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Johannesburg, Guateng, South Africa
I am a Senior Lecturer in the School of Construction Economics and Management at University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. In the past, I have been a Lecturer in the School of Construction Management and Engineering at the University of Reading, UK (2010-12); and also a Post-Doctoral Academic Fellow (2009) and Graduate Teaching Assistant (2008). I completed my PhD at University of Reading in Dec 2008 on the relationship between risk and price in tendering. Prior to transferring to Reading in Jan 2008, I was an MPhil/PhD student at KNUST, Ghana (2004-07). I gained my undergraduate degree in Building Technology from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana in 1998-2002. During school days, my peers elected me to serve in several leadership positions including SRC President at KNUST. From 1994-96, I attended Suhum Sec. Tech. School after basic education at schools in Ghana and Nigeria. I did my National Service with the Fanteakwa District Assembly in 2002-03. After that, I worked at the Development Office of KNUST until I started my PhD in 2004. I am a co-organiser for the WABER Conference and an author of 30+ research publications.

Monday 26 April 2010

Review meetings in the tender process of contractors

Construction procurement research:
Review meetings in the tender process of contractors

Samuel Laryea and Will Hughes
School of Construction Management and Engineering, University of Reading, Reading, UK RG6 6AW


Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to advance a better understanding of the nature and contents of the review meetings that form a significant part of a construction contractor’s tendering process.

Design/methodology/approach
Two live observational case studies were carried out in two of the top 20 UK construction firms, referred to here as Gamma and Delta. The whole tender process was shadowed using participant observation, interview and documentary analysis.

Findings
Eight review meetings occurred in the six-and-a-half week (i.e. 280.5hours) tender process. The review meetings lasted for 22.2 hours which forms 8% of the tender period. Eight people were involved in the review meetings in each firm, which translates into 178 man-hours. Thus, review meetings constitute a significant proportion of a contractor’s tendering process and clearly contribute to the costs of tendering. Altogether, 17 people were identified as bid team members. However, the significant proportion of work was done by the Bid Manager, Estimator and Planner. The final tender review appeared to have least impact on programme and price contrary to existing knowledge in the literature. This is partly because of accountability procedures such as interim review meetings which take place prior to final tender review. Significant change was found in the traditional role of the estimator. This is due to the emergence of equally important roles played by the Bid Manager and Planner because of other significant factors apart from price that also affect how work is priced, documented and awarded.

Practical implications
The research reveals a significant amount of time and resources involved in tender review meetings. This is one area contractors can tackle to minimize high costs associated with tendering.

Originality/value
The research develops a better understanding of review meetings in the tender process of contractors, in terms of times of occurrence, personnel involved, meeting durations, documents reviewed, issues discussed and key terminologies associated with tender review. The originality of the research lies in the combination of rigorous ethnomethodological fieldwork with results that are highly relevant to construction practitioners.

Keywords: Case studies, estimating, tender review meeting, tendering, UK

2 comments:

alexbethperry said...

Thanks for this. Although do you know whether any of the suppliers or contractors had adhered to any kind of pre qualification questionnaire prior to the building tenders process?

Joanne said...

Thank you so much for sharing on this wonderful thought the idea you share is more helpful for me.

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