INUSA GLOBAL · ARTICLE

The Project Is Late. Who Is at Fault?

By bontistudio04 Oct 2026Engineering & Industry Insights

Understanding inter-department relationships, the critical path, and operational support on EPC Oil & Gas projects.

When a project is late, the construction team is often the first asked to explain. Productivity is questioned, workforce numbers are evaluated, and acceleration is demanded right away.

But does the cause of delay always come from the field?

On EPC Oil & Gas projects, construction work depends on engineering readiness, material procurement, work access, inspection, and financial and operational support. An obstacle in one part can affect the next work item.

To assign responsibility fairly, the project must trace the cause of the delay, when it occurred, and its impact on the completion target.

1. Inter-Department Relationships on EPC Projects

Imagine installing a compressor at a gas processing plant.

Engineering provides equipment data, foundation design, nozzle orientation, and utility requirements. Procurement ensures the compressor and supporting materials are available when execution needs them.

Civil prepares the foundation and access. Mechanical carries out installation and alignment. Piping connects the process and utility lines. Electrical provides power, while instrumentation prepares measurement, control, and protection.

QA/QC verifies that the work complies and checks test records. The commissioning team then carries out checks and tests to ensure the system is ready for operation.

Some activities can run at the same time, but every work item still has prerequisites.

Department	Contribution to Work Readiness
Engineering	Drawings, specifications, and technical data as execution requires.
Procurement	Equipment, materials, and vendor documents when they are needed.
Construction	Resources, work methods, and installation ready for inspection.
QA/QC	Inspection, test verification, and closing findings according to requirements.
Commissioning	System readiness checks, testing, and identifying obstacles to operation.
Project Control	Integrated schedule, deviation analysis, and completion forecasts.
Support Functions	Readiness of funds, payments, workforce, logistics, equipment, and administration.

A compressor that arrives on time cannot be installed if its foundation is not ready. Conversely, a foundation finished on schedule may need modification if vendor data changes.

That is why a department's success cannot be measured only by its own progress percentage. What needs checking is whether its output can be used by the next party.

2. Obstacles from Support Functions

Work can be held up even when drawings, materials, and areas are available. The obstacle may be cash flow, subcontractor payments, workforce mobilization, transportation, or management decisions.

For example, a payment to a subcontractor is delayed. The subcontractor then reduces its workforce or postpones equipment rental. In field reports, this appears as a manpower shortage and falling productivity.

Where a problem appears is not always where it originates.

Cash flow also differs from project profit. A project can be forecast as profitable yet run short of cash when spending must happen before payments are received.

Support Factor	Example Obstacle	Potential Impact
Finance and Cash Flow	Operating funds are not available when needed.	Purchasing, mobilization, or payments are delayed.
Commercial	Billing documents are incomplete or work changes have not been agreed.	Payments are held up and cash flow pressure increases.
HR and Manpower	Recruitment is late or personnel competencies do not match.	Capacity and productivity do not meet the plan.
Logistics	Transportation issues, customs clearance, or site access.	Materials and equipment are not yet available at the work point.
Equipment Support	A crane is unavailable or equipment breaks down.	Lifting and installation are delayed.
Administration and Permits	Required approvals or permits are not yet available.	Work cannot be carried out yet.
Management	Technical, budget, or scope change decisions are late.	Obstacles are not resolved promptly.

These factors must be checked with evidence. A late payment can come from incomplete documents, a dispute over work value, the approval process, or the availability of funds. The solution differs for each cause.

3. Understanding the Critical Path and the Impact of Delay

Knowing that an activity is late is not enough to conclude that it caused the project delay.

The critical path is the series of connected activities that controls the completion time of the project or the milestone being analyzed. Total float shows how much time an activity can slip relative to the completion date calculated in the schedule.

Float values depend on the schedule's logic, calendars, and constraints. Near-critical paths also need monitoring because they can become the next controlling path.

As an illustration, painting a certain building may still have spare time. However, a delay in the energization needed to test a compressor can immediately hold up the commissioning milestone.

A ten-day delay on one activity does not necessarily have a greater impact than a three-day delay on another.

Priorities must follow the impact on milestones, not just the number of days late or the value of the work.

4. Example Analysis of a Piping Work Delay

Suppose a piping line is scheduled to start installation on day one but only begins on day eight.

Before declaring the piping team seven days late, the project team needs to check when all prerequisites became available:

The drawings needed for execution.
Materials, spools, and pipe supports.
Work area and access.
Work permits and safety requirements.
Workforce, tools, and readiness of the execution method.

If the drawings only became available on day five and the area was only ready on day seven, the late start cannot be charged entirely to the piping team.

The drawing and area delays also should not simply be added together, because those obstacles may have occurred at the same time. The analysis must determine which obstacle truly controlled the work in each period.

Next, check whether the shift in piping work affects the critical path or can still be absorbed by schedule float.

5. Tracing the Cause of a Manpower Shortage

Another example is a subcontractor planned to provide 40 workers but bringing only 20. An instruction to add manpower may be necessary, but the cause of the shortfall must be understood first.

Is a payment due? Are the billing documents complete? Is any work value in dispute? Or has the subcontractor itself failed to provide resources as committed?

If payment is the obstacle, the commercial, finance, and construction teams need to agree on a resolution and a workforce recovery plan.

If payment obligations have been met but resources are still unavailable, the subcontractor's performance needs follow-up.

Good analysis distinguishes symptoms, root causes, responsibilities, and corrective actions.

6. Primavera P6 and Schedule Data Quality

Primavera P6 helps link activities, calculate schedules, compare progress with the baseline, and evaluate completion forecasts.

However, an activity shown in red is not enough to establish the cause of a delay. Critical activity settings based on a total float threshold can flag activities that do not always control the project end date.

The Planner or Project Control, together with the Project Engineer, needs to check actual dates, remaining duration, relationships between activities, calendars, constraints, and work status in the field.

Analysis also needs traceable records, such as drawing issue dates, material arrivals, area handovers, inspection requests, and resource mobilization.

The schedule shows the time impact. Project records help explain why that impact occurred.

7. The Project Engineer's Role in Coordination

The Project Engineer helps the Project Manager ensure that one department's needs are understood and followed up by the related departments. That is why a Project Engineer must understand the project schedule, activity relationships, and the consequences of an obstacle for the next work item.

Effective coordination must produce concrete answers:

Which activity is blocked?
Which prerequisites are not yet available?
Who is responsible for resolving them?
When is resolution needed?
Which milestone is affected?
What action can recover the schedule?

Funding needs must also be linked to the work plan. The schedule shows when materials must be purchased, cranes mobilized, workers added, or vendors present on site.

Work plan → Resource needs → Funding needs → Execution readiness

The Project Engineer does not take over the finance function but must communicate needs and their time consequences to the Project Manager and related parties.

8. Determining Schedule Recovery Actions

Adding workers or working hours does not automatically speed up a project. If drawings are not available, materials are incomplete, or the area is not ready, additional resources can raise costs without producing the expected progress.

Recovery actions should target the obstacles that control the schedule. Options include faster technical decisions, prioritizing delivery of critical materials, settling payments that hold up mobilization, or changing the work sequence where possible.

Each action must be evaluated against milestone forecasts, cost needs, safety, and quality.

Responsibility must remain clear. Cross-department obstacles must not become an excuse to ignore low productivity or unmet commitments. Conversely, field teams must not carry all the delay without checking the readiness of their work.

The question “who is at fault?” must be answered with evidence. After that, the project needs decisions: who does what, when it finishes, and how the target can be recovered.

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