“Effects of schedule acceleration on construction performance”

Accelerating a project can be achievement. The outcomes can be troublesome if productivity and quality are yielded for staying in front of calendar, such that the real schedule benefits are frequently scarcely justified regardless of the exertion. The schedule acceleration and its causes and effects are often overlooked when schedule decisions are being made. Construction projects are suffered from various problems and complex factors such as cost, duration, quality and safety. Construction industry is diverse as it contains contractors, consultants, designers, owners, and others. The aim of this paper is to identify the factors constraining productivity, & quality in Indian construction industry based on the views of all technical persons. Subjective information gathered through literature review formed the basis for questionnaire surveys conducted among the target populations. The questionnaires were distributed to Project Manager, Project Engineer, Planning Engineer, Senior Engineer, Site Engineer, Estimation & Billing Engineer, quality Engineer, Productivity Engineer. An empirical investigation has been performed by using survey data collected from 49 construction practitioners working in 7 different construction sites in (Maharashtra) India. In-depth literature review revealed 5 productivity constraining factors and their 40 sub factors, 14 quality constraining factors and their 62 sub factors. Before the factor analysis were ranked according to their mean ratings. Recommendations were provided for improving construction productivity in the construction industry for addressing the productivity & quality constraints. This paper is intended to provide clients, project managers, designers, and contractors with the necessary information needed to better manage the quality of building construction projects. This paper reports the findings of a study undertaken to determine the underlying factors affecting construction projects productivity & quality. The results of this questionnaire survey data analysis indicate that advantages of increasing the pace of work by working under schedule acceleration can be offset by losses in productivity and quality. The paper finally suggests the strategies to help the project managers to deal effectively with schedule acceleration & to improve project performance.