Towards contracting strategy usage for rework in construction projects: a comprehensive review

Rework has been the core of attention for several years in the industry and academia as it affects the performance of projects. However, the trend of rework academic papers indicates an increasing rate in recent years; the overall research lacks a comprehensive review of the implemented theories and proposed models to explore further directions for rework management. Thus, to achieve a better understanding of rework it is necessary to perform an extensive review. This research aims to explore various insights from rework-related articles, discuss major research areas, and identify gaps for future studies looking closely at construction contracts. The selected articles are from three databases: “Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar”. The findings are categorized into six study areas: sources of rework, models and solutions, management and strategies, theories and techniques, rework impacts, and factors affecting rework. The analysis of the employed techniques across these topics showed that System Dynamic Modelling, Action Research, Analytic Hierarchy Process, and Regression have been used more frequently than other methods. The comprehensive review also shed light on the new ways of thinking, analyzing, and controlling the impacts of the rework. This paper proposes the assessment of rework causes in the conditions of contract which provides opportunities for improvement of the construction contracts.