Title: Multi-million construction contractor selection: a comparative study

Authors: Sharfuddin Ahmed Khan; Yousif Ibrahim Al Hosany

Addresses: Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management Department, University of Sharjah, UAE ' Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, P.O. Box 28, Abudhabi, UAE

Abstract: Construction processes are especially prone to risks, which affect project performance. Using the lowest price as the dominant selection criteria may not result in appointing the most capable contractor. In this project, the 'quality of the decision' of appointing a main contractor is evaluated based on identified commercial and technical tender criteria. Using a real case study of a multi-million dollars project, the results of ulti-million construction contractor selection) model is compared to the results analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in two scenarios; using the same main evaluation criteria, and then adding more sub-criteria. The AHP model was built by using the lessons learned from the project after its completion, the evaluation criteria and their weights were adjusted. Sensitivity analysis of both scenarios, before and after completion of project shows the robustness of contractor selection. Result shows that in Scenario 1, contractor no. 5 rank is same with respect to most of major criteria while in Scenario 2 we found that top three ranking of contractor which are contractor nos. 2, 3 and 7 are remain same. Because of the after completion analysis, we believe that the model is representing a good tool to evaluate the quality of the selection.

Keywords: construction projects; contractor selection; commercial criteria; technical criteria; analytical hierarchy process; AHP; sensitivity analysis; contractors; case study; selection criteria.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIE.2016.076030

International Journal of Intelligent Enterprise, 2016 Vol.3 No.2, pp.93 - 119

Received: 04 Apr 2015
Accepted: 07 May 2015

Published online: 22 Apr 2016 *

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