Top 5 Reasons Why Construction Projects Get Delayed
It’s quite costly and frustrating for contractors when there are unexpected delays in construction projects. And statistically only 50% construction companies around the world are able to finish their project within the agreed timeframe.
Unfortunately, it is quite difficult to understand how these delays crop up while managing projects. However, some of the common delays include equipment failure, bad weather, and labor shortage.
This is where using a cloud-based software that is well-integrated will be the best ever decision for your business. Keeping everyone and everything on the same pages becomes much easier. ProjectPro is one such platform that provides you a great visibility into on-going tasks.
In this blog, we’ll be diving into top five reasons why construction professionals fail to meet their project deadlines and tips to prevent them:
1. Improper budget planning
Do you know that a wrong estimation for a construction job can be highly destructive? In some scenarios, jobs are completely stopped for a few weeks or months or halted forever.
So when you estimate accurately, you’ll always have enough cash for paying wages, buying materials and more. There are various software that helps to simplify bids, financial project planning, estimates and makes your internal procedures foolproof to extend.
Additionally, once estimates are done, contractors can easily keep track of all the tasks on the construction management software like ProjectPro to get the work done. Once you assign tasks to your laborers, ProjectPro provides you with real-time access to data to monitor how job progress is balancing with the job costs.
Unfortunately, even today several contractors are using spreadsheets or on-premise software solutions to manage their budgets. This has led to delayed data reporting between the office and on-site work dramatically. You’ll see a delay in those tasks related to analyzing project productivity and collecting data that is days, weeks or months old.
This is where ProjectPro comes into play. It is an integrated construction management software powered by Microsoft Dynamics Business Central that can solve this issue by automating workflows and providing powerful data in real time.
2. Need for approvals at every phase
Waiting for approvals at every phase of the project is another biggest challenge for construction professionals. This waiting game is the top reason why there are so many delays in completing a construction project.
Being a construction professional, you have to make crucial decisions to keep your projects moving. Proper coordination and easy approval of items can keep construction jobs on time and in some scenarios, under budget too. When you have the right cloud-based software in place, contractors can easily automate tasks and streamline workflows without any hassle.
For instance, if your client requests for a change at any phase of the project, ProjectPro will alert on its dashboard, and you can approve and create a change order. And in the back office, your accounting team will see the change update in real time, and approve changes in the figures as they occur.
3. Unable to establish communication
When it comes to meeting the deadline, nothing works on a construction site without a clear communication. When you don’t have clarity on the expectations of your client, your moving parts on the site will literally collapse. Keep in mind that clear communication and a proper communication hierarchy are essential components for any construction project.
It’s important for the newest laborer to be a member of the board of directors, everyone needs to know the hierarchy— who to talk to, when and what to do to support open communication essential for success.
It is crucial to set up a proper communication hierarchy and plan before the first worker moves on to a new project. When all the members know who to talk to and how to connect with the top management for additional support.
Never wait for the time when everyone is already deep in their respective tasks before you begin trying to set this up. Remember, improper communication or barriers will extensively delay your project faster than ever.
4. Lack of labor
Labor recession triggered in the past decade has left its mark on the industry, as many professional workers were laid off during the downturn and left to take jobs in different industries.
No doubt, many have returned back for the job, but the new generations of workers entering the workforce have declined dramatically. They’re unable to commit to the construction industry for their careers.
And with time, technology is changing that dynamic by simplifying the HR and labor management workflows across the construction companies. When you correctly allocate labor to a task, you’ll be able to attain your project goals.
When you rush from project to project, inefficiencies and risks can impact your business negatively.
This is what technology is fixing, by streamlining scheduling and time collection for labor on-site and assisting project managers determine what workforce is best for what projects.
5. Unpredictable weather
Predicting and controlling the weather is still one of the impossible things on earth. Regardless of your industry experience, predicting heavy rain, hurricanes, thunderstorms, tornadoes or any other natural disaster will never happen in a million years. These disasters are also one of the reasons that causes delay in a construction project.
And if it happens, the damages caused by natural disasters can be time-consuming, leading to delay in projects. Well, we cannot forecast weather accurately, but stay ahead by devising plan B. We can use all the tools and resources available at our disposal for the same.
Bottom Line
So time delay and cost overrun are quite common in construction projects. However, it can be reduced to a certain extent or eliminated completely by adopting intelligent, smart and easy-to-use software that can control processes. ProjectPro is one such integrated platform with the power of Microsoft Dynamics Business Central, allowing you to manage key aspects and activities of each phase of the construction project smoothly.
More so, you can establish better communication among all the stakeholders of the projects with a proper understanding of the project success and KPI. This will lead to the completion of the project without delay and cost overrun successfully, ensuring the quality of work.
