Costs of Procurement in Construction
Objectives
The aims of this project led by Dr Will Hughes, from the University of Reading, were reported last year and the findings have been surprising.
Description
Costs of obtaining work The purpose of this project is to identify how clients award work, and how contractors and consultants obtain work. We are interested in the costs associated with different tendering approaches and both contractual and non-contractual arrangements for collaboration. There are three types of cost involved: pre-tendering (marketing, forming alliances, establishing reputations), tendering (estimating, bidding, negotiating) and post-tendering (monitoring performance, enforcement of contractual obligations, dispute resolution). Together, these involve large amounts of resource, but these resources are typically dealt with as overheads, rather than individually costed. This project is the first attempt, in any industry, to generate empirical data about the costs associated with finding and getting work, and the financial consequences of different approaches.
Participating members
Potentially all members, steering group comprises AMEC, Amey, Balfour Beatty, BDP, Carillion, Citex, EMCOR Drake & Scull, Gardiner and Theobald, Gleeds, Irvine Whitlock, Kier Group, Land Securities, Waterloo Air Managment.
Partners
Reading University, MarketingWorks.
Timetable
Project Status: Current
Outputs
Interim paper June 2003, Conference October 2003. Final report was launched early 2005. Guidance will be included to help members make their processes mroe effective in the collaborative working environment.
Resources
EPSRC funding of £128,000.
Contact
Will Hughes, Reading University
Documents
Cost of Tendering Report - January 2005 -[1048kb]<
Cost of Tendering November 2004 - [83kb]
2003 Cost of tendering - [90kb]