Relevancy of Factors and Mitigation Measures in Controlling Time and Cost Overrun towards Malaysian Environment

Construction projects are facing time and cost overrun globally. Since, this problem occurs due to various factors, hence for achieving successful construction projects, it is very important to control the responsible factors causing time and cost overrun. This study assessed the relevancy for each mitigation measures in relation with causative factors of time and cost overrun in Malaysian construction projects. A total of 56 mitigation measures were identified and correlated with the critical factors of time and cost overrun which were categorized into four phases of project life cycle. Data collection was done by conducting structured interviews amongst the experienced practitioners of the southern regions of Peninsular Malaysia.


Introduction
Issues of time and cost overrun in the construction industry have adversely affected the success of the projects globally. In studying the issue of cost overrun, [1] highlighted that the chronic problem of cost overrun in construction industry is not improved for the last 70 years where about 90% of project worldwide face this issue with an average cost overrun is 28%. Similarly, Malaysia's construction industry is also facing poor time and cost performance resulting in a huge amount of time and cost overrun [2]. In a survey by [3] reported that, a quite small number of responses with 11% mentioned that the projects were completed within the estimated time and cost. Thus, it is very important to control the time and cost overrun for achieving successful projects. For this, numerous models and methodologies have been developed over the past years. These developments mostly have focused in dealing with the cost estimation and managing escalations in projects, but still there is a significant knowledge gap emerging in establishing a reference the practices across the industry. Some researchers were proposed procedures and measures to reduce the delays [4]. However, those measures are general recommendation and suggestions, provide without matching with the causative factors of time and cost overrun. Whereas effective time and cost overrun can only be achieved when the root causes i.e. causative factors of time and cost overrun are addressed and controlled from occurrence. Thus, it is essential to understand the key factors that influence the performance of time and cost in order to improve project control as stated by [5]. The study in the construction industry of UK had suggested the mitigating measures with respect to the causative factors [5]. However, this study focused on five factors only i.e. design changes, risk or uncertainties, inaccurate evaluation of project time/duration, complexities and non-performances of subcontractors. While, there is a serious lack of studies on identifying suitable mitigation measures with respect to the nature and factors occurring in construction projects in Malaysia..
Further, effectiveness of mitigation measure in order to control the occurrence of the factors also depends on the stage of the project. Hence, this study considers the project classified into various phases that include planning phase, design phase, construction phase and finishing phase as adopted from [6]. The planning phase highlights detail plan as necessary to meet the requirement project's objective while design phase is a stage of a project where detailed plan and drawings are prepared [6]. Besides, construction phase focuses on putting the project plan into motion and finishing phase emphasis on the construction of architectural and finishing work [6]. Thus, this study is focusing on determining mitigation measures in order to control the critical factors causing time overrun in Malaysian construction industry. Also, the relevancy of each mitigation measure is determined in accordance with the applicability throughout the project lifecycle of the construction projects.

Critical Factors of Time and Cost Overrun
This study is an extension of the research work carried out by [6] regarding identifying critical factors contributing to time and cost overrun as shown in Table 1 below where phase 1 represents planning phase, phase 2 is design phase, phase 3 as construction phase and phase 4 is finishing phase. As seen from Table 1, critical factors in the planning phase are; lack of communication between parties; and change in the scope of the project. In design phase, there are five critical factors as inadequate planning and scheduling; lack of experience; lack of communication between parties; change in the scope of the project; and delays in decision making. Construction phase is considered as critical phase where 8 factors are; critical factors which are poor site management and supervision; incompetent subcontractors; schedule delay; inadequate planning and scheduling; mistakes during construction; cash flow and financial difficulties faced by contractors; delay payment to supplier /subcontractor; and poor project management. In finishing phase, there are four critical factors which include; poor site management and supervision; schedule delay; inadequate planning and scheduling; and mistakes during construction.

Data Collection
Data collection was carried out through structured interviews by using a questionnaire. The questionnaire focused on determining the relevancy of various mitigation measured identified from the literature review in relation with critical causative factors of time and cost overrun throughout various phases of the construction projects. The respondents were asked to marks Yes/No in order to mention whether the identified measure is relevant for the particular factor with respect the mentioned phase of project. The characteristics of the respondents are shown in Table 2.  Gathered data was analysis through frequency analysis method which is a descriptive statistical method that shows the number of occurrences of each response chosen by the respondents.

Results and Discussion
The results obtained from the analysis of collected data regarding relevancy for applying mitigation measures to control time and cost overrun in construction projects in various phases is presented in Table 3. The experience practitioners also suggested the suitable mitigation measures for controlling the critical factors of time and cost overrun. Table 3 shows that majority of the respondents agreed with the relevancy of the identified mitigation measures in terms of the applicability in the planning phase for controlling time and cost overrun. However, only establish change control boards (CCB) was not relevant for control the factor of change in the scope of the project. Similarly, it is noted that for the factors occurring in design phase, the respondents agreed with all identified relative mitigation measured except one measures. For factor, change in the scope of the project regarding relative mitigation measure 'ensuring that no design change is made without the knowledge or authorization of the relevant party'. Thus, this mitigation measure is considered non-relevant and not applicable. In construction and finishing phases, majority of the respondents agreed with the identified relative mitigation measures in accordance with the critical factors.

Conclusion
This study has determined several measures to mitigate critical factors occurring in construction project of Malaysian which result in time and cost overrun. The relevancy of each mitigation measure in terms of applicability was determined through questionnaire interviewing experience practitioner involved in handling construction projects. From statistical analysis of the interviews, it was found that 56 out of 58 mitigation measures were relevant to apply in construction industry of Malaysian for controlling the critical factors of time and cost overrun.