Skip to Content (custom)

Construction Changes and Change Orders: Their Magnitude and Impact

Publication No
SD-66
Type
Academic Document
Publication Date
Apr 01, 1991
Pages
125
Research Team
RT-006d
DOCUMENT DETAILS
Abstract
Key Findings
Filters & Tags
Abstract
The purpose of this report is to identify and discuss the real impact of changes on project costs and schedules. The legal basis for changes and their management is reviewed briefly, but the focus is on their management. The report summarizes
Key Findings
Any time craft workers are interrupted for a change, the workers become less productive due to loss of momentum. (SD-66, p. 6)
Limiting access to an area or forcing a contractor to share work space with other contractors leads to inefficiency. When work areas are congested, craft workers are less productive. (SD-66, p. 6)
Additional time and expense is often required by contractors to manage overhead costs attributable to change-motivated delays. (SD-66, p. 7)
When supervisory staff of craft workers must expend additional time and effort in the evaluation and implementation of changes, they are less effective in completing the original work. (SD-66, p. 7)
When there are multiple changes on a project, there is a compounding effect with deleterious effect on cost and time required. (SD-66, p. 35)
The loss of productivity associated with changes and interruptions almost always makes any changed work more costly on a unit basis. (SD-66, p. 37)

Modification of scope is the single most common source of change on projects and market pressure for a product is the primary reason for poor project scope definition. Poor scope definition is the highest impact item that causes projects to run over budget. (SD-66, p. 10)

Filters & Tags
Research Topic
Cost/Schedule Change
Keywords
change management, work breakdown structure, project scope definition, cost estimating, change impacts, bulk material estimate, change control, loss of momentum, disruption of work, worker productivity, dilution of supervision, extended overhead, loss of