Characterizing final stages of construction work

Abstract

Modern management philosophies as lean construction emphasize continuous flow for processes and operations throughout contract duration. However, many sites are still plagued with discontinuity, erratic flows and overlapping of activities, what occurs in increasing stances as construction activities came to an end and project is overhand to the client. This research work purports to define such concepts and illustrate them in a case study taking as an example a 16,800sqm building development in Fortaleza. A host of methodological avenues are pursued, including photography documentation, line of balance representation, cost evaluation and clients’ questionnaires in connection to the disrupted activities. The hypotheses of this study are related to finding the problematic issues intrinsic to the final stages of construction work. It was found that despite their potential impact to trouble management activities on site, costs associated with their correction were small. Notwithstanding their major outcome was to deliver a fragile and unsatisfactory building as it is signaled by client claims when the project was finally commissioned. Lessons are related to suggest greater efforts in evaluating indirect costs of disrupted activities and the reasons why clients are able to associate them with low quality work and increased maintenance costs.