Research Paper on Risk Management Techniques for Construction Project
Pariekshit Guttikonda
Lawrence Technological University
Abstract
Construction is a risky industry and there is no other industry that requires proper application of business practices much as construction industry. The main objective of this research is to gain understanding of risk factors faced by building projects. The study also aims to investigate the effectiveness of risk preventive and imitative methods. From this Research paper we can find the most important risk factors are: financial failure of the contractor, Environmental risk like natural disasters, closure, defective design and delayed payments on contract. On the other hand, owner respondents concluded that the most important risk factors are: awarding the design to unqualified designer, defective design, occurrence of accidents, difficulty to access the site, and inaccurate quantities.
Research Paper on Risk Management Techniques for Construction Project
These are the 7 types of the risks that are mainly occurs in the construction projects 1.Technical Risks: Incomplete Design, Inadequate specification, inadequate site investigation, Change in scope Construction procedures, insufficient resource availability 2. Construction Risks: Labor productivity, Labor disputes, Site condition, Equipment failures, Design changes, too high quality standard and new technology 3. Physical Risks: Damage to structure, Damage to equipment,
risks and determine the likelihood and consequence of that risk occurring during the project. The
Identify a minimum of 10 project risks and when each will occur in the project life cycle, and then determine their impact and probability of occurrence.
Technological changes also lead to a source of risk among construction projects. Advancements in new technologies may present problems to designers and constructors, therefore increasing the risks. New facilities or technologies may render the former obsolete and thus affect the nature of the construction.
Risks management is an important step during the process of a project. Failing to manage a risk may result in unforeseen event happening and a project’s failure. For example, with limited budget, an unforeseen event or an accident occurs in the middle of a project and this matter has not been considered and needs a big sum of expense, then the project may be stopped because of this unexpected event. We should know it is necessary to understand how to identify risks and assumptions based on the information. After identifying risks, it is important for project managers to set contingency plans to prevent and deal with these risks when they occur. Of course, several problems may happen during considering
Hillson, D & Simon, P. (2007). _Practical Project Risk Management: The ATOM Methodology_, Vienna, VA: Management Concepts, Inc.
Founded May 6th 1902, the Turner Construction Company is known as a company that builds non-residential buildings but it is self described as a risk management company. Their success is accredited to their project management tool called the Indicated Outcome Report (IOR) system that was implemented into the company’s management methods in the 1920s. It is with the IOR system that the company is able to assess risk effectively as the program is designed to help identify the anticipated financial and operational problems within any one of their projects at any level. This report is produced on a quarterly basis with 6-week updates and is reviewed in quarterly team meetings where team member participation is critical so that no unexpected costs
Construction projects can be extremely complex and fraught with uncertainty. Risk and uncertainty can potentially have damaging consequences for the construction projects. Therefore nowadays, the risk analysis and management continue to be a major feature of the project management of construction projects in an attempt to deal effectively with uncertainty and unexpected events and to achieve project success. Risk is inherent on construction projects and disputes frequently arise. One in four construction projects results in a dispute that leads to arbitration or litigation. With large scale, complex projects the likelihood of serious, time-consuming and expensive claims increases.
In order for a home building project to survive its purpose, risk analysis is essential so that occurrences that may affect the projects in the end can be identified, analyzed, assessed, managed and monitored. Because of the risky processes that are involved in the projects of home building construction, risk analysis and mitigation is the most useful tool in achieving good project and planning in home buildings as well as other constructions. If good risks management procedures are well conducted, the team’s level of confidence will be boosted, and this will enable or project to run and smoothly achieve its goals while facing and tackling each risk. Risk management will also come in handy as time will be saved as well as the
Within a project, the project’s success and budget belong to and are the responsibility of the customer. The Customer should have the final say in regards to what is acceptable and unacceptable in regards to risk and the quantification of risk. It is however, the contractor’s responsibility to be the primary source of expertise on a project or what they are being contracted to do. The contractor should offer their opinion and recommendations, and the customer should take their contractors opinions and recommendations seriously due to their expertise in the area. Overall, collaboration between the customer and the contractor should be the ultimate way to resolve a matter of dispute. Members from both the customer and contractor side should meet discuss historical events, modeling and simulation to arrive at the appropriate answer. Also, with quantifying risk, the customer and the contractor should be able to go back and look at the data. With risk quantification, there should be very little room for opinion and judgment which should make it easy to base a decision or a resolution based on hard core data. If a solution or an answer is not able to be decided upon, a third party consultation
Risk allocation is performed as part of the development of the project structure, which takes into account the distribution of responsibilities and risks during the planning, construction, financing and operating phases (Corner, 2006). The aim is to identify an efficient and effective structure that optimises the costs of the project and ensures that the risk occurrences do not damage the project (Delmon, 2009). According to Grimsey and Lewis (2007) risk allocation has two elements: optimal risk management and value for money. The first implies that the
In addition to reading the course notes, I also looked at what APMBOK (Association for Project Management, Body of Knowledge 2009, 6th Edition, UK) said about this critical area of Project Management. Additionally, I researched what my Company does to maximize their effectiveness in this area by studying their attitude towards Risk Management throughout the complete life-cycle of a project, and finally I drew from my own knowledge and experiences in this critical area.
The completion of any project depends on the execution of various parameters mostly set at the beginning of the project. In order to complete the project to satisfactory levels, the project must be completed within the stipulated timelines, fall within the approximate budget and be of the required quality standards. However, most of the projects are affected by adverse changes and unforeseen events that occur during the execution period. Research shows that the magnitude of change is dependent on the size of the project, with large projects experiencing more uncertainties due to several factors including; planning and design complexity, interest groups having deferring opinions, resource availability, Economic and political climate and statutory regulations, which may necessitate change of plan. Most of the uncertainties are known to occur in the concept phase and if not intervened, they may affect the entire project. The burden falls on the management of such risk as some managers choose to ignore the uncertainties since they call for additional costs. Other inherent risks may go unnoticed and therefore remain unsolved,
The research takes a case study approach. The case study analysis dwelt on risk management by Contractors who work on energy and utility construction projects, including strategies and supporting structures for managing risks, complete with an analysis of how these strategies and structures are implemented and supported by the Contractors resources base. The researcher specifically chose utility contractors for this study as the Energy and Utilities sector play an indispensable role in the global economy and in the UK, industry employs around 2% of the UK workforce (AGCAS, 2012). Moreover, the UK government identified the Utilities companies as companies that are heavily involved in risky incidents affecting their sector thus playing a crucial role in the preparation and planning for emergencies responsibilities (UK Government, 2013). According to Yip (2003) construction is risky as it almost always certainly involves loss of time and money. Above all, any denial of service during outage result in impact on communities (Lindman, 2008) and utility services are no exception. Against this background, it could be argued that contractors working on construction projects undoubtedly play a significant role in managing risks in order to stay in business.
Like the five blind men encountering different parts of an elephant, each of the numerous participants in the process of planning, designing, financing, constructing and operating physical facilities has a different
Many times, risks faced by contractors exist at no fault of their own. That is, in some cases the contractor is bound by a design that places specific hazards on the construction site. Designers who are cognizant of and responsive to their effort on construction safety would aid in making jobsites safer for construction workers (Gambatese et al, 1997). Situations such as these led the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to create a safe design concept, prevention through design. Prevention