints identified
during the construction period; specially to analyze AGE of the pending
issues and TIME taken to RESOLVE issues.
- Complex & Inefficient Processes Create Chaos in Construction projects. We
noticed a team performance of 20.2% (First time right performance) in
Procurement & 13.8% in a Design process during a consulting engagement.
Long pending design details, non-availability of material, pending approvals,
delay in PO etc are the outcome of poorly designed & inefficiently executed
processes in construction projects. Rework, lack of collaboration & waiting for
information / approval contributes MOST to the process inefficiencies.
Proper attention to Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) can solve design of
processes but requires continuous #monitoring & #controlling to ensure the
efficiency.
Value Stream Mapping (VSM) plays a key role in identifying wastes (Non-
Value) in processes which, prevent professionals to deliver value at every
stage &, those that causes delay. Product & Project Management Processes
can be improved with #VSM. We reduced design cycles from 15 days to 7
days, PO processes from 45 days to 10 days, PEB Column cycle to 15 hrs
from 32 hours etc practicing simple #VSM.
- The biggest challenge construction projects need to overcome is Poor
Planning. How to prepare ‘an executable work plan for a week’ & achieve the
same. Reliability & Predictability of our schedules are the lowest in
comparison to other industry projects & we spend our time to prepare
catchup plans!
The Last Planner ® System or LPS can play a significant role in Revamping
the way we manage construction production (execution); improving the
planning reliability & collaboration among various stakeholders. Meetings &
schedules ‘pushing’ the work won’t bring results BUT a ‘5+1 conversations’
part of LPS can do that in a better way as explained by
Alan Mosman
& Lean Construction Institute
LPS enables execution team members to ‘commit’ the work they WILL do in
upcoming week, and ensures smooth FLOW of activities in projects. 'Phase
pull planning, make work ready, constraint removal, learning lessons from
daily failures' all work together as a system supporting the Project delivery.
- Reduce the Uncertainty in construction projects. Our studies shows that
projects have around 65% of Known-Unknown factors (example, Need design
approval to proceed but no idea when it is going to happen). The COST
contingency reserve to handle known-unknown is around 10% that too
based on ‘guesstimate’!
Anything NOT in vicinity is regarded as Unknown today!. Rain, flood, labor
strike etc are NOT analysed as a RISK nor prepared to be tackled.
Unfortunately the Management Reserve to handle 'Unknown-Unknown' is
much less & the profit is LOST handling such scenarios.
4 best practice (from
Lean Construction &
Project Management) to minimize uncertainty;
- RISK Analysis – Foresee threats & opportunities - have right strategy
to tackle or embrace.
- CONSTRAINT Analysis – Remove the situations which may prevent
WORK to start OR complete
- ASSUMPTION Validation – Find earliest possible ways to TEST the
assumption and ensure its validity; till then handle as RISK
- Manage ISSUES – Ensure all issues resolved in 7 days & keep an eye
on AGE of issue + TIME taken to RESOLVE it.
Construction projects are similar to battle field engagements, with lots of
uncertainties, surprises, new challenges coming from different directions. Our
project managers are resilient soldiers and will succeed the battle by implementing
Make Ready steps.