Delays are unique and one of the largest issues mining/manufacturing companies is facing today. Delays in mining/manufacturing projects have become a major concern across all parts of the world. Substantial value is destroyed and... more
Delays are unique and one of the largest issues mining/manufacturing companies is facing today. Delays in mining/manufacturing projects have become a major concern across all parts of the world. Substantial value is destroyed and companies face significant corporate risk if these delays occur during project execution. However, despite the concern regarding the project delays, there has been very limited research conducted in this area. Delay in the completion of a project can be a major problem for contractor companies leading to costly disputes and adverse relationships amongst project participants. Projects can be delayed for a large number of reasons. The reasons are related to the various types of uncertainty associated with activities during the mining/manufacturing processes. The most common factor of delay are natural disaster like flood, earthquake etc. and some others like financial and payment problems, improper planning, poor site management, insufficient experience, shortage of materials and equipment etc. Delays will also result in several negative effects like lawsuits between house owners and contractors, exaggerated prices, loss of productivity and revenue, and contract termination. So, comprehensive study on these delays is important. Present study works on identification of causes of delay in mining/manufacturing projects in Indian context. An approach is suggested to carry out ranking of these causes by two different techniques: Relative importance index and Importance index based on degree of severity and degree of frequency. In most of the cases schedule delays also appear in these projects and result in delay claim progressively. Several studies have proposed various schedule delay analysis methodologies; however, most of the studies focus on the analysis of surface data (as-planned and as-built schedules), few of them on evaluating the effect of root causes, such as the problem of lost productivity. Lost productivity, one essential delay cause, is usually experienced by a contractor while accomplishing its works less than planned rate of production. We analyze the situations of schedule impacts caused by loss of productivity through the case study. In this study, it has been proposed to calculate the schedule impact from lost productivity. The study results will be a basis for developing comprehensive delay analysis methodologies for different mining/manufacturing Projects. It is hoped that the findings of the paper will help the stakeholders to act on critical causes and further try to reduce delay of their projects. Keywords: Mining delays, Effects of delays, Cost overruns, Mining/Manufacturing project, Relative importance index, Importance index, Delay analysis, Loss of productivity.
