Using F-PROMETHEE to evaluate and rank construction project contractors

Master's Thesis in Industrial Management (M.A)

Abstract

The increasing acceleration of the process of growth and development, as well as the increasing complexity of industrial projects along with the progress of science and technology, has caused the problem and process of choosing a contractor to be considered as an important and key factor in the success of industrial projects, and researchers and industrial owners take a more specialized approach in relation to this category, choosing a competent and qualified contractor is a multi-decision problem. It is a benchmark and it is the first step to implement an industrial project in terms of cost, duration, and quality.

In this research, an attempt has been made to select the most qualified contractor in the General Department of Roads and Urban Development of Yazd province using the fuzzy PROMETHEE technique. In this regard, the most important proposed criteria and indicators were identified and categorized with the help of the fuzzy Delphi technique. In the next step, the weight of the decision criteria was determined using the fuzzy AHP method, then the type of preference function of each indicator and the threshold of indifference and the threshold of its superiority were determined. The contractors participating in the tender were ranked and the most suitable contractor was determined for the implementation of the relevant project. Keywords: contractor selection, contractor selection criteria and indicators, Fuzzy PROMETHEE to reduce the amount of risk. At first, contractors were selected based on the lowest offered price, which caused problems during the implementation of projects. To solve such a problem, employers need a filter to prevent unqualified contractors from entering the tender.

The volume of construction activities is one of the basic indicators of growth and development. Every year, thousands of billions of Rials from our country's national funds are spent directly or indirectly on the construction and creation of the country's infrastructure in the public and private sectors. In a construction project, the largest amount of investment is made in the implementation stage of the project (Abbas Nia et al., 2014).

According to the statistics provided by the Management and Planning Organization in recent years, 10% of implementation problems are caused by the lack of competence of contractors (Rajaei and Hazrati, 2017). In this regard, the correct introduction and selection of contractors in construction projects is considered as a basic solution to prevent the wastage of national resources. By choosing the right contractor, the risk of wasting resources in terms of cost and time will be minimized, and it will also increase the quality of project implementation and safety during and after implementation (Abbas Nia et al., 2014).

To achieve this, two new solutions have been presented to solve the problem. Changing the process of holding tenders and determining the qualifications of contractors before holding tenders are the two approaches mentioned (Abbas Nia et al., 2014). Considering the above-mentioned materials and taking into account the fact that managing the evaluation and selection of contractors for the assignment of construction projects is an essential part of the construction process, this research identifies the dimensions and factors affecting the selection of contractors and prioritization and selection of the correct contractor using the PROMETHEE method in the Department of Roads and Urban Development of Yazd Province.

1-2- The main research question

The questions of this research are:

1- What are the effective criteria on the rating of construction project contractors?

2- What is the rating of construction project contractors of the Yazd Province General Road and Urban Development Department?

1-3- Scientific objectives

Experience has shown the acceptance and selection of contractors with the minimum bid price in tenders or The acceptance of contractors with unreasonable discounts compared to the initial findings of the employer and the consultant has caused an excessive extension of the contract period and has ultimately caused an increase in the costs of construction projects. In this way, due to the lack of work and ability of the contractors, the employer must either take action to remove the contractor, which is very time-consuming, or submit to the contractor's conditions at critical stages of the project implementation and take action to repair the price, which will also result in the extension of the duration and additional amount in the project. According to the above, the identification of quantitative and qualitative indicators affecting the competence of construction project contractors and the importance of each indicator and the evaluation and prioritization of contractors are among the goals of this research.

1-4- Practical goals

On average, about 15% of the world's gross national product is spent on the implementation of projects, and about 10% of the global economy flows in this industry. Since a very significant volume of the industry is construction projects, its importance in the global economy is quite evident (Program and Budget Organization, 2018). On the other hand, in the development economy, since the government's investments are used to expand production capacity, infrastructure and infrastructure in general. Projects are considered to be the winning edge of every country, but the necessary condition is that the government's expenses are spent on the implementation of appropriate and evaluated projects on the one hand, and on the other hand, these projects are entrusted to the appropriate contractor for implementation. The contractor plays the main and essential role in any construction project, choosing the contractor is one of the key decisions of managers and decision makers. The results of these decisions have an important effect on the implementation of the project in terms of time, quality and cost (Rajai and Hazrati, 2017). Evaluating contractors and ranking them based on the correct criteria will eliminate inefficient contractors from the bidding process. 1-5- Special requirements for research According to the above mentioned, it is important and mandatory to evaluate contractors and rank them based on the correct criteria in construction projects. measure and finally prioritize the contractors and identify the correct contractor.

1-6- Beneficiaries

In this research, after identifying the indicators affecting the selection of the contractor, the importance of the indicators is determined and prioritization of the contractors using the fuzzy PROMETHEE decision-making method (which is less implemented on the issue of contractor selection) is implemented in the General Department of Roads and Urban Development of Yazd Province.

7-1- Type of method Research

The type of research is based on the practical purpose and based on how to obtain the required data, the present research is considered descriptive and survey type.

1-8- Data collection method

In order to collect the data required for the research, library and field studies are carried out as follows.

1- Literature review and extraction of primary indicators based on the research background

2- Survey of experts

3- Approving the criteria after including the criteria obtained through background research and survey of experts. Then the selected contractors are ranked using the PROMETHEE method. 1-9- Data collection tools Since the evaluation indicators of each system will be different depending on the main goals of its creation and the important tasks expected from that system, as well as the influencing factors and the type of costs incurred, the following steps are taken to identify the effective indicators in the selection of construction project contractors. First, by referring to the background of the studies conducted in this field, a number of indicators are identified, and to ensure the effectiveness of the identified indicators in the contractor selection process, a questionnaire is prepared and distributed among experts. In the next step, in order to determine the importance of each of the indicators, a questionnaire of paired comparisons between the indicators will be designed by collecting the opinions of experts and using the process of hierarchical analysis, the relative weight of each indicator will be determined.