Browsing by Author "Seneviratne, LDIP"

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item: Conference-Full-text
Adaptability of lean concept to reduce plumbing waste in high-rise building construction in Sri Lanka
(Ceylon Institute of Builders - Sri Lanka, 2023-07-21) Senanayake, SMAH; Seneviratne, LDIP; Ranadewa, KATO
The waste generation due to the plumbing work substantially influences the total waste. Waste management is one of the most critical processes to achieve effective and productive construction projects successfully. Lean is a philosophy that is adopted in several sectors to mitigate waste. Thus, this paper intends to identify the adaptability of lean concepts to reduce plumbing waste in high-rise building construction in Sri Lanka. Data collection was done through two Delphi round interviews. The collected data were analysed using manual content analysis. As a result, comprising a total of twenty-seven barriers were identified under five sets of barrier groups for implementing lean concept to reduce plumbing waste in high-rise building construction in Sri Lanka. The strategies to successfully overcome each challenge and barrier were identified. Conducting CPD programmes, training programmes, showing the benefits of lean implementation and providing knowledge about lean through universities and other higher education institutes are the most common strategies to overcome the barriers to lean application. This study paves the path to lean professionals to align their strategy with lean practices by understanding and identifying the major obstacles.
item: Thesis-Full-text
Applicability of total quality management system in metal quarry industry in Sri Lanka
Balasooriya, BARD; Seneviratne, LDIP
Total Quality Management (TQM) is a very important and significant management practice which used in the world industries. TQM is used for the total operation process of the organization and it talks about the all aspect which engages with the final outcome. Mining is the most historical engineering practice in this world and the world largest mining companies use the TQM in their companies to improve the quality of their product and services. Usage of TQM in metal quarry industry at Kaluthara district in Sri Lanka is addressed in this report. Questionnaire survey was done to collect the data from mining engineers. The total sample was interviewed. This research used a quantitative analysis, RII method and the graphical illustrations to present the results. The results show a huge gap in use of TQM at metal mining. Lack of TQM knowledge and the lethargic attitude on TQM practices of the management are the main problems that have been identified. Organizing the Lecture series, training programs, video training programs are recommended to address the knowledge and attitude problems. Development of TQM as a culture than a practice would be more effective in quality management in metal quarry industry at Kaluthara district.
item: Conference-Full-text
Applicability of tqm for construction contracting organisations in Sri Lanka
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2018-06) Fernando, WDA; Seneviratne, LDIP; Francis, M; Dilakshan, R; Sandanayake, YG; Gunatilake, S; Waidyasekara, KGAS
The construction industry in any country is a dominant, huge, complex and highly risky industry. In the Sri Lankan context, the construction industry has become a major component of rapid economic development over the past years. However, the industry itself suffers from many problems, such as defects in workmanship, defects in quality and overflow of time and cost. Thus, these industry problems have challenged the successful project performance and total quality of the output. Nevertheless, these problems will persist until every organization in the industry begins to take responsibility for developing new changes within its own organization. Such changes can be initiated via effectively implementing the philosophy of Total Quality Management (TQM). However, globally, the usage of TQM in the construction industry is not so popular than in the manufacturing industry. Therefore, the research aims to identify the applicability of TQM in Sri Lankan construction contracting organizations. A qualitative research approach was followed in order to achieve the aim of the study. Thus, semi-structured interviews were conducted among a total of ten top management professionals are associated with contracting organisations and had in-depth knowledge in TQM and its practice. A content analysis using NVivo 11 software was adopted to summarise and analyse the collected data. The findings revealed that TQM can be followed by the construction contracting organizations in Sri Lanka. However, it is not that much easy, because the TQM implementation process encompasses a series of barriers. Thus, the research found financial barrier, insufficient collaborative work, lack of skill, resistant to change, time barrier and less involvement of top management are such barriers in adopting TQM in Sri Lanka. Further the study suggest that barriers must be mitigated cautiously for a better consequence.
item: Conference-Full-text
Computer based model to change occupational safety & health and energy management attitudes of occupants in the garment industry
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2017-06) Ratnasinghe, AD; Seneviratne, LDIP; Ranasinghe, U; Sandanayake, YG; Ramachandra, T; Gunatilake, S
Garment industry is one of the major contributors to the Sri Lankan economy. Nonetheless, productivity of the industry is crucially influenced by Occupational safety and health (OSH) and Energy management (EM) mal-behaviours. Even within the industry, behaviour of sewing machine operators are vital. It is noted that that industry is the second most contributor to the OSH accidents. Further, energy demand for the manufacturing is a major concern. In fact, it is notable that these two areas can be enriched by altering personnel attitudes, which will ultimately affect to the behavioural patterns. There are varieties of tools to change attitudes of people in order to change their behaviours. Computer models can be considered as a modern approach. Thus, this research focuses on current common behavioural issues and brings-up a computer model as a solution Consequently, the research concludes findings obtained through preliminary investigation and a semi structured questionnaire survey that was conducted upon, behavioural issues and applicability of computer model respectively. Preliminary investigation consists of two surveys; expert opinion survey and structured questionnaire survey. Ten number of issues were confirmed. Not wearing PPEs, poor sitting positions, removing safety devices of the machine and not switching off probe lights and machine were noted as top three significant issues. In computer model, top two accepted aspects were scoring mechanism and monitory gifts for winners.
item: Conference-Abstract
Coping with ethical dilemmas : Sri Lankan professional quantity surveyors’ perspective
Seneviratne, LDIP; Kalukapuge, KDDD
Ethics is a vital constituent for any profession. Professions are governed via codes of practice as a measure of ensuring compliance of members with professional ethics. An individual may find himself/herself in a dilemma if these standards prescribe contradicting courses of action. Exploring this phenomenon was the drive behind this study. Past researchers in Sri Lankan context had not given adequate attention to the ethical dilemmas and a clear definition of ethical dilemma was lacking. Further, the Codes of Conduct hardly provide guidance for coping with ethical dilemmas. Therefore this study carried out to identify the most significant ethical dilemmas faced by Sri Lankan Quantity Surveyors. was carried using interviews and questionnaire survey involving An empirical study was _ was Professional Members of IQSSL. Within the pre-empirical study, ethical dilemma defined and categories of ethical dilemmas were identified. The results showed that IQSSL Members manage to observe die Code in coping with ethical dilemmas However, observations made during the study indicate that due attention has not been paid to ethical dilemmas. The study concludes with recommendations to improve observance of the IQSSL Code of Professional Conduct and Ethics.
item: Conference-Abstract
Coping with ethical dilemmas in a socially responsible Manner - Quantity Surveyors’ perspective
Kalukapuge, D; Seneviratne, LDIP
Ethics is a vital constituent for any profession. Therefore, professions are governed via codes of necessary reflect social interest. Recognized professional organization with regards to Quantity Surveying profession (RICS, AlQS IQSSL) etc.) have introduced Codes of Professional Conduct which define the standard of professional conduct to which the members must adhere as socially responsible individuals. In a context these codes have not been successfully able to achieve comprehensive social responsibility within the practice of respective members, this study attempts to understand the groundsforethical/unethical behaviour, ethical dilemmas and action taken by QSs in the face of an ethical dilemma within professional practice. Frequent ethical dilemmas as well as contemporary developments, such as the predicament brought in by sustainability concept, have been identified by the study to be elements that need addressing Findings of the literature review exhibit conclusive evidence about a strong relationship among QSs’practical execution; and knowledge and experience The study concludes with an emphasis on the need for improving education and discussion of ethics as well as social responsibility necessitated by the broader society.
item: Conference-Full-text
Coping with ethical dilemmas in a socially responsible manner - quantity surveyors’ perspective
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2013-06) Kalukapuge, D; Seneviratne, LDIP; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG
Ethics is a vital constituent for any profession. Therefore, professions are governed via codes of practice published by respective professional bodies as a measure of ensuring compliance of members with professional ethics. These codes necessarily reflect social interests. Recognized professional organizations with regards to Quantity Surveying profession (RICS, AIQS, IQSSL, etc.) have introduced Codes of Professional Conduct which define the standard of professional conduct to which the members must adhere as socially responsible individuals. In a context these codes have not been successfully ableto achieve comprehensive social responsibility within the practice of respective members, this study attempts to understand the grounds for ethical/unethical behaviour, ethical dilemmas and action taken by QSs in the face of an ethical dilemma within professional practice. Frequent ethical dilemmas as well as contemporary developments, such as the predicament brought in by sustainability concept, have been identified by the study to be elements that need addressing. Findings of the literature review exhibit conclusive evidence about a strong relationship among QSs' practical execution; and knowledge and experience. The study concludes with an emphasis on the need for improving education and discussion of ethics as well as social responsibility necessitated by the broader society.
item: Conference-Full-text
Deciding on the consultancy fee for re-measurement contracts in the Sri Lankan construction industry
Madushani, SDA; Seneviratne, LDIP; Ganeshu, P
Construction industry is the necessary national backbone in developing countries. Consultants are the stakeholders who supplies objective and independent external service to the client. Consulting is gradually becoming a more standard service, price being the main factor in clients’ contracting decision so consulting firms continually strives for cost reductions to provide a competitive pricing advantage. By conducting a comprehensive literature synthesis history about consulting fee decision criteria and IQSSL fee proposal were determined. Subsequently, expert interviews were conducted. Semi structured interviews and reviewing documents were used as data collection methods. Collected data was analysed using code based content analysis. It was revealed that, procurement methods and the consultancy fee have a relationship. Construction management contracts and the re-measurement contracts has the highest consultancy fee. There are number of factors to be considered when deciding on the consultancy fee. Findings suggested that independent quantity surveying consultancy fee is within the range between from 0.4% to 1.2% of the contract sum and IQSSL proposal has to accommodate number of improvements for it to be practiced in the Sri Lankan construction industry.
item: Conference-Abstract
Developing a framework to evaluate indoor environmental quality (IEQ) performance of industrial buildings in Sri Lanka
Vijerathne, DT; Seneviratne, LDIP
Indoor Environmental Quality (IEO) can be considered as one of the main measure of total building performance. Even though there are various methods to evaluate IEQ of buildings, it is evident that there is no holistic approach, which considers every possible parameter which results in pragmatic and operational, mechanism especially for industrial buildings. Similarly in Sri Lanka, there is no comprehensive framework applied in buildings to evaluate IEQ performance and the situation is with other countries as there is less regard to IEQ factors in measuring building performance. The industrial buildings also lacks total IEQ performance methods being utilised, however there are few which are only based on IEQ measurements such as indoor air quality, thermal, acoustic and lighting comfort. When considering the global view, are some evaluation methods or techniques which are being used However for the industrial buildings there are no methods with a holistic approach. This creates the need to identify existing IEQ practices with respect to industrial buildings in order to develop a comprehensive evaluation framework for total IEQ performance of industrial buildings. Therefore, this paper attempts to establish the indicators and sub indicators proposed for the framework to evaluate IEQ performance of industrial buildings based on preliminary investigation and literature survey as part of an on-going research project. The available IEQ techniques have been identified which needs to be validated in the next step of this research study.
item: Conference-Full-text
Developing a framework to evaluate indoor environmental quality (IEQ) performance of industrial buildings in Sri Lanka
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2014-06) Vijerathne, DT; Seneviratne, LDIP; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) can be considered as one of the main measure of total building performance. Even though there are various methods to evaluate IEQ of buildings, it is evident that there is no holistic approach, which considers every possible parameter which results in a more pragmatic and operational, mechanism especially for industrial buildings. Similarly in Sri Lanka, there is no comprehensive framework applied in buildings to evaluate IEQ performance and the situation is same with other countries as there is less regard to IEQ factors in measuring building performance. The industrial buildings also lacks total IEQ performance methods being utilised, however there are few which are only based on IEQ measurements such as indoor air quality, thermal, acoustic and lighting comfort. When considering the global view, are some evaluation methods or techniques which are being used. However for the industrial buildings there are no methods with a holistic approach. This creates the need to identify existing IEQ practices with respect to industrial buildings in order to develop a comprehensive evaluation framework for total IEQ performance of industrial buildings. Therefore, this paper attempts to establish the indicators and sub indicators proposed for the framework to evaluate IEQ performance of industrial buildings based on preliminary investigation and literature survey as part of an on-going research project. The available IEQ techniques have been identified which needs to be validated in the next step of this research study.
item: Conference-Full-text
Developing a pre-task plan for the Sri Lankan construction industry
Madhuwanthi, HAS; Seneviratne, LDIP; Ganeshu, P
Earlier planning outputs a larger impact against unprecedented changes in construction projects. Pre-task planning (PTP) is a collaborative process that allied prior planning and safety together at the site in the daily basis. PTP allows task-based planning in the sense of associated hazard identification, mitigation and resource allocation. PTP starts with the task definition and moves with job hazard analysis while mandating the scheduling and a pre-job briefing. Therefore, the research was aimed at investigating the use of PTP in the construction projects in Sri Lanka. The study adopted a qualitative research approach. An extensive literature review was conducted and twelve, semistructured interviews involving project managers, safety engineers, site supervisors and site engineers were carried out to investigate the application of PTP in the construction industry, process of PTP, responsible parties to conduct pre-task planning and proposing a suitable format for a pre-task plan. The collected data through the expert interviews were then subjected to a content analysis. Findings confirmed that Construction industry of Sri Lanka is practicing the pre-task planning as safety and resource allocating technique. Further, tasks identification, recognition of potential hazards associated with the tasks, mitigation measures, record, and report were identified as key steps in the process of pre-task planning. Site supervisor was the key responsible party over others in conducting pre-task planning. Primary components that need to be included in the pre-task plan as emphasized by the respondents are; equipment, material, labour, personal protective equipment, work plan and hazards and precautions.
item: Conference-Full-text
Establishment of the most common ground on which local arbitral awards become unenforceable in Sri Lanka
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2016-07) Hemantha, MD; Seneviratne, LDIP; Sandanayake, YG; Karunasena, GI; Ramachandra, T
The parties select more adversarial arbitration process over other alternative dispute resolution methods mainly due to the enforceability of the arbitral award. If the arbitral award becomes unenforceable due to any reason, the selection of arbitral process is useless. In this scenario, aresearch was conducted specially to find out the most common ground on which local arbitral awards become unenforceable in Sri Lanka and to explore the reasons to occur the unenforceability under that most common ground with the expectation that this improved knowledge would assist to minimize the unenforceability of local arbitral awards. The research was conducted under the quantitative research approach. A cross-sectional, retrospective and non-experimental study design was adopted. The local arbitration cases registered at the High Court-Colombo during 2009-2012 for the setting aside or for the enforcement of the awards and the courts had completed the proceedings were selected as the convenient sample. The sample contained 910 cases. The data collection process was a two tiered process. In the first tier, a cross sectional survey was carried out at the High Court-Colombo to find out arbitral awards become unenforceable due to setting aside or refusal of the enforcement by the High Court. If the judgment of the High Court was appealed to the Supreme Court the judgment of the Supreme Court was also considered. Through the first tier of data collection, it was found that non adherence to the enforcement procedure is the most common ground on which local arbitral awards become unenforceable in Sri Lanka. During the second tier of data collection, semi structured interviews were conducted with the parties who failed to enforce the arbitral award due to non adherence to enforcement procedure, those parties were mainly financial institutions and contained 16 organizations. Through the interviews it was found that performance defects of the legal counsel and the performance defects of the officer in charge of the case are the main reasons for the unenforceability of arbitral awards under the most common ground. Therefore it is recommended to establish proper reporting and monitoring systems within the organizations dealing with arbitration.
item: Conference-Full-text
ESTABLISHMENT OF THEMOST COMMON GROUND ON WHICH LOCAL ARBITRAL AWARDS BECOME UNENFORCEABLE IN SRI LANKA
(2016-08-29) Manathunga, DH; Seneviratne, LDIP; Setting Aside; Enforcement; Unenforceability.
The parties select more adversarial arbitration process over other alternative dispute resolution methods mainly due to the enforceability of the arbitral award. If the arbitral award becomes unenforceable due to any reason, the selection of arbitral process is useless. In this scenario, aresearch was conducted specially to find out the most common ground on which local arbitral awards become unenforceable in Sri Lanka and to explore the reasons to occur the unenforceability under that most common ground with the expectation that this improved knowledge would assist to minimize the unenforceability of local arbitral awards. The research was conducted under the quantitative research approach. A cross-sectional, retrospective and non-experimental study design was adopted. The local arbitration cases registered at the High Court-Colombo during 2009-2012 for the setting aside or for the enforcement of the awards and the courts had completed the proceedings were selected as the convenient sample. The sample contained 910 cases. The data collection process was a two tiered process. In the first tier, a cross sectional survey was carried out at the High Court-Colombo to find out arbitral awards become unenforceable due to setting aside or refusal of the enforcement by the High Court. If the judgment of the High Court was appealed to the Supreme Court the judgment of the Supreme Court was also considered. Through the first tier of data collection, it was found that non adherence to the enforcement procedure is the most common ground on which local arbitral awards become unenforceable in Sri Lanka. During the second tier of data collection, semi structured interviews were conducted with the parties who failed to enforce the arbitral award due to non adherence to enforcement procedure, those parties were mainly financial institutions and contained 16 organizations. Through the interviews it was found that performance defects of the legal counsel and the performance defects of the officer in charge of the case are the main reasons for the unenforceability of arbitral awards under the most common ground. Therefore it is recommended to establish proper reporting and monitoring systems within the organizations dealing with arbitration.
item: Conference-Full-text
Evaluation of critical success factors for road construction projects in Sri Lanka
(2014-01-10) Seneviratne, LDIP; Sriyananda, DH
A construction project is commonlY acknOJvledged as successful when it is completed on time} nitbin budget, and in accordance nutb specifications and to the stakeholders} satisfaction. However} outside the control of the management} there are many factors 7vbich could determine the success or failure of a project Search for tbe factors influencing project success is not new in management studies particularlY} in the domain of construction and project Illanagement. The last tJJJOand half decades have uitnessed a drastic increase in "critical success [actors" (CSFr) research. HOJJJever, there is 170sucb sttlcfy on the implemmtatiol7 of CSFs in road construction projects in Sri Lanka.
item: Conference-Full-text
Feasibility of the delay and disruption protocol for claims management in Sri Lankan construction industry
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2015-06) Pathirana, RANM; Seneviratne, LDIP; Sandanayake, YG; Fernando, NG; Karunasena, GI
Delay and disruption claims are difficult to resolve due to issues in claims management in construction industry. Those issues are occurred due to wrong practices in the industry and having vague areas in delay and disruption. Although, there are some methods to diminish delay and disruption events, still there is no proper way to deal with those issues. Having a guideline for claims management is an effective mechanism. In that scenario, Society of construction law’s (SCL) delay and disruption protocol is the commonly used guideline in other countries and which have comprehensive scope. Hence, it is required to discover how far SCL protocol is appropriate to Sri Lankan construction industry. Therefore, the aim of this research is to investigate the feasibility of adopting SCL protocol for dealing with issues in delay and disruption in claims management in Sri Lankan construction industry. A comprehensive literature review, a questionnaire survey and semi structured interviews were done as the research method for this paper. Interviewees were selected from questionnaire survey. The findings of this study prove that having a guideline for claims management is important and awareness of SCL protocol in Sri Lanka is comparatively less. Further, it demonstrates that adopting SCL protocol to Sri Lankan construction industry is feasible. Management can achieve sustainable construction practices such as using human resource efficiently, willingness to work and effective time management. Finally, it confirmed that implementing SCL protocol will improve knowledge related claims management and it will enable to improve the claim practitioners’ practices.
item: Conference-Abstract
Feasibility of the Delay and Disruption Protocol for Claims Management in Sri Lankan Construction Industry
(2015-08-20) Pathirana, RANM; Seneviratne, LDIP
Delay and disruption claims are difficult to resolve due to issues in claims management in construction industry. Those issues are occurred due to wrong practices in the industry and having vague areas in delay and disruption. Although, there are some methods to diminish delay and disruption events, still there is no proper way to deal with those issues. Having a guideline for claims management is an effective mechanism. In that scenario, Society of construction law’s (SCL) delay and disruption protocol is the commonly used guideline in other countries and which have comprehensive scope. Hence, it is required to discover how far SCL protocol is appropriate to Sri Lankan construction industry. Therefore, the aim of this research is to investigate the feasibility of adopting SCL protocol for dealing with issues in delay and disruption in claims management in Sri Lankan construction industry. A comprehensive literature review, a questionnaire survey and semi structured interviews were done as the research method for this paper. Interviewees were selected from questionnaire survey. The findings of this study prove that having a guideline for claims management is important and awareness of SCL protocol in Sri Lanka is comparatively less. Further, it demonstrates that adopting SCL protocol to Sri Lankan construction industry is feasible. Management can achieve sustainable construction practices such as using human resource efficiently, willingness to work and effective time management. Finally, it confirmed that implementing SCL protocol will improve knowledge related claims management and it will enable to improve the claim practitioners’ practices.
item: Conference-Full-text
A Framework for the Evaluation of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) Performance in Apparel Industry Buildings in Sri Lanka
(2015-08-14) Vijerathne, MGDT; Seneviratne, LDIP
In the modern world, many people spend large portion of their time in built environments. Accordingly, significance of built environments’ performance is increasing over past two decades. It draws the attention towards the concept of Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) to determine how well built environments are performing as IEQ performance directly affects occupants’ health, comfort, satisfaction and ultimately for a productive work environment. Moreover, IEQ concept can be considered as an integral part of total building performance approach. Today in Sri Lankan industrial sector, especially apparel manufacturing sector grows upward in speedily. For this rapidly development, performance of the built environment is vital as it is having direct relationship with occupants’ productivity. At the present, various approaches to evaluate IEQ performance has being developed. However, it is evident that there is no holistic approach. Similarly in Sri Lanka, there is no comprehensive framework applied in industrial buildings to evaluate IEQ performance. This necessitates the important of developing a holistic IEQ evaluation approach which would greatly benefit to the industrial sector. Survey methodology is used in the research and RII is employed as a data analysing tool to validate the IEQ indicators which have been identified in literature review and modified in preliminary survey. Further, it is established the most significant indicators based on their importance towards IEQ performance in apparel industry buildings with AHP tool. The developed framework comprised with four main IEQ indicators as thermal comfort, indoor air quality, acoustic quality and lighting quality. This framework focused on holistic approach to measure IEQ performance which will allow acceptable built environment while processing continuous improvements.
item: Conference-Abstract
Identification of errors that are being made in preparing BOQs in Sri Lankan construction industry
Gunathilaka, AAUS; Seneviratne, LDIP
The Bill of Quantities (BOQ) is a vital document in bothpre contract stage and post contract stage of any construction project. The BOQ impacts three important aspects of a project namely time, cost and quality. Therefore, it is crystal clear that if there is any error in BOQ that would directly affect to the construction project. Since all the stakeholders involved in construction projects are extremely concerned on time, cost and quality aspects, it is critical that the BOO for the project is error free. Errors occur during both preparation stage and pricing stage of the BOQ. The BOQ preparation errors may relate to pricing errors as well as have an impact on the time, cost, and quality’ of the project. However the study is focused on identifying most common BOQ preparation errors and find solutions to minimise those errors to support sustainable procurement practice. Initially a semi structured interview was carried out to identify errors made in preparing BOQs and find reasons for the errors. Eventually, a questionnaire survey was done to identify the most significant errors that made and how those errors would affect the project. The surveys revealed that quantity errors as the most common error during the BOQ preparation stage which becomes critical based on the type of the procurement method adopted. Employing experienced person as a reviver was identified as the most preferable solution for minimising preparation errors. Further it was found that people involved have a greater impact on the BOQ preparation process and its accuracy.
item: Conference-Full-text
Impact of using minimum preliminary items for building works in Sri Lankan construction industry
(Ceylon Institute of Builders, 2018-06) Pradeep, PGC; Seneviratne, LDIP; Rathnayake, U; Melagoda, DG; Sandanayake, YG; Gunatilake, S; Waidyasekara, KGAS
Preliminary items section is one of the critical sections in a bill of quantities, though they are not direct parts of the permanent work. There are some preliminary items which are not included in the preliminary bill. In Sri Lankan construction industry employers are willing to pay for the preliminary items which mostly impact to the work items while ignoring the other items. Further, corporate consultants do not instigate employers to include preliminary items. There is a research gap in identifying the impact of minimum usage of preliminary items for building works. Hence, this research was aimed at investigating the impact of using non-detailed preliminary bill for building projects in Sri Lanka. Initially, a literature synthesis was carried out to identify the preliminary items commonly included in the preliminary bill for the building projects in locally and in global context. Furthermore, factors to be considered when pricing the preliminary bill and the importance of preliminary items were identified. Subsequently, the relationship between preliminary amount and the total contract amount was recognized. Data was collected through the semi structured expert interviews and a work study. Thirty building projects were selected for the work study. The collected data was analysed using content analysis with the use of Nvivo 11 software. The analysis revealed that there are negative impacts due to minimum usage of preliminary items in the preliminary bill such as; deterioration of standard and quality of the construction industry, lack of investments toward construction industry, impact to the employer and subsidence of involvement of labours in the construction industry name to few. Furthermore, the paper discussed the factors to be considered when preparing the preliminary bill. Among those factors size of the project is a critical factor when preparing the preliminary bill. Moreover, findings disclosed that average preliminary percentage of building projects is 4.98% and the percentage is increasing with the accretion of the contract amount in Sri Lankan construction industry.
item: Conference-Full-text
Issues in Submission and Certification of Variations
(2015-08-20) Karunathilake, TM; Seneviratne, LDIP; Weththasinghe, K
The valuation of variation is a critical aspect in the post contract stage. The Contractor has to carry out the works according to issued variation order or on the instructions given by the Engineer even without having the approval. The Contractor might be paid a percentage on the submitted price until cost proposal is certified by the Engineer. The submission and certification process is delayed on most of the projects and this will lead the Contractor to suffer losses from the project. The researcher attempted to review the time gap between variation submission and certification, using a documentary survey of completed building projects. Content analysis of the documents exposed delay in certification period of several variations, those had generated payment delay to Contractor, and identified the loss of opportunity cost as the ultimate effect. Further, the author identified the issues which caused delays in submission and certification of cost variations, and probable solutions to mitigate those issues. In order to achieve above facts, interview survey was carried out with professionals, who had experience in variation management of building construction field. The issues of delay in variation submission and certification procedure in Sri Lankan industry, and solutions for those issues were derived via analysis of the content of conducted interviews. Finally “Variation Procedure Guideline” was proposed and validated with the participation of experts. Author recommended that a proper variation procedure is required to control and certify the value of variation according to the proposed guideline to manage the situation without conflicts. Further, maintain the positive relationship between project stakeholders and contribution of government as the regulatory body will be essential to overcome from mentioned issues.