Reducing ‘non-value-adding activities’ when building infrastructure in South Africa

Abstract

The purpose of the investigation was to examine issues pertaining to poor project performance by identifying non-value-adding activities and their causes in South African construction. The assessment was undertaken through a quantitative survey conducted among public sector clients, consulting engineers, and general contractors involved in civil engineering projects in South Africa. Selected findings were that the respondents perceive that non-value-adding activities such as inadequate supervision and waiting for critical tasks to be completed contributed significantly to poor project performance in South Africa. In addition, the respondents were of the opinion that factors contributing to non-value-adding activities in South Africa include lack of appropriately skilled workers, repetitive revisions and changes, and delay in design approval. Although the findings are based on the perceptions of stakeholders in the South African infrastructure sector only, the discourse supports the argument that it is imperative to limit/eliminate non-value-adding activities in the construction process in order to engender improvement in project performance in the sector.