January 2001, Volume 52, Issue 1, Pages 26 - 34

Case-Oriented Paper

The impact of disruption and delay when compressing large projects: going for incentives? S Howick & C Eden University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK     Correspondence to: S Howick, Department of Management Science, University of Strathclyde, 40 George Street, Glasgow G1 1QE, UK E-mail: susan@mansci.strath.ac.uk

Keywords

project management;   risk;   disruption and delay;   simulation

Abstract

Demands by clients for earlier delivery after a project has started are increasing. This paper investigates the consequential disruption and delay that follows from the contractor accepting these demands. Explorations are carried out using a System Dynamics model based upon a large model constructed to represent the complexity of a claim for disruption and delay in relation to a specific mega-project. The model used for the explorations has been validated further using information gathered during work on other claim projects. The model enables the impact of disruption and delay resulting from the holistic and dynamic impact of a compressed delivery date to be assessed in relation to two specific and typical options. Use of the model suggests that the probability seems slight of finding the highly specific circumstances where there is any certainty in an outcome of early delivery at little extra cost.

Received March 1999; Accepted August 2000

^© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2001