The Causes Influencing the Occurrence of Variation Orders in the Construction of Buildings

Abstract

In the construction of buildings usually, problems occur because of the causes of change orders. The main causer of change orders is the owners, consultants, and contractors. These changes lead to conflicts among them which result in influencing building projects. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the causes of change orders to reduce them and facilitate management. This paper determines the most critical factors that cause change orders from a different point of view, a consulting owner and a contractor, and a study of the reality of the management of change orders when constructing public buildings. The method employed in this research is a field survey using interviews with experts working in the construction of public buildings. Furthermore, the questionnaire was distributed manually and electronically. In conclusion, it would appear that the causes of change orders have been hierarchically according to the viewpoint of the owner, contractor, and consultant. The analysis leads to the following conclusions: Agreement of viewpoints owners, contractors, and consultants on the critical causes of variation orders were: ( the difficult financial situation - change material specifications to benefit the project - technical necessity - the nature of the site). Moreover, the point of view (owners and contractors) on the essential factors that cause change orders were: (preparing a bill of quantities is inaccurate - weak consultant guess ). In contrast, the consultant's point of view differs, as he considers these causes ineffective. It can be interpreted that the consultant sees these factors as insignificant because of his duty to implement the bill of quantities and designs. This research paper concludes that a complex causal relationship exists between the causes of change orders. The relative importance index (RII) for variation order causes varies among different groups' viewpoints (owners, contractors, and consultants).

Research on the Risk-Inducing Factors of Prefabricated Building Design Change Based on Improved DEMATEL-ISM

“…In terms of risk management and control of construction projects, most existing studies analyze the causes of engineering changes from the perspective of engineering construction stakeholders and evaluate the risks arising from engineering changes [12][13][14][15]. Changes in engineering and construction projects are caused by a variety of factors, the most influential of which is design change [16,17].…”

“…Based on a literature [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] search, this paper preliminarily identifies the influencing factors of prefabricated buildings that induce design change risks. Secondly, this paper uses a questionnaire survey to collect empirical data.…”

The factors that affect constructability in Iraq

“…The construction projects in Iraq are subjected to many problems which gives rise to the need to introduce the concept of constructability in the industry. The problems facing the industry are poor communication between the designer and builder (Khan 2019;Thirion 2019;Højbjerg et al 2021), increase in project complexity, clashes between the building's components (Yang et al 2013;Høqjbjerg et al 2021), difficulty in controlling project time and budget (Rashed and Mahjoob 2014;Ahmed and Altaie 2021;Qi et al 2022), and increased change orders and redesign in projects which lead to failed projects (Rezouki and Alhilli 2022). The essential responsibility of constructability is to convert plans and specifications into finished products (Khan 2019;Nolan and Gibson 2022).…”

Comparing the Design Alternatives Using Building Information Model (BIM) and Constructability in Iraqi Construction Projects

“…Therefore, this emanates the need for the introduction of constructability in the construction industry as more management is required to achieve project objectives and maximize its efficiency by including all experience and construction knowledge in the early phases of engineering, planning, procurement, and field operations [3]. Also, the difficulty in controlling project time and budget [3,5], the increment in change orders, clashes between building components and redesign in projects [6]. According to [7,3] there are three main ways to assess, improve and develop constructability which are: constructability program implementation, review of constructability, and quantified assessment of the design.…”