Major Factors Causing Delay in the Delivery of Manufacturing and Building Projects in Saudi Arabia

There have been many studies done on the causes of delay on construction projects and building projects all around the world. They use different methods, on different geographical areas, and they come up with different results. There are, however, few studies on industrial and building projects. This paper focuses on industrial/manufacturing projects in Saudi Arabia. The aim of this paper is to identify the major causes of delay in the manufacturing projects in Saudi Arabia. The top causes of delay have been identified through a literature survey and interviews with experts from the industrial field in Saudi Arabia. Twenty-two factors have been identified and listed in a survey that was distributed to professionals in the same field. Two categorizations were made: the first is based on the impact of the cause, and the second is based on the frequency of occurrence of the identified cause. It has been found that the top five impacted causes of delay in the delivery of industrial projects in Saudi Arabia are: difficulties in financing project by contractor/manufacturer, late procurement of materials, late delivery of materials, delay in progress payments, and delay in approving design documents, respectively. In terms of frequency, the top five identified causes are: delay in progress payments, difficulties in financing project by contractor/manufacturer, slowness in decision making, late procurement of materials, and delay in approving design documents, respectively. The diversity of the participants is an important point; therefore, the respondents were from different job positions (management, engineering, etc.), and different categories (contractor, owner, manufacturer, consultant, etc.). It is worth noting that this paper serves not only as an authentic study of the causes of delay in the delivery of industrial projects in Saudi Arabia which is a field that is not widely covered, but also as a fresh paper that gives an indication of the changes that happen to the business over time as compared to previous work.