A review of causes of variation order in the construction of terrace housing projects in Malaysia

Abstract

Variation order refers to any changes from the scope, plan, specification or contract document in the construction project. This changes of work is a common problem in construction projects in Malaysia. It is inevitable in any construction project and this problem can become more serious when variation order causes work progress to be impaired as a results it increased the construction time and cost that affects the construction industry in Malaysia. This paper critically review the causes of variation order in the construction industry on the double-storey terrace housing project in Malaysia. The discussions began with the construction industry in Malaysia and then related parties involved in the construction industry. The extensive local and abroad literature review on the definitions of variation order and analysis of past studies conducted on variation order and the previous study of the prediction model of variation. The extensive literature on variation order in the construction of building project may help to improve the performance in term of time, cost and quality of the construction of building projects in Malaysia.

Causes and Effects of Variations on Civil Engineering Construction Projects in Nigeria

“…In Malaysia, reviewed the causes of variation and found that client-related variations are the most dominant causes of variations in construction [30]. The review reported 18 prominent causes of variation and they are; change of scope by client, owner's financial problems, inadequate project objectives, replacement of materials or procedures, impediment to prompt decision-making process, obstinate nature of the owner, change in specifications by the owner, change in design by the consultant, errors and omissions in design, conflicts among contract documents, technology changes, value engineering, lack of coordination, design complexity, inadequate working drawing details, consultants' lack of required data, poor knowledge of available materials and equipment, and ambiguous design details.…”

Administrative Policies to Reduce the Negative Impact of Variation Orders on Jordanian Construction Projects

“…There are different reasons for variation orders that were identified in different studies, such as: Change in scope (Arain, Assaf, & Pheng, 2004), Owner financial problems (Clough, Sears, Sears, Segner, & Rounds, 2015;O'Brien, 1998), Obstructing the decision-making process (Sanvido, Grobler, Parfitt, Guvenis, & Coyle, 1992;Gray & Hughes, 2007), Lack of flexibility of the owner (Arain et al, 2004;Wang, 2000), The owner change the specifications (O'Brien, 1998), The consultant's change in design (Fisk & Reynolds, 1988), Complexity of the design (Arain et al, 2004), Inadequate details of working drawings (Arain et al, 2004), causing variations in the project, Insufficient design (Fisk & Reynolds, 1988;Force, 1990). Mohammad, Ani, and Rakmat (2017) investigated the main effects of variation orders on projects and suggested that the effects are: the increase of project time, the increase in the project cost, the delay of logistics, the impact on the quality of the project, and the destruction and reconstruction of certain components. Moreover, variation orders have a direct impact on labor productivity whether it is individual, or group works.…”

Investigating Variation Orders Causes in Iraqi Building Construction Projects

“…Eltahir et al [6] distinguished significant ten agents that cause change orders in the Sudani building project. The variation orders cause and their effect on the Iraqi construction projects, then interpreted the causes using data mining techniques [28,29]. More of the previous studies have examined the variation orders causes as independent causes.…”