Track: Project Management

Abstract

Material procurement is mainly considered the critical path for industrial project. Monitoring its progress in an effective manner is key to a project success. Delays in material procurement are one of the major identified causes of delay in projects.  The aim of this paper is to introduce a heuristic method to measure material procurement progress and implement that method in a case study.

A survey was conducted to explore the effectiveness of the current procurement methods and identify the factors influencing material requisitions. Based on a survey finding, 61% of 75 respondents in the field believe that current methods of measuring material procurement progress are inefficient. In addition, three major factors were identified to consider when calculating weights of material requisitions: material lead time, fabrication complexity, and material monetary value. A heuristic method was proposed to properly report material procurement progress after collecting project data and feedback from practitioners. The method was developed and tested in a real case study project. The results proved the effectiveness of the proposed method, which detected delays two months earlier than the method in use for the same project. In addition, the proposed method calculated the achieved progress 20% less than the current method at some points through project life cycle. The proposed method helps decision makers to take corrective actions by providing a more accurate for material procurement. Thus, the heuristic method helps to reduce the reducing risks of overpaying contractors, ensures delivery of material in a timely manner, and save costs that may occur due to delays.