• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2022.06a
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• pp.18-24
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• 2022

State highway agencies (SHAs) typically apply a competitive procurement procedure to select contractors for their design-bid-build projects. Since the level of competition affects construction bid prices and project outcomes, the Federal Highway Agency (FHWA) suggests SHAs seek ways to improve competition among contractors continuously. However, they rarely conduct an empirical assessment of the current competition level necessary to identify room for improvement. Besides the number of bidders on a project, other factors such as winning or losing rates among the contractors in previous projects can also indicate the degree of competition; only a few contractors may have won the majority of the projects in a specific region. However, few studies have investigated such factors. This paper proposes a network analysis-based approach to evaluating contractor competition levels of highway projects using historical bid tabulation data. The proposed method provides insights into overall competition levels, the determination of competitive contractors, and winning rate distribution among contractors.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2007.03a
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• pp.289-298
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• 2007

The development of construction industry has led to the increase in the number of criteria imposed by project clients for selecting contractors. For example, clients often request tenderers to satisfy various conditions such as tight programme, financial strength, managerial ability, relevant work experiences, technical strength, high workmanship standard, safety requirement, quality specification, and yet others. This trend has attracted research interests of devising various methods for helping project clients to assess contractors' bids. For example, in recent development, the Works Bureau of the Hong Kong Government has introduced two mechanisms in tender evaluation for various public work contracts, namely, the Marking Scheme effective from June 2002 and the Formula Approach effective from November 2002 [1], [2]. These approaches evaluate a contractor's tender by considering collectively its tender price and performance attributes, the latter including contractor experience, past performance, technical resources and technical content of his proposal. The tender with the highest combined price and performance score (CPPS) will be normally recommended for acceptance. It appears, however, that there is little existing research in helping contractors to identify a competition strategy that enables the contractor to offer his most competitive bid collectively taking into account his resource capacities and project client's multiple performance criteria. This paper examines the factors affecting contractor's competition strategy to compete for works in Hong Kong. The understanding about the factors will contribute to identifying effective competition strategy. The data used for the analysis were collected from Hong Kong construction industry. The research findings may provide valuable references for investigating effective competition strategies in other construction industries outside the region.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.417-423
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• 2005

Contractor's opportunistic bidding behavior refers to contractor's deliberate low-bid, which cannot accord with the cost, and expectation for beyond-contractual reward (BCR), the compensation earned through cutting corners or claims after undertaking the construction project. This research applies System Dynamics to develop a model of contractor's pricing with consideration for dimensions of "cost", "market competition", and "BCR". Iterative computer simulations were performed to analyze the effects of contractor's pricing on the market price. The results were then examined by statistical analysis on data collected from 44 highway projects in Taiwan. It is found that the critical force driving the contractors to bid opportunistically is their excessive expectations in BCR under the current environment. Within the price competition mechanism, if the problem of BCR exists, even if the bidding system is further improved, contractors would still prefer opportunistic bidding behavior, and eventually make the whole construction industry operate ineffectively. Therefore, it is crucial to remedy the aforementioned BCR problem by more effective management policy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute Of Construction Engineering and Management
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.431-434
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• 2006

The purpose of this study is to examine the degree of openness and competition in special contractor's market. And the result of this study will present the basis of rational policy making. The literature research and time series analysis are adopted as research method. And the findings of this study are as followed. The study has shown that the degree of openness is high in korean special contractor's market by gradual deregulation of entrance barriers into special contractor's market. And the study has revealed that the degree of competition in special contractor's market is high, revealing that the rate of increase of contract account and the subcontract bid rate have decreased.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2013.01a
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• pp.479-487
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• 2013

State Highway Agencies (SHAs) have started utilizing cost-plus-time bidding (A+B bidding) since Federal Highway Agency (FHWA) declared it operational on May 4, 1995. Although this technique has successfully accelerated many projects by incorporating construction time in the bidding competition, a framework to illustrate the interactions of incentive/disincentive (I/D) rates on the competitiveness of contractors participating in the bid competition is yet to be developed. In a previous research, authors indicated that for each bid competition there is an efficient cap for I/D rates which are dictated by the capabilities of contractors in project acceleration. However, the results of previous study were based on the assumption that there is a statistically significant relationship between cost and time. In this study, the entire cost-plus-time projects implemented by the Oklahoma Department of Transportation (ODOT) were investigated. Then the significance of relationship between cost and time were analyzed for each contractor utilizing Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) technique, and the price-time function of each contractor was determined by regression analysis. The results of the analysis indicate that there is a significant relationship between cost and time for the majority of contractors. However, a quadratic relationship is not always significant and for some contractors a linear price-time relationship is significant. The results of this project can be used not only by ODOT to optimize the incentive/disincentive rates but also by contractors to determine the most competitive strategies of other bid participants.

• IE interfaces
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.1-10
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• 1997

CALS, being widely adopted by industry, is a strategy to share integrated digital product data through a set of standards to achieve effieciencies and competition in business. For CALS implemetation, creating a shared information system is necessary and CITIS is proposed for that. CITIS shall provide on-line access and automated exchange of all the technical information between contractor and service provider, and the function of CITIS is difined in MIL-STD-974. In this paper, regarding CITIS as a infrastructure of information for CALS, we proposed CITIS server system which comprise global data sharing software, global data management system, workflow manager, and configuration management maneger.

• Journal of the Korean Professional Engineers Association
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.52-60
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• 1997

As a matter of fact, the better architecture is very important things to create our generation and culture. Also, construction quality improvement is critical necessary to keep the culture and international competition which must be obtained through the consciousness reform of persons concerned. Therefore, the purpose of this proposal is to provide the basic point for establishing a practical compaign against construction failures. In this year, we have to remember the facts that's faced on market opening in construction market which is agreed in WTO. The contents of subject are as follows : 1 ) Subconscious reform of technician and projector concerned 2) Responsable consciousness of original contractor 3) Workmanship of skilled labor 4) Reasonable budget and bidding included sub-contractor 5) Advanced design and engineering quality 6) Certification of consulting engineer

• Journal of architectural history
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.7-18
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to examine the construction industry of Korea from the 1920s to the 1930s by analyzing activities of construction-contractors trying to overcome the recession of the construction industry and intensified competition in the industry. In this paper, I looked at the activities of Hanazono Sakichi as concrete examples. First of all, with the strategy of the vertical integration, by manufacturing and selling building materials, Hanazono Sakichi expanded his company and the scope of contract business. The second, he attempted to diversify related projects. Through related diversification, he seemed to have earned not only land management profit but also advantages from related construction. These aspects were not only seen by Hanazono's activities but also by other contractors'. On the other hand, a few contractors have taken over a trust company to secure the funds for land management. Attempts to maximize personal interests through the expansion and diversification of contractors' business can be seen as overcoming the pre-1920s environment, where almost construct works were ordered under the government, and creating opportunities for the private sector to work and make profit by themselves. In the end, it can be mentioned that 'the contractor' established 'the construction industry' through this process.

• International conference on construction engineering and project management
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.399-406
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• 2011

Various construction bonds and warranties critically burden the general contractor. Also, sporadic or cumulative delays of progress payment by the owner can further trap the contractor in a financial quagmire. Facing the possibility of cash flow deficiency and callous response from the banks, most construction firms may become financially incapable of market competition, and attractive project tenders become a bidding game among few deep-pocket players. The downside of such market environment is that the depth of pocket, rather than that of professional competency dictates the choice of market winners. In Taiwan, this has been a potential crisis to the construction industry after the financial crisis which started out since 2008. To encounter this problem, this research will examine the means to better manage the construction industry. Essentially, a credit guarantee system (CGS) is the prime solution to strengthen a bank's confidence in any particular construction firm. Thus establishing a national platform which evaluates and rewards a construction firm's overall credibility is pivotal, and this third-party rated credit can help a bank to render a loan more wisely. Finally, this paper will propose the ideal operating schemes of construction-specific CGS in Taiwan and a credit scoring prototype model for construction industry, as reference for the government and banks, respectively.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.77-98
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• 2012

Contracting out became popular in the public library sector since the early of 2000s. It is expected to lower cost of service provision, improve the quality of service provision, better timeliness of service through the discipline of the market and open competition. In practice the expectation was questionable. The numerous failures indicate either poor contract specification or unsuitability of the chosen contractor. The study analyzed 3 case studies of local governments where the entire entity of the public libraries service were decided contracting out and developed 5 criteria and 18 specific evaluation items as alternative evaluation structure. This evaluation model is expected to help to choose a suitable contractor in pubic library management.