Effects of management errors on construction projects

In everyday life, people make errors no matter how conscientious they are and what level of skill, experience, or training they have. Human error takes place when any component in the chain of actions is disrupted; it may be the result of departure from a prescribed procedure or making a faulty judgement. Managers are humans; they can also commit errors at any time and the effects will include increased cost, extended project duration, poor safety, reduced quality and decreased profit. Although human errors have been recognised in civil engineering works for nearly two decades and the research into inaccuracy has become an important area of study, management errors have been disregarded and received almost no study. This thesis considers works undertaken in the area of managing a project and seeks to gain an insight into human error as it is applied to the management errors in construction. It contains a review of literature concerning the definition, causes and implications of human error. Further, the review is expanded to cover the errors in construction management so that the concept of management errors can be proposed. The factors controlling a human's performance and the effect of time pressure on decision making are also discussed. Based on the literature, management error is modelled based on a network based project model. A Monte Carlo approach is used to simulate the occurrence of activity-based errors, and to determine the influence of pressure/stress on management. The effects of inaccuracies on the project are predicted by an increase in duration of an existing activity and hence total project duration. The results from the testing of the model are presented, and the findings together with the possibility of practical applications are discussed.