Managing Delivery Deviations : Improving the Flow of Claim Reports

Abstract: The principal objective of this paper is to map the process of managing delivery deviations at construction sites and to suggest measures that could be taken to improve the routines of reporting delivery deviations. Delivery deviations are defined as different kinds of lack in precision in delivery of material to construction sites, such as delay in time or poor quality of goods by suppliers selected and contracted by the procurement unit at Skanska. The initiative springs from the increasing focus on supplier’s performance due to their great impact on the profitability of the company and from the need of improving their performance since they are generally very poor in the construction industry (Darvik & Larsson 2010). The investigation draws mainly on qualitative research such as in-depth interviews with production personnel managing deliveries at a daily basis. The results show that as the situation is today nearly no deviations are reported. This is in first hand due to the fact that the need of reporting has not been sufficiently communicated, secondly, due to fears of excessive administrative work and thirdly because it’s given low priority compared to other responsibilities. It has also been found that deviations are managed differently depending on category; some by a phone call and others by email, this makes the issue more complicated since one solution might not be sufficient to improving the report flow of all kinds of deviations. A possible solution is to improve IT-tools. This will help to pick up at least those managed in written. Other solutions are to involve higher-level managers in the change process to motivate the project personnel to change their routines and use more innovative tools.