Purpose

Construction projects commonly encounter complicated delay problems. Over the past few decades, numerous delay analysis methods (DAMs) have been developed. There is no consensus on whether existing DAMs effectively resolve delays, particularly in the case of complex concurrent delays. Thus, the primary objective of this study is to undertake a comprehensive and systematic literature review on concurrent delays, aiming to answer the following research question: Do existing delay analysis techniques deal with concurrent delays well?

Design/methodology/approach

This study conducts a comprehensive review of concurrent delays by both bibliometric and systematic analysis of research publications published between 1982 and 2022 in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases. For quantitative analysis, a bibliometric mapping tool, the VOSviewer, was employed to analyze 68 selected publications to explore the co-occurrence of keywords, co-authorship and direct citation. Additionally, we conducted a qualitative analysis to answer the targeted research question, identify academic knowledge gaps and explore potential research directions for solving the theoretical and practical problems of concurrent delays.

Findings

Concurrent delays are a critical aspect of delay claims. Despite DAMs developed by a limited number of research teams to tackle issues like concurrence, float consumption and the critical path in concurrent delay resolution, practitioners continue to face significant challenges. This study has successfully identified knowledge gaps in defining, identifying, analyzing and allocating liability for concurrent delays while offering promising directions for further research. These findings reveal the incompleteness of available DAMs for solving concurrent delays.

Practical implications

The outcomes of this study are highly beneficial for practitioners and researchers. For practitioners, the discussions on the resolution process of concurrent delays in terms of identification, analysis and apportionment enable them to proactively address concurrent delays and lay the groundwork for preventing and resolving such issues in their construction projects. For researchers, five research directions, including advanced DAMs capable of solving concurrent delays, are proposed for reference.

Originality/value

Existing research on DAMs lacks comprehensive coverage of concurrent delays. Through a scientometric review, it is evident that current DAMs do not deal with concurrent delays well. This review identifies critical knowledge gaps and offers insights into potential directions for future research.

中文翻译：

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全面回顾解决并发延迟的延迟分析技术

目的

建设项目通常会遇到复杂的延误问题。在过去的几十年里，人们开发了多种延迟分析方法（DAM）。对于现有 DAM 是否能有效解决延迟问题，尤其是在复杂并发延迟的情况下，尚未达成共识。因此，本研究的主要目的是对并发延迟进行全面、系统的文献综述，旨在回答以下研究问题：现有的延迟分析技术能否很好地处理并发延迟？

设计/方法论/途径

本研究通过对 1982 年至 2022 年 Web of Science (WoS) 和 Scopus 数据库中发表的研究出版物进行文献计量和系统分析，对并发延迟进行了全面审查。对于定量分析，采用文献计量映射工具 VOSviewer 来分析 68 个选定的出版物，以探索关键词的共现、共同作者和直接引用。此外，我们还进行了定性分析，以回答有针对性的研究问题，找出学术知识差距，并探索解决并发延误的理论和实践问题的潜在研究方向。

发现

并发延误是延误索赔的一个关键方面。尽管有限数量的研究团队开发了 DAM 来解决并发、浮动消耗和并发延迟解决中的关键路径等问题，但从业者仍然面临着重大挑战。这项研究成功地确定了在定义、识别、分析和分配并发延误责任方面的知识差距，同时为进一步研究提供了有希望的方向。这些发现揭示了用于解决并发延迟的可用 DAM 的不完整性。

实际影响

这项研究的结果对从业者和研究人员非常有益。对于从业者来说，通过识别、分析、分摊等方式探讨并发延误的解决流程，可以帮助他们主动应对并发延误，为工程建设中预防和解决并发延误问题奠定基础。对于研究人员来说，提出了五个研究方向供参考，其中包括能够解决并发延迟的先进DAM。

原创性/价值

现有的 DAM 研究缺乏对并发延迟的全面覆盖。通过科学计量学的审查，很明显当前的 DAM 不能很好地处理并发延迟。这篇综述确定了关键的知识差距，并为未来研究的潜在方向提供了见解。