Clear Vision
With project delays mounting in Saudi Arabia, the need for clear vision and targets becomes ever more urgent
Case Studies:
In all development projects, decisions are made that deviate from the project plan without the risks being fully assessed. These can include cutting costs, changing design, and financing changes. The effect of such decisions in the general scope of the project are often unforeseen and overlooked.
However, these may result in potentially damaging effects that put a project at risk of cost and time overruns and even permanent deficiencies to design which may be costly to correct or altogether uncorrectable. Take for example the thought process required to avoid the following scenarios:
Scenario 1 – Value engineering gone wrong:
A business park with several five story buildings is in construction phase. Through a value engineering exercise at the design stage a suggestion was made to reduce the floor-to-ceiling height by 200mm in order to save SAR 1,200,000 in construction costs, primarily through reducing concrete in the structure. However the change in detailed design drawings took an additional three weeks of design time and resulted in tight space constraints in the ceiling void. This in turn then required changes in the installation layout of MEP services that took the contractor an additional two weeks to overcome. Conclusively, saving SAR 1,200,000 in construction costs resulted in an additional five week delay to the overall program which also caused a five week delay in rental income from tenants, extra design fees, extension of time claims and an overall cost that far exceeded the amount that was supposedly “saved” by the reduction in concrete usage.
