Analysis of modification types in Navy Construction Contracts

Abstract

Modifications, or change orders, in Navy construction contracts are a seemingly inevitable fact of life. In this report I analyzed nearly 8400 modifications in over 2200 completed Navy construction contracts from Southern Division of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command to identify the most frequent and expensive categories. Using the modification reason code, the modifications were divided into 20 categories and the effect of each of these categories was determined quantitatively. The data, which I found was not normally distributed, was run three ways: (1) Unadjusted; (2) Adjusted for planned or expected modifications; (3) Adjusted for planned or expected modifications and terminated contracts. The third way is the most representative of a "typical" contract and the modifications with the largest effect on contract price are: (1) Unforeseen Conditions, 2.65% increase over the total of all contract prices; (2) Design Changes, 1.82% increase; (3) Customer Requested Changes, 1.64% increase. Overall, modifications increased the average contract price by 7.78%, justifying the customary practice of including a 10% contingency in funding estimates. I also report on several problems in the use of modification reason codes that effect the analysis, though not significantly