Analyzing the Critical Factors Influencing the Time Overrun and Cost Overrun in Construction Project

Construction industry plays a vital role in socio-economic development of country and generates substantial employment. The issue of time overrun and cost overrun is a global challenge in construction industry. Time overrun is an unanticipated delay in construction project due to unavailability of adequate resources and other administrative problems. Similarly, cost overrun which involves unexpected cost incurred in excess of budgeted amounts due to under estimation of the actual project cost during planning of project. The objective of this study is to identify and analyze the critical factors influencing time overrun and cost overrun affecting the performance of construction project. In this study, different factors such as poor site management and supervision, problems with sub-contractors, inadequate planning and scheduling of project, problem associated with material management, lack of coordination among stakeholders etc. are discussed. The findings of this study indicate that Ishikawa diagram is an important tool which can be used to identify and analyze the cause and effect in delay related to labor, material and equipment's. Thus, it can help the project management for the smooth completion of project as per planned schedule and cost. Since materials accounts nearly 70% of total construction cost, therefore implementing effective material management is necessary for timely procurement and issue of an inventory to reduce delay due to shortage of materials. Resource smoothing and resource leveling can be adopted to optimize its utilization with zero wastage. Also this study suggests that modern project management tools such as MS project, Primavera, Newton software etc. can be employed to control the cost and time of construction project through effective monitoring of project schedule.