Infrastructure project performance in the South African construction sector: perceptions from two provinces

Abstract

English: In recent times, project performance improvement, especially in developing countries, has captured the interest of a number of construction management researchers, as indicated in notable journals and conferences in the domain. The quest for excellence, waste elimination, and value creation underpins such research endeavours that encompass the interest of clients, consultants, and contractors so that cost overruns, low productivity, and poor quality can be reduced in the industry. The driving force behind this discourse is the need to examine management strategies that could engender performance improvement in infrastructure construction from the South African perspective. The survey was conducted among general contractor (GC) members of the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors (SAFCEC), consulting engineer members of Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA), and selected public sector clients. Using inferential statistics such as Cronbach’s alpha, t test and Cohen’s d effect size measures for data analysis led to a range of findings. Such findings show that inadequate coordination between project partners may indeed result in high levels of defects, rework, and non-conformances in construction; poor interface between multidisciplinary designers could lead to delays in projects, and inefficient and unstable logistics management may, in fact, lead to haphazard processing of orders, storage of materials, and poor inventory management. In essence, it can be argued that being quality focused, managing construction logistics optimally and making sure that consultants who are working on a project are collaborating effectively offers significant scope for performance improvement in the construction of infrastructure projects in South Africa.

Afrikaans: Deesdae, stel ‘n hele aantal konstruksiebestuurnavorsers belang in projekbestuurverbetering veral in ontwikkelende lande soos aangedui in noemenswaardige tydskrifte en konferensies in hierdie domein. Die soeke na uitnemendheid, afvaleliminaise, en die skep van waarde vorm die grondslag van sodanige pogings sodat kosteoorskryding, lae produktiwiteit en swak gehalte in die bedryf verminder kan word. Die dryfkrag agter hierdie diskoers is die behoefte om bestuursstrategieë wat prestasieverbetering in infrastruktuurkonstruksie kweek vanuit ‘n Suid-Afrikaanse perspektief te ondersoek. Die opname is gedoen onder algemene kontrakteur (GC) lede van die Suid-Afrikaanse Federasie van Siviele Ingenieurskontrakteurs (SAFCEC), raadgewende ingenieurslede van Raadgewende Ingenieurs Suid-Afrika (CESA), en geselekteerde openbare sektor-kliënte. Die gebruik van inferensiële statistiek soos Cronbach se alfa-, t-toets en Cohen se d effekgrootte vir data-analise, het gelei tot die bevindinge. Sodanige bevindinge toon dat onvoldoende koördinasie tussen die projekvennote kan lei tot hoë vlakke van defekte, take oordoen, en nieooreenkoms in konstruksie; swak interaksie tussen multidissiplinêre ontwerpers kan lei tot vertragings in die projekte, en ondoeltreffend en onstabiel logistieke bestuur kan eintlik lei tot lukraak verwerking van bestellings, die berging van materiale, en swak voorraadbestuur. In wese kan daar aangevoer word dat om gefokus te wees op kwaliteit, konstruksie-logistieke optimaal te bestuur, en seker te maak dat konsultante wat aan ‘n projek werk effektief saamwerk, bied ‘n merkwaardige omvang vir die verbetering van prestasie in die bou van infrakstruktuurprojekte in Suid-Afrika.