FACTORS AFFECTING DESIGN AND DOCUMENTATION QUALITY IN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

BY

MOSTAFA ISMAIL DARWISH

A Thesis Presented to
THE DEANSHIP OF GRADUATE STUDIES KING FAHD UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM & MINERALS
DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of

MASTER OF SCIENCE
In CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING & MANAGEMENT
May, 2005

KING FAHD UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM & MINERALS DHAHRAN 31261, SAUDI ARABIA

DEANSHIP OF GRADUATES STUDIES This thesis, written by MOSTAFA ISMAIL DARWISH Under the direction of his Thesis Advisor, and approved by all Thesis Committee, has been presented to and accepted by the Dean of Graduate Studies, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE IN
CONSTRUCTION ENGINEERING & MANAGEMENT. THESIS COMMITTEE: _________________________ Prof. Abdulaziz A. Bubshait Chairman ______________________ Prof. Sadi A. Assaf Member ______________________ Prof. Osama A. Jannadi Member _______________________________ Prof. Abdulaziz A. Bubshait CEM Department Chairman Date:_____________________ _______________________________ Prof. Mohammad A. AL-Ohali Dean of Graduates Studies Date______________________

DEDICATION To the soul of my Father, the first to teach me. To my beloved Mother, for her prayers to me. To my Wife, for care and support all the time. And to my Childrens, Salma, Omar and Ismail with hope for bright future.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I wish to express my deep appreciation to Professor Abdulaziz A. Bubshait, who served as my advisor, for all the support and guidance. I also appreciate his positive comments and advices throughout my research. Thanks are due also to other members of the thesis committee Professor Sadi A. Assaf and Professor Osama A. Jannadi. Acknowledgement is due to King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals. Specially for the Department of Construction Engineering & Management for supporting this research. My thanks and gratitude is due also to my wife for her encouragement and patience without which this work would not have been possible.

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

Dedication .......................................................................................................................iii Acknowledgment ............................................................................................................iv Table of contents..............................................................................................................v List of tables ....................................................................................................................iii List of figures ..................................................................................................................ix Abstract ...........................................................................................................................xii Arabic Abstract ...............................................................................................................xiii CH. I INTRODUCTION Page I.1 Background.............................................................................................................. I.2 Introduction ............................................................................................................. 2 I.3 Statement of the Problem .........................................................................................5 I.4 Objectives of the Study ............................................................................................7 I.5 Scope and Limitations...............................................................................................7 I.6 Significance of the Study..........................................................................................8 I.7 Thesis Organization ................................................................................................10 CH. II LITERATURE REVIEW Page II.1 Introduction..............................................................................................................11 II.2 Terminology.............................................................................................................11. II.3 Construction Defects Categories..............................................................................16 II.4 Design and Documentation Attributes.....................................................................16 II.5 Design and Documentation Quality.........................................................................21 II.6 Design Deficiency in Construction Industry............................................................25 II.7 Responsibility for Design Document Deficiency .. 32 II.8 Impacts of Design Deficiency ................................................................................34. II.9 Influence of Fees on Quality ..................................................................................36 II.10 Methods of Design Quality Measurement.............................................................41 II.11 Improving of Design and Documentation Quality ...............................................41 4II.12 Development of List of Factors from Previous Studies .....................................45 II.13 Comparing the Factors used with Similar Previous Studies ............................56 II.14 Summary ..............................................................................................................59 CH. III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY III.1 Introduction III.2 Methodology III.3 Questionnaire Design III.4 Sample Size III.5 Data Gathering III.6 Scoring

60 60 63 65 68 69

CH. IV FINDINGS AND RESULTS Page IV.1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 72 IV.2 General Information and Industry Characteristics ..73 IV.3 Statistical Techniques................................................................................ 90 IV.4 Ranking of the Factors...................................................................... ..95 IV.5 Construction Process Efficiency 108 IV.6 Correlation......................................................................................................... 118 IV.7 Comments from Respondents 131 CH.V SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS Page V.1 Introduction ............................................................................................. 133 V.2 Summary of The Study....................................................................................... 133 V.3 Conclusions......................................................................................................... 138 V.4 Recommendations............................................................................................... 146 V.5 Recommendations for Further Studies ................................................................149 V.6 References...........................................................................................................150 APPENDIX I Questionnaire Forms .........................................................................AI A - Arabic Form........................................................................... B - English Form.......................................................................... APPENDIX II Statistical Results for all Professional Responses.............................AII APPENDIX III Rank Agreement Calculations on current Research and Previous Studies.AIII VITA

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 2.1 Design Quality Attributes ....................................................................................... 17 Table 2.2 Documentation Quality Attributes . .18 Table 2.3 Most Important Risk Categories . 29 Table 2.4 Responsibilities for Construction Defects .. 30 Table 2.5 Average proportion of Non-Desirable Const. Elements ............. 36 Table 2.6 Problems issues affecting design and documentation quality in Aust. 46 Table 2.7 Factors Influencing Design Documents Quality in Japan . .48 Table 2.8 Comparison of the Factors used with other Previous Researches .. 56 Table 3.1 Scale (interval) value assigned for each response of questionnaire ...................... 70 Table 4.1 Statistical Results for Combined Responses ................................................. 93 Table 4.2 Consultants Ranking ..................................................100 Table 4.3 Contractors Ranking ........................................................................................... 102 Table 4.4 Owners Ranking ........................................................................ 104 Table 4.5 Combined Ranking.................................................................... .106 Table 4.6 Undesirable Construction Elements for Consultants Responses 116 Table 4.7 Undesirable Construction Elements for Contractors Responses 116 Table 4.8 Undesirable Construction Elements for Owners Responses .. 117 Table 4.9 Undesirable Construction Elements for Combined Responses . . 117

LIST OF TABLES (Cont.)

Table 4.10 Rank Agreement and Spearman Correlation Calculations .121 Table 4.11 Determination of Max. Rank Agreement Factor . ...124 Table 4.12 Test the Ranking Order (Kendalls Coefficient Calculations) 128

Page

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 3.1 Methodology Chart .......................................................... 62 Figure 3.2 Scoring Scale ........................................................ 70 Figure 4.1 Experience of Owners ............................................... ..75 Figure 4.2 Experience of Consultants.....................................................................................75 Figure 4.3 Experience of Contractors.................................................................................... 76 Figure 4.4 Experience of Total Respondents ........................................................................ 76 Figure 4.5 Respondents Role in Construction....................................................................... .77 Figure 4.6 Classification of Contractor Organization ....... ....................................................78 Figure 4.7 Types of Projects done by Total respondents....................................................79 Figure 4.8 Types of Projects done by Consultants ..................................................... ..80 Figure 4.9 Types of Projects done by Contractors .............................................. ..80 Figure 4.10 Type of Owners Organization .................................................................... ..81 Figure 4.11 Size of Owners Organizations . ............................................................. 82 Figure 4.12 Size of Consultants Organizations.......................................................................83 Figure 4.13 Size of Contractors Organizations .......................... ...83 Figure 4.14 Size of Total respondents .................................................................................. 84

Page

LIST OF FIGURES (Cont.)

Page

Figure 4.15 Percentage of Design Income for Consultants .................................................. 85 Figure 4.16 Level of QA Accreditation of Owners .............................................................. 86 Figure 4.17 Level of QA Accreditation of Consultants ........................... .87 Figure 4.18 Level of QA Accreditation of Contractors............................. 88 Figure 4.19 Level of QA Accreditation of Total respondents............................................... 89 Figure 4.20 Influence of Design and Documentation Quality on Price.. .109 Figure 4.21 Change in Tender Price due Design Deficiency................................................110 Figure 4.22 Influence of Design and Documentation Quality on Time ..... .111 Figure 4.23 Change in Tender Time due Design Deficiency..................... ..112 Figure 4.24 Undesirable Construction Elements By Total Respondents ............................ 114

THESIS ABSTRACT

Student Name: Mostafa Ismail Darwish al-Far Title Of Study: Factors Affecting Design Documentation Quality in Construction Industry. Major Field: Construction Engineering & Management Date of Degree: May, 2005

This thesis discusses the main factors affecting Design and Documentation Quality in Construction Industry in Saudi Arabia. A survey of 21 contractors, 19 consultants and 14 owners from the Eastern Province was performed. The survey included 39 different factors affecting Design and Documentation Quality and their level of importance. The severity of those factors were measured by the level of importance and were ranked according to the importance index for consultants, contractors, owners and a combination of all respondents.

A test for Correlation Agreement on the ranking of the factors between different project participants consultants, contractors and owners was also calculated using Spearman's and Kendall's techniques. It was found that the overall construction parties have moderate agreement on the ranking of important factors.

It was concluded that, Last minute changes by client, Insufficient overall design time, Unstable clients requirements, Waiting for client decision and that Consultants tend to copy and modify from their previous work to minimize time and cost, were the most important factors. Finally, some recommendations were made in order to improve the design and documentation quality in the construction industry.

MASTER OF SCIENCE DEGREE

KING FAHD UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM & MINERALS DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA

CHAP TER ONE

INTRODUCTION I. 1 Background
The construction sector is one of the major parts of the contracting business in Saudi Arabia and it constitutes a major portion of the Kingdom's domestic economy, even though the share of construction sector GDP in the total national output has fallen since the early 1990s. The construction sector alone provided employment to more than one million workers in 2002 and accounted for nearly 14.4% of the Kingdom's total 7.3 million- labor force (Alahli, 2004).

The construction sector GDP grew by 3.1% in 2001 and again increased by 5.0% to (SR43 billion) in 2002 and grown by around 2.8% in 2003, but with increased expenditure in 2004, the construction sector is expected to grow faster at 5.0% in the current year. However, the share of the construction sector GDP in the total national output has declined from an average of 12% for the most of the 1980s to a more sustainable average of around 8% in the 1990s, mostly due to the completion of various infrastructure projects. However, the share of construction sector GDP within the non-oil output averaged around 10.5% in the 1990s and amounted to around 10.2% in 2002, suggesting continued investment activities in the construction sector (Alahli, 2004).

I. 2 Introduction
Designers provide the graphic and written representations that allow construction and trade contractors to transform concepts and ideas into physical reality. How effectively and efficiently this transformation occurs, depends largely on the quality of the design and documentation provided. And while good design needs to be "effective" and ensure fitness for purpose, it also needs to be communicated effectively through the documentation (i.e. drawings, specifications, etc.). Unfortunately, a perceived decline in project documentation quality over the past few years is considered to be causing

increased delays, disruption and costs to all parties involved in the construction process (Tilley et al, 1999). In an ideal world, the design and documentation provided for construction projects would be complete, precise and unambiguous. Unfortunately, contractors are often supplied with project documentation that is considered to be substandard or deficient due to incomplete, conflicting or erroneous information. Design and documentation quality is greatly determined by the level of professional services provided, with the quality of these services generally being determined by how the services are selected and how the fees are negotiated (Defraites, 1989).

Findings of design deficiencies are being reported with greater frequency in professional publications and local newspapers. When these design deficiencies make headlines, it is usually because of catastrophic failure or death. The design deficiencies that do not make headlines usually end up in contract claims, accompanied by delays and significantly higher costs (Vlatas, 1986). However, while the design itself needs to be "effective", it also needs to be communicated effectively through the documentation (i.e., drawings, specifications, Bills of Quantities). When documentation quality is considered, a number of attributes - such as timeliness, accuracy, completeness, coordination and conformance - are looked at to determine the level of quality achieved. Tilley et al. (1997) reported that the quality of design and documentation achieved could be determined by measuring the extent to which attributes of design and documentation quality are incorporated.

Abolnour (1994) discussed the problem of the absence of a system that organizes and unifies project documents in order to simplify the process of understanding and reviewing these documents. He stated that in Saudi Arabia, each design office selects an international system that is compatible with his employees, the nature of the project, and his clients. This inconsistency leads to a higher probability of making mistakes, more wasted time and effort and a lower rate of experience acquisition.

As the quality of the design and documentation provided has a major influence on the overall performance and efficiency of construction projects (Burati et al. 1992;Lutz et al. 1990; Kirby et al. 1988), any improvements in design and documentation quality can only lead to corresponding improvements in the efficiency of the construction process (Tilley et al, 1999).

Where designers are selected based on low design fees, then the level and quality of the service provided is likely to be limited and generally translates into additional project costs to the owner (Abolnour, 1994).

But what is design and documentation quality? The assessment of design and documentation quality can be highly subjective and open to a wide variety of interpretations. When considering the issue of quality, Burati and Farrington (1987) indicated that quality can be defined as "conformance to established requirements", which by avoiding the issues of degree of goodness and satisfaction - seen as being too subjective - allows for a basis of measurement. However, by investigating the type and extent of quality "deviations " - defined as "departures from established requirements" a way of determining the root causes of quality deviations as well as method of measuring design and construction quality costs is provided (Burati and Farrington,1987 ; Burati et al.,1992; Davis et al.,1989).

Based on these definitions of quality and quality deviations, it can be deduced that reductions in the quality of the end product can be more easily avoided by ensuring all project requirements are properly considered during the early design stages. Allowing any unresolved or unworkable design issues to remain in the documentation, will only necessitate changes further on in the process and add to the extent of quality deviations. As insufficient documentation and detailing, leads to similar problems, the factors causes these problems must be considered when determining design and documentation quality.

Based on the above, the quality of the design and documentation process can be simply defined as: The ability to provide the contractor with all the information needed to enable construction to be carried out as required efficiently and without hindrance." (Tilley,1998) .

While this definition does not insist that all project information is required up front at the start of construction, it does imply that the contractor is supplied with sufficient information to ensure that the construction process can be planned and carried out in the most efficient manner available.

I. 3 Statement of the Problem

The quality of design and documentation has a major influence on the overall performance and efficiency of construction projects. As designers provide the graphic and written representations which allow contractors and subcontractors to transform concepts and ideas into physical reality, it is the efficiency with which this transformation occurs that determines the level of project performance and efficiency achieved.

Researchers and practitioners have acknowledged defective design is a major cause of contract claims and change orders during construction (Vlatas,1986; Al-Dubaisi,2000). One study shows that design error is the single most common cause for a contract claim (Diekmann and Nelson,1985). It is also found that more than 50% of change orders are attributable to defective design (Kirby et al., 1988 and Lutz et al., 1989).

Design deficiencies are occurring more frequently because of the complexity of the work, new and different relationships among the professionals in design and construction, and haste to get the projects completed and in operation as soon as possible. These deficiencies are a major cause of contract disputes (Vlatas, 1986). Poor design and documentation quality is a major cause of construction process inefficiency, leading directly to delays, rework and variations, and contributing to

increases in project time and cost, for both owner and contractors alike (Tilley et al.,1999).

This study aims to assist all construction parties to plan effectively before starting a project beginning with the design phase. This can be done by creating awareness and paying enough attention to this important phase to minimize the problems and eliminate extra costs incurred to make corrective actions to complete the defective design and documentation.

I. 4 Objectives of the Study

To identify main factors affecting design and documentation quality in the Saudi Arabian construction industry. To investigate the nature and extent of the impacts (effects) of design and documentation deficiencies on project cost and time (duration). To calculate the percentage agreement between different project participants on the ranking of the factors.

I. 5 Scope and Limitations

1- Experts from each group (consultant/Designer, contractor and owner/ owner representative ), with more than 10 years experience in construction projects greater than 10 million Saudi Riyals, were interviewed. 2- All building Projects built in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia. 3- The focus of this study is on traditional procurement projects in the Public sector.

I. 6 Significance of the Study

As the quality of the design and documentation produced has a major influence on the overall performance and efficiency of construction projects, it is vitally important and useful that issues affecting design and documentation quality be identified and discussed.

There is no study that has dealt with the subject of the relationship between design document quality and construction deficiencies in the local construction industry in Saudi Arabia. Although this study is limited to the Eastern province area, the results could be use as guidelines in the context of Saudi Arabia. The results of the research shall benefit the following parties: Owners, Designers, Contractors, Consultants and Public Agencies.

Improvements in construction process efficiency will result from creating an awareness of the value of quality design and documentation and the introduction of selection criteria that includes consideration of the designer's skills and experience. Once developers fully understand the value of quality design and documentation, they would then ensure that sufficient time and fees are available to allow designers to provide the level of service needed to carry out the design function completely (Tilleyet al., 1999).

The benefits would be more projects being completed on time, within budget and with a reduced likelihood of legal action due to contractual disputes. In addition, with less variation, rework and disputes, then contractors would be able to minimize the management time and cost spent on non-value added activities.

These benefits would be reflected in reduced project and contractual risk and a higher level of profitability for both developers and contractors. More reasonable fee levels would also enable designers to restore staff training programs -to develop a higher standard of designer- and encourage innovation (Tilley et al, 1999).

Consequently, it is to the benefit of construction parties to recognize the situation and identify the causes of design deficiencies in the early stages of the project (Design

Phase). This will help to take the necessary precautions to control these causes before they be aware when they occur during construction phase.

I. 7 Thesis Organization

This thesis is divided into five chapters. The first chapter gives general background information on construction process in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It also presents a statement of the problem, the objectives of the study, its scope and its limitations and significance of the study.

Chapter two summarizes the literature related to the construction process efficiency, the factors affecting design and documentation quality in the construction industry and the identification of its impacts on the construction process efficiency.

Chapter three addresses questionnaire design, the sample size, the selection of the experts interviewed and a method of collecting data from construction professionals (experts) related to the problem discussed.

Chapter four discusses the statistical methods used, tables and information deduced from statistical analysis, the statistical results and interpretation of these tables and information. It also contains the ranking by importance index of the factors affecting design documentation quality by, consultants, contractors, owners and for combined response.

Finally, the last chapter contains summary of the study, conclusions, suggested recommendations and recommendations for further study.