Delays on your construction project can cause all kinds of problems for your business and it doesn’t just affect the project that’s been delayed. With limited resources in labor and equipment, a delay on one project can lead to delays on other current or future projects. To help contractors prevent delays, fleet management company Teletrac Navman, has compiled a list of the top 5 reasons for onsite construction delays.
Having a better understanding of the common causes of onsite delays can help keep crews on the jobsite productive. According to Teletrac’s Andrew Hintz, here are the top 5 reasons:
1. Weather – weather can be totally unpredictable, causing uncertainty in the schedule. High winds, freezing temperatures, and rain can keep certain trades from performing their work, or at the very least, make them less efficient. Scheduling around certain times of year can help, but that only works if the forecasts cooperate. Some contractors have gotten very creative to combat weather, like Upbrella Construction, who built a multi-story building from the roof down.
2. Finding and Setting Up Equipment – On average, about a fifth of a construction worker’s day is spent finding and setting up equipment, according to a Construction Industry Institute (CII) study. Setting up equipment and materials tracking can help alleviate this issues, according to the article.
3. Overbooked Crews – one of the most difficult things in scheduling is anticipating when and where your crew needs to be at any given time. As mentioned above, a delay on one project can have a negative effect on many other projects.
4. Lack of Insight into Projects – using traditional (read: low tech) tracking methods on a construction project automatically puts your project behind, because you can’t easily determine the status of certain tasks on a project. Implementing a project management software solution keeps team members up-to-date on project and task status in real-time, as opposed to waiting for that hand written daily report at the end of the week. Timely communication is key to finding and fixing potential problems as soon as possible.
5. General Waiting – Waiting for answers from executives, poorly budgeted jobs, and material and equipment delays are main factors in workers “generally waiting” around a given jobsite.
In addition to the 5 items Hintz mentions in his article, I would add design changes and rework into the mix. If design changes do end up causing your project to be delayed, make sure that is clearly stated in the change order to help avoid disputes in the future.
Full story: Top 5 causes of onsite construction delays | Teletrac Navman
