Early identification of lowest responsive bid in competitive bidding process of construction projects (original) (raw)

Examining the use of bid information in predicting the contractor's performance

Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction, 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the use of bid information, including both price and non‐price factors in predicting the bidder's performance.Design/methodology/approachThe practice of the industry was first reviewed. Data on bid evaluation and performance records of the successful bids were then obtained from the Hong Kong Housing Department, the largest housing provider in Hong Kong. This was followed by the development of a radial basis function (RBF) neural network based performance prediction model.FindingsIt is found that public clients are more conscientious and include non‐price factors in their bid evaluation equations. With the input variables used the information is available at the time of the bid and the output variable is the project performance score recorded during work in progress achieved by the successful bidder. It was found that past project performance score is the most sensitive input variable in predicting future performance.Research limita...

Fundamental research in bidding and estimating

1988

Since Friedman, fundamental research in construction contract bidding and estimating has been concerned with the full problem definition, formulation and calibration. The general problem definition is now virtually complete in that bidding involves sequential and simultaneous decisions to be made over time, under conditions of uncertainty, and with multiple, conflicting objectives. Problem formulation has been rather haphazard and many ad hoc models have been used, often with very little empirical support.

Factors Affecting Contractors' Bidding Decisions for Construction Projects in Nigeria

Bidding is the most common means by which contractors obtain work. The construction industry accounts for approximately three quarters of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the country. It is generally believed that wrong bidding practice is a major contributor to the construction industry's inefficiency. This means that any improvement in bidding has the potential to enhance the industry's performance, improve the quality of the decision-making process and assist in achieving the strategic objective of contracting organisations. In an effort to uncover the main factors that characterise the bid/no bid decision of contracting organisations, a study to evaluate the factors that affect contractors' decisions to bid for a project and to evaluate the importance of the identified factors to decision makers was conducted. A structured questionnaire was used as the principal instrument for collecting data from respondents. A total sample of 100 was drawn from these collections of construction contractors from Lagos state. Fifty were completed and returned, representing a 50% response rate. Frequency, percentage, mean score and Spearman's correlation were used in analysing data collected for the study. The results indicate that the financial capability of clients, availability of capital and availability of material are the most important factors that contractors consider when making a bid/no bid decision. The study also reveals that competition (number and identity of competitors) does not have significant influence on contractors' bidding decisions. The study recommends that contractors should also build their reputations in the construction industry by acquiring technical competencies and capabilities as these qualities have become important considerations in assessing contractors' competiveness, as well as being key indicators of successful tendering in construction projects.

A logistic regression approach to modelling the contractor’s decision to bid

2004

Significant factors in the decision to bid process are identified and a pro-forma to elicit a numerical assessment of these factors is developed and validated using the bid/no-bid decision-makers from a UK construction company. Using the pro-forma, data were collected from the collaborating company for historical bid opportunities. Statistical techniques are used to gain a better understanding of the data characteristics and to model the process. Eight variables have a significant relationship with the decision to bid outcome and for which the decision-makers are able to discriminate. Factor analysis is used to identify the underlying dimensions of the pro-forma and to validate functional decomposition of the factors. Finally, two logistic regression models of the decision to bid process are developed. While one model is ultimately rejected, the selected model is capable of classifying the total sample with an overall predictive accuracy rate of 94.8%. The results, therefore, demonstrate that the model functions effectively in predicting the bid/no-bid decision process.

The effect of client and type and size of construction work on a contractor’s bidding strategy

2001

This paper offers a bidding strategy model for use by contractors as part of a more informed approach in selecting which contracts to bid for, and as a basis for determining the most appropriate mark-up level for various types and sizes of construction work and client types. Regression analysis is used in measuring a contractor's competitiveness between bids (by using the lowest bid/own bid ratio) and within bids (by using the lowest bid/cost estimate ratio) according to type and size of construction work and client type.

Factors Affecting Bidding Decisions of Company and Contemporary Bidding Models

In every construction project, the crucial decision that contractors have to make is to bid or not to bid on particular project. In here the various factors on which bidding process depends and the bidding models are studied. Thousands of bidding factors are analysed while evaluating different bidding opportunities . It is an accepted fact, construction projects are expected to be prone to some sort of uncertainty. These days, many of the biding models concentrate on “mark up size” (Wanous, Boussabaine et al. 1998). Bidding decision is considered to be the most complex process which involves many objectives and has a reflection of external and internal factors. The Bidding decision not only helps in establishing the connection between strategy and individual projects of a company; but also helps in establishing contractor’s business growth.

Model of Predicting Bidding Costs for Construction Projects in Nigeria using Public Procurement Act 2007

International Journal of Engineering Research and

The costs incurred by various stakeholders participating in the tendering process and their magnitude has attributed incongruity between government and contractors, economic drain and less competition in public sector projects. The aim of the study is to develop model that predict the transaction cost of bidding construction projects based on Public Procurement Act 2007 (PPA 2007). To achieve this, quantitative survey design based on structured questionnaire was used. The data collected from 143 sampled contractors selected using stratified sampling techniques from the NorthWest states of Nigeria were analyzed using Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling software. The results from the analysis revealed three (3) major sources of transaction costs identified from the field as; eligibility documents, contract administration costs, and securing related documents methods. In addition, the three identified transaction costs sources were found to be significant determinants of transaction costs for contractors bidding for construction projects of various types. Moreover, bidding costs model was found to exhibit good forecasting power that can be used to predict the magnitude of costs incurred by contractors in bidding projects in Nigeria. The study concludes that the transaction costs of contractors in bidding construction projects on average is 8.21% of contract sum after validating the model with real life data, and it will benefit incoming firms into the industry as a bidder by knowing their entry probable costs indicators for public projects. The study recommends that further studies should be explore to identify some potential factors such as Equipments, financial capability and professional staff strength which could provide new insights into bidding transaction costs incurred for construction projects.

A STUDY ON KEY FACTORS INFLUENCING BID/NO- BID DECISIONS FOR DIFFERENT CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS IN INDIA

Bid decisions either leads to procuring good opportunities or incurring large loss due to selection of inappropriate projects. The decisions to bid or not, made on experience and instincts have lower success rate compared to decisions made on real time facts governing the entire process. Smart contractors tend to be more factual rather being more heuristic while bidding for a project. To improve the bidding process and the competitiveness over a global market, the contractors need to identify and analyze the key factors influencing the bid process, which in turn boosts the economy of the country. This paper reports the factors influencing the bid decisions obtained through the response from the survey questioning various contractors from different construction projects in India. This study also ranks the factors obtained based on their importance weightages and the top ranked factors being studied using a statistical tool.

Contractors' Bidding Behavior in First-Price Sealed Auctions for Construction Projects

International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, 2017

Procurement of public construction projects generally adopts first-price sealed auctions to promote competition between bidders and reduce owner's cost. This paper presents an analysis for bidding behavior of contractors in public construction markets. The analysis utilizes real data representing the bid results of 1396 projects submitted for public construction projects in Jordan. Bidding data were classified depending on the type of project into: building construction, transportation, infrastructure, water, and electro-mechanical projects. The data includes also engineering design and/or engineering supervision projects. The analyzed behavior attributes are: 1) competition between bidders measured by number of bidders and the bid spread between the lowest two bidders; and 2) bidding variability measured by the coefficient of variation. The analysis revealed that number of bidders and bid spread depend on type of project advertised and market conditions. The variability of bidding results also is correlated with type of project. The performed analysis provide owners with an assessment of the efficiency of the competitive bidding process and can be used to identify weaknesses that need to be addressed in bidding regulations. Contractors can utilize the results to develop their bidding strategies to win profitable jobs.