ASSESSING THE READINESS OF CLIENTS TO IMPLEMENT WHOLE LIFE COSTING IN THE CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY

Abstract

The total amount to be spent on a building requires a more precise and adaptable method to achieve the desired quality of service. Therefore, by adopting whole life costing (WLC) technique together with risk management, practitioners (consultants & clients) will have at their disposal a valuable tool for assessing economic performance of a building throughout its life cycle. Studies have reported low implementation despite its importance. Although, recent efforts have revealed that consultants are ready to implement WLC, to a large extent the readiness level of clients to implement WLC has not been reported and until all stakeholders are ready, WLC implementation will not be successful. Hence, this study assessed the readiness level of clients to implement WLC in the Nigerian construction industry. The study administered questionnaires to the tertiary institutions benefiting from the Tertiary Education Trust fund (TET Fund) in Nigeria. Descriptive statistics and VERDICT (Verify End-user e-Readiness using a Diagnostic Tool) model were the analytical tools used in this study. The study found that, unstable economic situation was the most important barrier to the adoption of WLC, while the most important driver was training & education on WLC. Lastly, results showed that construction clients are not ready to adopt WLC in the Nigerian construction industry, having had very low values in all dimensions of the model. Therefore, the study recommends further studies to develop strategies for improving the readiness level of clients to implement WLC.