Research Proposal: Tender selection criteria for large infrastructure projects
In order to Tender, it can be describes as a proposal to do work or supply at a fixed prices. Other words, tender is to invite bids for accepting a official proposal likewise takeover bid (Corbin et al., 2015).
For processing of tender, the qualified contractors are invited to submit their proposal towards construction or supply of goods and services within the decided timeframe.
It is ensured by the help of tender process that which work is to be done for client, is being done in a right way.
The main object of project tender is to create an environment for encourages interest and offers from the construction contractors who are enough qualified and experienced.
In context to tender selection process, the price plays an important role. On behalf of prices, this is decided that which tender is better for selection.
There are many types of tenders available for selection. Open tender, limited tender, single tender are some examples of tender.
Further, the tendering selection process is not so easy (Brook, 2016). It includes some typical and complicated process and procedure.
For tendering, professionals and employers should make sure that all the required documents have been prepared, checked and approved and also ensure about the funding of project.
There are some steps that includes in tender process. These steps are given below:
- Determine the tender process.
- Prepare a request for tender.
- Invite the tenders.
- Suppliers respond.
- Evaluation and selection of tender
- Notification and cross-examine
- Establishment of contract and managed.
Under tender selection, the prospective supplier submits the tender in response to an invitation to tender.
After submitting the tender, a careful procedure of assessment must be done to identify the tender which will be preferred. While the tender selection is done, each tender will be examined for compliance.
An assessment takes place to identify the best tender which meets the client’s needs and offers the best value for money and these kinds of tenders are beneficial for long run.
It is referred as the most economically advantageous tender as opposed to the lowest-price approach (Olawale and Sun, 2015).
For tender selecting criteria, these below points should be considering as important: Price, Relevant experience, Understanding of requirements, management skills and system, past performance, Resource availability, technical skills, proposed methodology and so on.
In addition to this, the main objective of selection of tender is to choose a tender that is best by ethically, economically and in terms of capability.
In context to Australia, there is a different procedure of tender selection. They select tender by using different techniques of tender evaluation (Chong, 2016).
Under tender evaluation, three components are declared as key components which are as following:
- Tender Analysis
The success of tender process is depended on the assembling an experienced and competent tender evaluation team.
For tender analysis, the team leader or the chairperson must posse communication, leadership and negotiation skills as well as commercial and technical abilities (Vrielink et al., 2017).
The tender are contained difference in the areas of design, timing, capital cost, impact durability and so on.
In tender analysis, risk analysis is recommended. In addition, this research study is advised that tender are analyzed against the selection that is defined in tender document.
- Tender Clarification
Under tender clarification, this is to be ensure that tender confidentiality is maintained and all the tenders are treated ethically and equitability (Sarhan et al., 2018).
There are many other elements that are essential for clients as well as bidder in evaluating the tender like implied conditions in the tender, unclear elements of proposal, written tender clarification request and so on.
- Tender Selection and Award
Finally, the tender selection procedure is done with some recommendations that are given below:
- The tender evaluation report is produced with methodology undertaken and final recommendation.
- Unsuccessful tenders are returned.
After final selection of tender, the tenderer and the client shall ensure about the contract incorporates and this is meant that there is no opportunity for either party to alter the final price of contract or to alter the proposal by materially.
Contractors need various criteria for tender selection in large infrastructural projects. In the current scenario, the contractor must identify the cost and price of the tender before issuing it.
In addition to this, contractors face different issues after or before issuing the tender project. The tender selection criteria provide the percentage and marks on the each area of tender.
An infrastructural project contains different areas where the cost and price of each area have different cost (Taylor et al., 2015). A contractor can obtain situation of loss if the criteria are not identified by the person.
In overall construction industry, the tender selection criteria help to select the preferred supplier for the tender. The most critical factors in the selection of tender are size and characteristics of the contract.
The financial capacity, project value, resource availability and stability of infrastructure develop the need of tender selection criteria.
The evaluation of tenders as well as selection of contractors and study of procurement policy had been an area of continued research.
As tenders are responsible to deliver project outcomes and their selection is related to success, achievement and failure of project objectives the existing studies have focused on judgment about supplier and contractor ability which have been studied in this context.
However, there is still complexity and uncertainty in identification of selection criteria in tenders for achievement of stakeholder values and project overall success and also associates with the experience of the evaluator.
There are various criteria such as price, experience, capabilities and other features for selection of tenders that are essential to influences choice of suppliers, contactors, etc.
there are few evidence that investigates on factor and criteria that hold relevance in selection of tenders for constructions and large infrastructure projects and also industrial purchasing.
The criteria for selection owing to the need of budget overruns, quality standards, extended schedules; safety standards, etc have been mentioned in existing studies.
The existing literature in tender criteria selection and evaluation as critical success factors and the impacts of criteria on the project outcomes is limited.
There is also little literature on criteria for tender selection for incorporation qualitative and quantitative factors as selection criteria for success of projects.
Despite the high relevance of, this facet of tender selection in existing studies remains unexplored.
Therefore, this study attempts to fulfill the existing gap by identification of criteria for effective selection of tender to ensure success of a large-scale infrastructure project.
The main of the project is to identify different criteria for tender that can be used by an organization in large infrastructure projects. Additionally, the objectives of the research are:
- To review the different tender selection criteria for large projects of infrastructure
- To identify the criteria that might be used for tender selection
- To analyses the factors that can impact the selection criteria
- To provide the recommendations for specific criteria that would be useful for large projects
A large infrastructure project needs effective criteria in tender selection. According to the research of Bochenek, (2014) it is analyzed that there is a need of preparation before issuing the tender.
The criteria of tender evaluation need the preparation before sending the proposal and bid document to the bidders in concern to the large infrastructure project.
But in concern of government project, there is a need to provide both criteria and weightings to judge the offer. The preparation is much more necessary for the bidder to effectively communicate the risk and value of the contract in large project of infrastructure.
From the study of Sharma et al. (2012), it is identified that the criteria of tender section must include the cost and price to make effective the tender process. It is also defined that the cost must be more than base price to make it satisfactory for selection in bid.
The cost includes different areas like delivery cost, installation cost, transportation cost, operational cost, warehouse cost, maintenance cost, spares, etc. In addition to this, the price of all the equipment should also be considered in the bid documents.
At the same time, Bergman and Lundberg, (2013) state that the tender selection criteria also include all non-cost items in the bid document which require quality in the good and service.
The quality requirements of the tender should include different issues and abilities that are required. Moreover, the provided criteria also includes technical support, after support services, timely delivery ability, time frame, etc. to make the quality of service.
In addition to this, the acceptance of proposed terms and condition of the tender is also included in the quality and training and on-site installation is also necessary for this.
After the completion of this tender the authorized person must signed. In the research study of Falagario et al.(2012), it is identified that the tender criteria requires the weightings.
In which, each criterion require a perfect number and percentage to allocate the marks in an effective manner to highlight the importance of each area.
In the bid, the criteria should only be based on the invitation of the tender requirement and there is no need to assume new criteria during the evaluation. On the other side, from the finding of Roseand Manley, (2012), it is outlined that the responses of tender must be clear to provide effective results.
In the tender process, the bidder should meet the basic requirement to ensure the need and requirements of goods and service. In the tender criteria, the template layout must be clear and scoring to provide easy responses.
In addition to this, the process of tender evaluation should also be straightforward in the large infrastructure project this will provide satisfaction to the bidder.
In addition to this, Liu et al. (2014) mentioned that the main objective of tender selection criteria is to provide the help to the organization to select a infrastructure project which is suitable to fulfill organizational requirement.
Best selective project helps the business to face competition in global market. Tender selection is most crucial and most critical area of tender.
As per this process, tender selection is done in terms of cost, capacity and quality. Tender selection process must be done under supervision of professionals, fair, honest and even handed.
The main purpose of contractor is to provide service to the client agency and more generally it is depended on the effectiveness and the efficiency of competitive tending selection criteria.
Further, tendering is described as a process in which an offer, bid or a proposal is made in response to a request or invitation for tender (Ulubeyli et al., 2017).
In other worlds, need of a tender is because when the organizations seeks to other business to answered to a particular need like the supply of services and goods and they select an tender or offer that will meet their need and gives the best value for money.
In order to this, Delmon (2017) mentioned that tender selection criteria are basically focused on some important aspects.
First one is price in which technical factors are evaluated while selecting the tender. Sometimes, this process is called “auction” as a most appropriate term for assets monetization in existing revenue making infrastructure which are interested to generate excess of revenue over costs.
Second one aspect is price in which qualitative factors are evaluated at the time of tender selection. These factors basically related to the technical offer’s quality.
In context to Tender selection criteria, Carbonara (2015) stated that transparency and objectivity must be a crucial tool while structuring and defining the evaluation methods even the consideration of pass or fail of contract.
Tender request document are plays an important role in tender selection criteria. In tender documents, invitation to tender, request for proposal and request for tender etc. are main documents which outline that what the requirement of the organization are.
These documents also define the criteria, instruction and guidelines which are to be followed.
In oppose to this, Olaniran (2015) describes that this research study explains about the impact of tender selection criteria.
If the tender selection criteria are done after focusing all the needs and requirements of the organization then this will be best tender selection and it will be cost effective as well as revenue generating in future as the large infrastructures are demanded.
Moreover, this research concentrates over the factors like wise price, need of organization, timeframe, quality of project, future effectiveness etc.
that will impact the tender selection criteria. All these factors are represented the choices of tender which responsible the profitability of best-value for the client (Ruparathna and Hewage 2015).
The best-value contracting strategy is aimed that the use of combination of price and qualitative factors in the selection process of tender to increase the long-term performance of the project.
In context to research methodology, the researcher uses data collection for gathering and evaluating information on targetable variables as an established systematic way which enables the researcher to give answer of relevant questions and measures the outcomes (Wildemuth, 2016).
Further, Data collection is key component in every field of research study as physical, social science, humanities and business and so on.
As per study, Fusch and Ness (2015) data collection describes as two types like primary data collection and secondary data collection.
Primary data is denotes as first hand data that are collected first time so this is original in character. For collecting primary data, interviews, observation and questionnaires methods are used.
On the other side, secondary data is collected by someone else or it is already collected. Secondary data have been passed through the statistical process.
It may published or unpublished data as per research study requirement.
For secondary data collection, Publications, technical journals, trade journals, books, magazines, newspapers, and reports etc can use. As per the research study of tender selection criteria, primary data collection will be preferred.
Two types of primary data are quantitative data collection and qualitative data collection (Hewson and Stewart, 2016).
In concern to this research, the researcher will use quantitative approach as exploration method. For this qualitative approach, the researcher would focus on the survey through questionnaire method.
First of all, there is a need of designing the questionnaire by analysing the current situation of infrastructure projects to define the criteria of tender selection (Lewis, 2015).
The researcher has targeted to fill this questionnaire over 85 project managers and professionals.
In addition to this, the collected data from the questionnaire will be analysed with the statistical method to get satisfactory outcome. In order to analysis the data with statistical method, the researcher will use the MS excel software.
In this, the frequencies of responses will be considered in the research that is related with the survey questions.
On the other hand, the theoretical aspects of the research will be reviewed from different literature reviews such as articles, books, journals, etc. With the use of these literatures, the researcher will collect the information regarding tender selection criteria for larger projects of infrastructure (Flick, 2015).
The literature review will support the primary findings to provide valid and reliable outcomes of the research.
All the data will be helpful for the researcher to take the effective decisions regarding selection of tender criteria.
In addition to this research study, data analysis is also an essential term which needs to understand by the researcher (Lewis, 2015).
Data analysis describes as a procedure of inspecting, cleansing transforming and modelling data with the objective of searching meaning full information, suggesting the result and supporting in decision-making.
Further, data analysis has many approaches, divers’ techniques and facts in different business, sciences and social science fields.
There are some types of data analysis need to be considered by the researchers in their research study.
Descriptive analysis
In which researcher answers the some strategic questions like what happened.
Diagnostic analysis
In this analysis the researcher will search the answer of the question that why something happened.
Predictive Analysis
This analysis describes that what the chances are to be happen. This is an prediction of research.
Prescriptive Analysis
The purpose of this analysis is to literally prescribe that what steps to be taken to reduce future problems.
Statistical analysis
As per this analysis, this is beneficial for those researches which are related to statistics.
Thus, the researcher will select the statistical analysis according to research topic as tender selection criteria (Lewis, 2015). In this study, researcher needs to analysis data statistically.
Sampling is the method of selecting suitable respondents for making the research successful. Additionally, it includes two types of sampling i.e. random and non-random sampling (Edjabou et al., 2015).
Random sampling gives the equal chance to every respondent for becoming a part of research study.
However, it is not possible in the non-random sampling. In context to this study, the researcher will be used the random sampling method in order to reduce the chances of biasness.
Under the random sampling method, the researcher will select the 85 project managers and professionals for collecting relevant data.
It is important for the researcher to consider the research ethics. In the research, the questionnaire technique will be used and the facts need to be taken directly from the respondent instead of purchasing from any company (Lyles et al., 2017).
If any such false action is undertakes then it is considered as an unethical. Other than that, researcher needs to cite properly without making any mistake.
Thus, these are the activities that researcher requires to consider while developing the research study.
The absence of secondary research, time and cost factors are the limitation for the research study (Beauvais et al., 2014).
The study does not focus more on the secondary method as it will collect information through use of survey and interview.
This practice takes lots of time which does not prove to be useful for the research study.
Moreover, the overall research would become expensive for conducting the qualitative research such as survey, questionnaire method for the area under study.
Beauvais, A. M., Stewart, J. G., DeNisco, S., & Beauvais, J. E. (2014) Factors related to academic success among nursing students: A descriptive correlational research study. Nurse Education Today, 34(6), pp. 918-923.
Bergman, M.A. and Lundberg, S. (2013)Tender evaluation and supplier selection methods in public procurement. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 19(2), pp.73-83.
Bochenek, J. (2014) The contractor selection criteria in open and restricted procedures in public sector in selected EU countries. Procedia Engineering, 85, pp.69-74.
Brook, M. (2016) Estimating and tendering for construction work.UK: Taylor & Francis.
Carbonara, N., 2015. 10 Decision models in Public Private Partnerships. Public Private Partnerships in Transport: Trends and Theory, 3, p.156.
Chong, W.J. (2016) The Barriers of Implementing E-Tendering System By Quantity Surveyors in Selangor (Doctoral dissertation, INTI International University).
Corbin, C.H., O’Quinn, T.G., Garmyn, A.J., Legako, J.F., Hunt, M.R., Dinh, T.T.N., Rathmann, R.J., Brooks, J.C. and Miller, M.F. (2015) Sensory evaluation of tender beef strip loin steaks of varying marbling levels and quality treatments. Meat Science, 100, pp.24-31.
Delmon, J., (2017) Public-private partnership projects in infrastructure: an essential guide for policy makers. USA:Cambridge University Press.
Edjabou, M. E., Jensen, M. B., Götze, R., Pivnenko, K., Petersen, C., Scheutz, C., & Astrup, T. F. (2015) Municipal solid waste composition: Sampling methodology, statistical analyses, and case study evaluation. Waste Management, 36, pp. 12-23.
Falagario, M., Sciancalepore, F., Costantino, N. and Pietroforte, R. (2012) Using a DEA-cross efficiency approach in public procurement tenders. European Journal of Operational Research, 218(2), pp.523-529.
Flick, U. (2015) Introducing research methodology: A beginner’s guide to doing a research project.UK: Sage.
Fusch, P.I. and Ness, L.R., (2015) Are we there yet? Data saturation in qualitative research. The qualitative report, 20(9), p.1408.
Hewson, C., & Stewart, D. W. (2016) Internet research methods. USA: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Joarder, M. and Rahman, S. (2015) Assessment of e-Tendering (e-GP) process in LGED: a case study for selected offices (Doctoral dissertation, BRAC University).
Lewis, S. (2015) Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), pp.473-475.
Liu, J., Love, P.E., Smith, J., Regan, M. and Davis, P.R., (2014) Life cycle critical success factors for public-private partnership infrastructure projects. Journal of Management in Engineering, 31(5), p.04014073.
Lyles, C. R., Fruchterman, J., Youdelman, M., & Schillinger, D. (2017) Legal, practical, and ethical considerations for making online patient portals accessible for all. American journal of public health, 107(10), pp. 1608-1611.
Olaniran, O.J., 2015. The effects of cost-based contractor selection on construction project performance. Journal of Financial Management of Property and Construction, 20(3), pp.235-251.
Olawale, Y. and Sun, M. (2015) Construction project control in the UK: Current practice, existing problems and recommendations for future improvement. International journal of project management, 33(3), pp.623-637.
Rose, T.M. and Manley, K. (2012) Adoption of innovative products on Australian road infrastructure projects. Construction Management and Economics, 30(4), pp.277-298.
Ruparathna, R. and Hewage, K., (2015) Sustainable procurement in the Canadian construction industry: current practices, drivers and opportunities. Journal of Cleaner Production, 109, pp.305-314.
Sarhan, S., Pasquire, C., King, A. and Manu, E. (2018) Institutional waste within the UK construction procurement context: a conceptual framework. Engineering Project Organization Journal, 8.
Sharma, C., Mondal, S., Majumdar, G.C. and De, S. (2012) Clarification of Stevia extract by ultrafiltration: selection criteria of the membrane and effects of operating conditions. Food and Bioproducts Processing, 90(3), pp.525-532.
Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. and DeVault, M. (2015) Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. UK: John Wiley & Sons.
Ulubeyli, S., Kazaz, A. and Arslan, V., (2017) A Structured Selection Process for Small and Medium Enterprises in Construction Industry: Case of International Projects. Periodicals of Engineering and Natural Sciences (PEN), 5(3).
Vrielink, R.O., Jansen, E., Gort, E., van Hillegersberg, J. and Hans, E. (2017) Towards improving tenders for Higher Education timetabling software “Uncovering the selection criteria of HEIs when choosing timetabling applications, using ERP as a reference”. In MISTA 2017 Proceedings: 5–8 Dec 2017| Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Wildemuth, B.M. ed., (2016) Applications of social research methods to questions in information and library science. US:ABC-CLIO.
