Research by Aston University involving more than 150 of the top construction companies has undertaken research identifying factors inhibiting time and cost control in construction practice in the UK. Non performance of subcontractors has been identified as one of the top factors.
Following the identification of the inhibiting factors, mitigating measures were established with experienced construction industry practitioners to address potential problems caused by the top inhibiting factors. These mitigating measures include:
- Putting a system in place for early identification of non-performance in subcontract works/packages in order to nip it in the bud as soon as possible.
- Utilising performance measurements e.g. KPI to monitor the performance of subcontractors on their work package
- Having a process in place that mutually allows non-performing subcontractors to be removed from the supply chain
- Having a stringent process in place for selecting subcontractors into the supply chain
- Build relationship and communicating at management/board level of the subcontractors’ companies
- Holding significant retention on serial non-performing subcontractors as it may serve as a deterrent/used to remedy any non-performance issue that may occur.
- Finding and understanding the root cause of any non-performance and working with the subcontractor to see how to be of help
- Sharing with individual subcontractors their KPI result and reviewing their weaknesses with them so that they can improve on it going forward
The measures can be broadly classified as preventive, predictive, corrective and organisational measures.