ANALYSING CAUSES OF DELAY IN SARAWAK’S CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v24i44.2287Keywords:
Delay, Construction Industry, Kruskal-Wallis Test, Sarawak, MalaysiaAbstract
Construction delays are recurring issues in the construction industry. In Malaysia, numerous studies on construction delays have been conducted. However, studies specifically focused on Sarawak, the largest state in Malaysia, remain limited, despite the issue being common in the state. Therefore, the present study aimed to analyse the causes of delay from the perspectives of construction stakeholders in Sarawak. Two objectives were set to achieve the aim: (i) to prioritise the causes of delay and (ii) to examine if there are statistically significant differences in the rankings of causes of delay between clients, consultants, and contractors. A quantitative research method was adopted to collect research data by sending semi-structured questionnaires to the respondents. Eventually, 79 valid responses were collected. The data was analysed using the Descriptive Statistics method for ranking causes of delay and the Kruskal-Wallis test for examining the differences between groups. The results showed that the top three significant causes of delay are labour shortages, increases in material prices, and material shortages. The Kruskal-Wallis test revealed that there is consensus among the construction stakeholders for 65 causes, but differences also exist for 11 causes. The present study provides a comprehensive assessment of 76 causes of delay across different respondent groups. Therefore, the findings could provide valuable insights for the construction stakeholders. Mitigation strategies can be planned before project implementation to reduce the delay issues in Sarawak’s construction industry.
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