Variation Orders in Highway Projects in Oman- myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theVariation Orders in Highway Projects in Oman. Answer: The type of the variation order can be established by analyzing the cause of their occurrence and their respective effects. Variation orders can be divided in to two types and they are beneficial and the detrimental orders. The issue of the beneficial order is done to ensure improvement in the quality, cost reduction, degree of difficulty and the standard of the project. The balance between the functionality, cost and the durability of the project is obtained by initiating a value analysis (Han, Love and Pea-Mora 2013). This type of variation order is issued to reduce the unnecessary cost involved in the project. Detrimental variation order has a negative impact on the value of the client and project performance. The financial problems of a client can be resolved by using detrimental variation order. Causes of variation orders by client The project is initiated by the client and plays an important part throughout the project. The client is the one who decides on the objective and the respective needs of the project. The quality standard of the project is determined as per the requirement of the client. The variation has to be reduced by the client during the construction and the design of the project. The scope of the project is very important as it helps to identify the clear baseline for the project (Kikwasi 2013). Moreover, there are two types of clients, one who has the knowledge regarding the construction industry and others are the clients who have minimal knowledge regarding the construction industry. These clients are totally dependent on their designer and so it is necessary to identify the exact needs of the client. The clients who do not have any knowledge regarding the industry are the ones who frequently change the variation order are they keep on changing the requirements through the commencement of th e project. Moreover, the changes proposed by these clients will be major, it will result in the degradation in the quality of the project, and at the same time will increase the cost of the project (Mubarak 2015). Causes of variation orders by consultant Architects, specialists, designers, engineers, cost consultants and project managers are the members of the consultant team. The goals and the scope of the project have to be clearly understood by the consultants. The consultants will always feel superior to the contractors, which may result to less focus on the request of the contractor (Mohammad, Ani and Rakmat 2017). When the consultants are unable to understand clearly the needs and requirement of the client, it will result in variation orders, which will be issued in context to the requirement of the clients. The consultants may be unaware of the availability of new products and materials which could act as a replacement and this may lead to a variation order which will be issued to give the project a better method of construction. Causes of variation orders by contractors Contractors are responsible for the issue of the variation order when there are technical issues in the documentation of the project. The information provided is not fully accurate all the time and it may happen that the contractor suggests appropriate method for the better execution of the project (Mohammed, Mohammed and Hassan 2017). Contactors may suggest alternate method, which are suitable for the execution of the project in their field of expertise. Moreover, the contractors may identify various omissions, discrepancies, conflicts and errors in the documentation of the project. The contractors may request an issue of a variation order to resolve the issue by allotting additional cost to the project. Causes of variation order by external factors There are various external factors, which cause the issue of the variation order, and they are change in the government regulation, changes in weather, changes in economic condition and changes in the needs of the local resident. There are instances where the government policies and regulations change which cause the change in the construction design and other factors (Senouci et al. 2016). Variation order has to be issued to make changes to the documentation of the project. There are instances when extreme weather conditions such as rain can hamper the construction and measures have to be taken to reschedule the construction and documentation of the project. The economic scenario may change due to instances such as corruption. When anyone in the project is involved in corruption, variation order will have to be issued so that the documentation has to be changed. The corruption may be in the field of money laundering which will cause the change in the entire cost of the project. The requirement of the client has to be fulfilled and the changes in the documentation have to be done to meet the needs of the client. The management team will have to be changed if anyone is involved in the fraud and will have to be removed immediately as a best interest of the client (Hanif et al. 2016). There are instances where the construction will cause issues for the residents in the neighbouring areas and the management team will have to change their course of action to accommodate the needs of the nearby residents. Impact of variation order The various impact of the variation orders are cost overruns, quality degradation and time overruns. The issue of the variation order will have always have an impact on the cost of the project. The changes will increase the cost associated with overall construction of the project and the costs that are associated with the variation orders are material and time charges, standing time, effect of timing, change of inflation to cash flow and time of management (Oyewobi et al. 2016). There are variation orders, which are issued at different phases of the project, and this will negatively affect both the time of completion and overall cost of the project. The issue of frequent variation orders will degrade the quality of the project as the contractors will try to compensate the extra time and cost incurred by degrading the quality of the project. Reference Han, S., Love, P. and Pea-Mora, F., 2013. A system dynamics model for assessing the impacts of design errors in construction projects.Mathematical and Computer Modelling,57(9), pp.2044-2053. Hanif, H., Khurshid, M.B., Lindhard, S.M. and Aslam, Z., 2016. Impact of Variation Orders on Time and Cost in Mega Hydropower Projects of Pakistan.Journal of Construction in Developing Countries,21(2), p.37. Kikwasi, G., 2013, February. Causes and effects of delays and disruptions in construction projects in Tanzania. InAustralasian Journal of Construction Economics and Building-Conference Series(Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 52-59). Mohammad, N., Ani, A.I.C. and Rakmat, R.A.O., 2017. Causes and effects of variation orders in the construction of terrace housing projects: A case study in the State of Selangor, Malaysia.International Journal of Supply Chain Management,6(1), pp.226-232. Mohammed, E.A.E., Mohammed, S.Y. and Hassan, A.S., 2017. Preliminary Investigation on the Causes of Variation Orders in Building Projects-Studied Cases in the State of Khartoum, Sudan. Mubarak, S.A., 2015.Construction project scheduling and control. John Wiley Sons. Oyewobi, L.O., Oyewobi, L.O., Jimoh, R., Jimoh, R., Ganiyu, B.O., Ganiyu, B.O., Shittu, A.A. and Shittu, A.A., 2016. Analysis of causes and impact of variation order on educational building projects.Journal of Facilities Management,14(2), pp.139-164. Senouci, A., Alsarraj, A., Gunduz, M. and Eldin, N., 2016. Analysis of change orders in Qatari construction projects.International Journal of Construction Management, pp.1-13.