Assessment of the performance of small construction enterprises in construction projects; a case study in jimma city, Ethiopia

Abstract

A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service. Cost, time and quality performance of the projects are used to measure the project success. Now a day construction projects specifically in Jimma city, have facing time and cost overrun challenges. Most of those projects are held by small construction enterprises. The objectives of this study were; To evaluate the time and cost performance of small construction projects in Jimma city, to identify the factors that challenge their performance and to determine possible remedial measure. To address these objectives, questioner survey method of data collection was used, in which 15 questioners from client, 40 from contractor and 10 from consultant were collected. The data was analyzed by applying performance index method and relative importance index were applied. Accordingly, the result shows that, the time performance of 18 projects were under poor performance interval, 15 projects were under below target interval, 7 projects were under below target performance interval and 7 projects were under the interval of within target performance. While, the cost performance of 3 projects were under the interval of poor performance, 13 projects were under the interval of below target performance, 13 projects were under the interval of within target performance 9 projects were under the interval of exceeds target performance and cost performance index of 2 projects were under the interval of outstanding performance. Out of 30 time factors and 10 cost factors; based on their relative performance index value; contractor responsibility, owner responsibility, consultant responsibility and external factors are identified as the main source of the challenging factors. In relation to this, ten factors. Of time were listed out:-Poor qualification of the contractor's technical staff, Shortage of materials on site, Construction mistakes and defective work, Low productivity of labor, Lack of site contractor’s staff, Poor site management, Shortage of site labor, Lack of coordination with contractors, Delay in approving major changes in the scope of work, Delays in site mobilization, Financial problems, Delay in obtaining permits from municipality, Poor weather conditions; poor site conditions, Poor communication and coordination. And 10 factors of cost were listed out: - Inadequate project preparation, planning and implementation delay in construction, Wrong /inappropriate choice of site, Technical incompetence and poor organizational structure, Delays in decisions making by government, failure of specific coordinating bodies, Natural calamities, Supply of raw materials and equipment by contractors. The remedial measures were determined as, improving the activities of schedule control process Activity resource estimating process Activity duration estimating process for time performance and cost estimating process cost budgeting process cost controlling process for cost performance Finally, the study recommended the clients, the contractors and consultants to improve their performance and their habit of working cooperation in construction project to overcome the problems