Effective Framework for Change Order Management Using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)

Year 2018, Volume: 31 Issue: 4, 1079 - 1091, 01.12.2018

Murat Gunduz Omar Hafeez Khan

Abstract

Construction projects are of very complex nature
and come along with an intrinsic but undesirable property of change orders. The
purpose of this paper is to propose an effective framework for the change order
management in the construction industry. This is achieved by investigating and
identifying various causes of change orders and their impact on project
objectives like project duration, cost, and quality. The data for this project
were gathered by conducting a survey among the professionals like owners,
project management consultants, design/supervision consultants and contractors
in construction industry. The survey respondents were requested to provide
feedback on the impact of change orders on project duration, cost and quality.
Initially, the data collected from 105 professionals was analyzed through
Relative Importance Index (RII). Furthermore, multiple objective decision
technique of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was applied to rank the causes
of change orders according to their impact on project duration, cost and quality
considered collectively. According to AHP, the top three causes of change
orders with highest cumulative impact on project duration, cost and quality
were, “Change in specifications by the owner”, “Change of plans or scope by the
owner”, and “Poor project planning by the contractor”. This paper also suggests
improvements for the existing change order management processes and ranks these
suggestions according to their role in reducing impact on project duration,
cost and quality. The proposed framework can be adjusted to suit individual
construction projects with different relative importance of project objectives.

Keywords

Change orders, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), Relative Importance Index (RII), Construction ındustry

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