Unravelling causes of defects in construction

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify the primary root causes of defects in terms of why they persist in construction, despite the increasing implementation of quality systems. Defects in construction continue to be a source of concern in the construction industry. There have been studies that have tried to identify causes of defects. Although concepts are usually related to organisational factors, previous studies have been carried out on an operational level. There is a well-trodden area within the literature relating to the operational level, but little is known about the causes of defects on a higher, organisational level within construction. Design/methodology/approach – A new approach based on the notion of process causality and the use of cognitive mapping has been adopted. The aim was to take a step back and unravel causes of defects in the execution of construction projects. From workshops with representatives drawn from different parts of the industry, themes have been identified and investigated from a causation perspective. Findings – It was found that the causes of defects mainly reside in endogenous factors within organisations as opposed to execution failure or exogenous factors related to market, material or equipment behaviour. Originality/value – More specifically, it was found that the dominant cause of defects lies within organisational shortcomings, suggesting that improvements can be found on the management and strategic levels within projects instead of on the operational level.

Factors Affecting Rework Costs in Construction

“…Despite the considerable amount of research that has been undertaken to date (Love et al, 2010), empirical research to determine the costs of rework using predictors may provide uncertain results (e.g., Love and Edwards, 2004), essentially because it is only based on questionnaires. Notably, there is a little evidence of a reduction in rework in projects (e.g., Aiyetan, 2013;Hwang et al, 2014;Kakitahi et al, 2014;Taggart et al, 2014;Jingmond and Ågren, 2015). The primary objective of the research reported in this paper was to determine the influence of project and managerial aspects on rework costs, using data from 788 incidents that occurred at Spanish construction sites.…”

Identification of Quality Failures in Building Energy Renovation Projects in Northern China

“…The on-site supervisors in supervision companies and designers in design companies are also involved. The widespread fraud found in organizational management and construction companies also contributes the quality failures, in line with Jingmond and Ågren [16].…”

“…The quality failures may occur by organizations as a whole, rather than individual contributions from workers, project managers, supervisors, and designers in isolation. Jingmond and Ågren [16] highlighted that the organizational routine rather than individual behavior needs further attention. According to the nature of the private companies, the primary interest of construction companies is to maximize their company profits.…”

“…While quality failures are increasingly regarded as well-known problems and have been widely discussed in the literature [14], the evaluations in existing studies have mainly focused on the impact of the quality failures [10]. Quality failures repeatedly appear in construction [15][16][17], so it is essential to find the common quality failures and avoid them happening in the future. The repeatability of quality failures would indispensably lead to efforts to identify frequency distribution [16,18,19].…”

“…Quality failures repeatedly appear in construction [15][16][17], so it is essential to find the common quality failures and avoid them happening in the future. The repeatability of quality failures would indispensably lead to efforts to identify frequency distribution [16,18,19]. The evaluation of the likelihood of quality failures is also a pivotal foundation to reduce common quality failures in the future.…”