RESEARCH ARTICLE
Decision Support Model for Contractor Selection
Reem T. Mergawy1, *, Hossam E. Hosny1, Abdelazeem S. Abdelazeem1
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2023Volume: 17
E-location ID: e187414952301270
Publisher ID: e187414952301270
DOI: 10.2174/18741495-v17-e230215-2022-51
Article History:
Received Date: 26/09/2022Revision Received Date: 13/01/2023
Acceptance Date: 16/01/2023
Electronic publication date: 29/03/2023
Collection year: 2023
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Introduction:
The construction and infrastructure industries in Egypt have recently experienced huge growth, which of course requires methodical planning, full feasibility studies, and wise selections of project executors' teams, including engineering design offices, management agencies, and contracting firms. Consequently, to guarantee achieving the predetermined project designs and objectives, a careful assessment of the incorporating contractor company must be carried out.
Problem Statement:
Improper contractor selection leads to several problems throughout the project delivery phase, including inadequate quality and delays in the expected project time, which results in cost overruns. Rather, it also sometimes results in suspending the project and failing to complete it. Moreover, in most public and governmental projects, in accordance with law 182/2018, the responsible employee is forced to choose the lowest-priced bid regardless of any other considerations, only passing the project's minimum technical score defined by the appropriate authority, and this is illogical and must be reconsidered.
Methodology:
In order to find a solution to these problems, the following steps were taken in this paper: (1) Forty-eight factors affecting contractor selection were identified through surveying; (2) the seven most important factors were selected based on the fuzzy Delphi technique (FDT); and (3) competitive contractors were prioritised at the pre-bidding stage for the construction project by utilising the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) combined with the analytic network process (ANP).
Results:
Seven of the forty-eight factors were selected using the fuzzy Delphi technique, and to calculate their relative weights, AHP and ANP were combined to obtain the most important variables affecting contractor selection. Next, a model user interface for picking contractors was developed to make it easier for project owners and managers to apply. To fully understand how the model functions, a realistic case study involving four bidders competing for the contract has been included.
Conclusion:
Since government agencies oblige decision-makers to select the lowest-priced bidder, this model can be used during the tendering process's prequalification stage to ensure that all potential contractors are qualified while including the most influential criteria from the Egyptian construction market's perspective.
