Delay Analysis in EPC Projects using Ishikawa Diagram

International Journal of Advanced Engineering, Management and Science (IJAEMS) [Vol-3, Issue-7, July- 2017]
https://dx.doi.org/10.24001/ijaems.3.7.7 ISSN: 2454-1311
www.ijaems.com Page | 750
Delay Analysis in EPC Projects using Ishikawa
Diagram
Alaa Khalfan Al Ghaithi1
, Rafeeq Ameen Kattiparuthi2
, Alaa Moosa Koya3
1B Sc, Built and Natural Environment Department , Caledonian College of Engineering, Glasgow Caledonian University
Muscat Sultanate of Oman,
2Faculty Built and Natural Environment Department, Caledonian College of Engineering, Glasgow Caledonian University
Muscat Sultanate of Oman,
3
M Tech, Traffic and Transportation Planning, National Institute of Technology, India
Abstract— Delay is one of the major issues in EPC projects
in Oman. Project managers are not considering the root
causes of delay while taking preventive measures. This
project aims to identify the most common types of delay in
EPC projects, to find out the root causes of delay by using
Ishikawa diagram and further to prepare acceleration plan
for a running project by using schedule compression
techniques. The objectives of this project are: (a ) to identify
root causes of various delays commonly affecting the EPC
projects in Oman by using Ishikawa diagram. (b) to identify
critical delay cause factors for a running project by
conducting questionnaire survey. (c) to prepare
acceleration plan for the project by using schedule
compression techniques. To achieve this study: all the
information was collected, schedules were compared to
calculate the delay in each activity, questionnaire survey
was conducted to study the impact of various factors
causing delay and the root causes by using Ishikawa
diagram and finally prepared an acceleration plan by using
schedule compression techniques . The results found are:
time and cost constraints are the biggest obstacle causing
delay in EPC projects. The study identified the importance
of analyzing the root causes before taking any particular
preventive measures.
Keywords— Ishikawa diagram, Delay analysis, Crashing,
Pareto chart.
I. INTRODUCTION
Sultanate of Oman is one of the developing economies in
the Middle East in which its development depends on the
construction industry as an important sector. Increase in the
population in Oman is demanding the development of
infrastructure. The government is spending billions of
Omani rials every year in major projects in the development
of the country. If a range of projects schedules are being
reviewed it can be seen that in some projects the delay
ranges from few days to several months to over a year in
some projects. To avoid these delay factors in EPC projects
it is important to analyse the delay factor. This project has
tried to conduct an extensive study to find out the root
causes of delay in EPC projects in Oman by using Ishikawa
diagram, which is commonly used to find out the root
causes of quality related problems.
The aim of this project is to identify the most common
types of delay in EPC projects, to find out the root causes of
delay by using Ishikawa diagram and further to prepare
acceleration plan for a running project by using schedule
compression techniques.
The objectives of the project are as follows:
 To identify root causes of various delays commonly
affecting the EPC projects in Oman by using Ishikawa
diagram.
 To identify critical delay cause factors for a running
project by conducting questionnaire survey.
 To prepare acceleration plan for the project by using
schedule compression techniques.
The site selected to conduct the case study is “Ras Al
Hamra Substation”. It is a project handling by STST for
PDO as their client. PDO initiated a development project in
RAH area to construct additional residential buildings,
school, club, hotels etc. The objective of “Ras Al Hamra
Substation” project is to supply power arrangement required
for the RAH developments and to recommend the best
techno – economic option. The baseline schedule for this
project has been revised two times, which shows the scope
of this research study.
Literature Review:
Aibinu and Jagboro (2002) identified and evaluated the
effects of delays on building project execution in Nigeria.
Construction delay has become endemic in Nigeria. It is

imperative to create awareness of the extent to which delays
can adversely affect project delivery. They identified, by
questionnaire evaluates and through empirical method to
assess the effects of construction delays. The findings
showed that time and cost overruns were frequent effects of
delay. Delay had significant effect on completion cost and
time of 61 building projects studied. Client-related delay is
significant in Nigeria. Acceleration of site activities coupled
with improved clients’ project management procedure and
inclusion of appropriate contingency allowance in
precontract estimate should assuage the adverse effect of
construction delays.
Arditi and Pattanakitchamroon (2006) through their
research establish selection guidelines for delay analysts by
comparing the characteristics of the most commonly used
delay analysis methods, and considering their advantages
and disadvantages under different circumstances. The
selection of the proper analysis method depends upon a
variety of factors including information available, time of
analysis, capabilities of the methodology and time, funds
and effort allocated to the analysis. The authors reviewed 20
research studies that discuss various aspects of delay
analysis methods and summarize the advantages and
disadvantages of widely used delay analysis methods. They
also discuss the most important issues in delay analysis that
affect the results of the analysis. The selection of a suitable
analysis method depends heavily on the availability of
scheduling data, the familiarity of the analyst with the
capabilities of the software used in the project, clear
specifications in the contract concerning the treatment of
concurrent delays and the ownership of float.
Yang and Kao (2009) develop a comprehensive method to
help delay analysis. A review of delay analysis methods
was done along with Comparison of three process-based
dynamic analysis methods, namely, the snapshot analysis
method, the windows analysis method and the isolated
delay type method. Six suggestions on developing an ideal
delay analysis method are: concerning of as-planned and as-
built schedules, dealing with various delay types, providing
clear liability distribution, considering multiple critical
paths and critical path(s) change, defining total float in a
clear position and incorporating the system into popular
commercial scheduling software.
Nguyen and Ibbs (2006) to ensure more efficient delay
analyses and claims compared the improved schedule
window analysis considering resource allocation with the
traditional schedule window analysis. The result obtained
through the comparison of the improved window analysis
with the existing window analysis is that resource allocation
can affect the result of a delay analysis. Performing a
schedule analysis without considering resource allocations
may increase the owner’s or contractor’s risk of assuming
delay responsibility which is not his or her fault. This
research enables more reliable schedule analysis. Therefore,
further research will be focused to increase the usability,
credibility and acceptability of delay analysis.
Abdul-Rahman, Wang and Jackson (2011) conduct a study
identify issues in implementing quality systems in design
and build projects. Their aim was to focus on the project
manager’s point of views on the implementation of quality
system in design-and-build projects especially using the
Ishikawa diagram. To carry out this case study, a
questionnaire survey was employed to collect data from 198
targeted project management consultant firms and
construction management firms all over Malaysia to
identify issues in implementing quality systems in design-
and-build projects.
II. METHODOLOGY
The project is aimed to identify the most common types of
delay in EPC projects, to find out the root causes of delay
by using Ishikawa diagram and further to prepare
acceleration plan for a running project by using schedule
compression techniques. The following are the
methodology steps used to accomplish the objectives of the
project:
Fig.1: Flow chart exhibiting the project stages

1. Initial literature review: several journal papers were
reviewed to get general and specific idea regarding the
selected topic.
2. Interviews for selecting a case study: interviews with
employees of various levels for selecting a proper case
study for the selected topic.
3. Data collection: discussions with the stakeholders of
the selected project to collect the necessary information
and data.
4. Comparison of schedules: comparison between the
baseline schedule and the revised schedules to calculate
the total numbers of days delayed in each activity and
total duration of project.
5. Root causes analysis by using Ishikawa diagram: based
on the literature research, the interviews and the
collected data about the project, all the root causes of
delay in the project were identified and further detailed
analysis is done by Ishikawa diagram.
6. Questionnaire survey: designed and circulated among
key stakeholder of the selected project to find out the
relative importance index of each root cause identified
through the analysis of Ishikawa diagram.
7. Pareto diagram: prepared to identify the vital root
causes that are responsible for causing most of the
delay in the project.
8. Ishikawa diagram: again further extensive investigation
has conducted to identify the root causes of the vital
delay factors identified through the questionnaire
survey analysis and Pareto diagram.
9. Acceleration plan using schedule compression
techniques.
10. Preparation of final report.
III. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS
a) From the comparison of the baseline and revised
schedules, the delay in each activity was calculated to
find in which activity the major delay was caused and
further to calculate the total delay days in the total
duration of the project. The comparison was done for
around 280 activities and the total delay in engineering,
procurement and construction is shown in table 1 and
total delay days in the total duration of the project in
table 2.
Table.2: Total delay days in the total duration of the project
Activity
Days delayed
(BL -R01)
Days delayed
(R01 -R02)
Engineering -34 -198
Procurement -44 -127
Construction -55 -101
Table.1: Total delay in engineering, procurement and
construction
Total Delay
Days delayed
(BL -R01)
Days delayed
(R01 -R02)
-61 -77
b) Based on the literature research, the interviews and the
collected data about the project, all the root causes of
delay in the project were identified and further detailed
analysis is done by Ishikawa diagram as shown in
figure 6.
c) The questionnaire survey sample size was 20 and from
it the relative importance index of each root cause
identified through the analysis of Ishikawa diagram
was found. The formula used to do the analysis is given
below:
RII =
(5𝑀1 + 4𝑀2 + 3𝑀3 + 2𝑀2 + 1𝑀5)
5(𝑀1 + 𝑀2 + 𝑀3 + 𝑀2 + 𝑀5)
The RII values ranged between 0 – 1 and ranked in
groups based on their effect on project delay. Table 3
shows the groups and RII ranges.
Table.3: The groups and RII ranges
RII range Group
1 – 0.80 Critical
0.79 - 0.60 Near critical
0.59 - 0.40 Moderate
0.39 - 0.10 Low
0.9 - 0 Negligible
d) Pareto chart was used to arrange the results from the
most critical to least critical factors to identify the vital
delay factors as shown in figure 5.
e) From the analysis of the questionnaire, the critical
factors causing delay to the project are time and cost.
Hence further interviews were conducted to find out the
root causes leading to each critical factor as illustrated
in figures 7 and 8.
f) An acceleration plan using PRIMAVERA 6 was
prepared. The schedule compression method was used
to prepare the acceleration plan. Among the crashing
and fast tracking techniques of schedule compression
method, the crashing technique was adopted as the fast
tracking technique was already used during the
preparation the two revised schedules. Although the
crashing method is not the preferred technique due to
the compromise in quality of the work and the peak in
cost of the project. The prepared plan resulted with an
acceleration of around 40 days.

Fig.2: Pareto chart for vital delay factors
Fig.3: Factors affecting delay in the project using Ishikawa diagram
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
0.6
0.65
0.7
0.75
0.8
0.85
Frequency
Percentage

Fig.4: The root causes leading to delay due to Project time
Fig.5: The root causes leading to delay due to Project cost

IV. CONCLUSION
The project mainly focused to identify various root causes
of delay for a running EPC project by using Ishikawa
diagram further a detailed questionnaire survey has been
conducted to identify the critical delay factors and a Pareto
chart has been prepared to illustrate the vital delay factors.
For the vital delay factors, again root cause study has been
conducted by using Ishikawa diagram and finally an
acceleration plan has been prepared by using schedule
compression techniques.
Main results obtained are:
 Through the comparison of baseline and revised
schedules, the delay in each activity and total project
duration was calculated.
 All the factors affecting delay in the project were
represented using Ishikawa diagram.
 The analysis of questionnaire using RII method resulted
in factors as critical and near critical ranges. Project cost
and project time were the critical factors causing delay
in the project.
 Pareto chart was used to arrange the results from the
most critical to least critical factors to help identify the
causes leading to delay in EPC projects.
 Root causes leading to project cost and project time
affecting delay in the project were represented using
Ishikawa diagram.
 Acceleration plan has been prepared by considering the
results of the project.
 The study identified the importance of analyzing the
root causes before taking any particular preventive
measures.
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