As parents of seven young children, my wife and I work hard to keep order, and schedules, and boundaries, and rules for daily activities. So when Courtney and I went out of town last month, the kids (and their sitters) did not have same order, schedule, boundaries, and rules for an entire week. Our return to family life can be summed up in one word: DISRUPTION.
On a construction project, one of the foremost problems a contractor may experience is how to identify and quantify the effects of a complex claim. Most of us can recognize the contributing factors in hindsight analysis. Few of us, however, spend enough time or thought towards identifying the contributing factors before they affect us. If you go back to the basics, consider the types of costs and/or time impacts that you experience:
- Direct
- Disruption
- Delays
- Mitigation
- Delayed impact (a combination of any of the above)
Disruption costs and time can be difficult elements of a claim to recognize, identify and quantify—and sometimes are the most disputed. Disruption includes but is not limited to lost productivity due to:
- Slow down
- Delays
- Acceleration
- Lack of continuity
- Loss of morale
- Learning curve
- Change of sequence
- Change of means and methods
- Change of time of performance (winter)
Recognizing that the above disruptions occur is the first hurdle. In other words, a savvy contractor must be watchful to identify when they occur and then start to measure the impacts.