Abstract
On many construction projects, especially building projects, 80–90% of the tasks are performed by subcontractors. Since the success of the project highly depends on the performances of the subcontractors, selecting the right subcontractor for the right job is critical. Main contractors generally tend to select the subcontractors that offer the lowest bid price. However, working with unqualified and insufficiently financed subcontractors may result in inefficiencies and failures. Thus, a combination of several compromising and conflicting criteria underpinning financial capacity and competencies of the subcontractors should be considered during the subcontractor selection process. This paper proposes an integrated decision approach, which employs analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluations (PROMETHEE) together, for the subcontractor selection problem. In the proposed approach, AHP is used to analyze the structure of the subcontractor selection problem and to determine the weights of the criteria, and PROMETHEE is employed to obtain complete ranking and perform sensitivity analysis by changing the weights of criteria. The proposed approach is applied to a problem of selecting the most appropriate subcontractor to be worked with in an international construction project. Company management found the proposed decision approach satisfactory and implementable in future subcontractor selection problems.
Highlights
A subcontractor is a construction company that contracts with a main contractor to undertake specific tasks on a project as part of the overall contract and may supply laborers, materials, equipment, tools, and designs (Arditi, Chotibhongs 2005; Eom et al 2008)
Main contractors either tend to select the subcontractors based on the lowest bid price (Tserng, Lin 2002; Luu, Sher 2006; Arslan et al 2008; Mbachu 2008; Hartmann et al 2009) or prefer to work with familiar subcontractors that had already done business with them in previous projects (Tserng, Lin 2002; Arslan et al 2008; Ulubeyli et al 2010; Choudhry et al 2012)
After obtaining the relative priorities of the criteria to be used in the selection process using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method, the evaluation matrix was formed by the decision making team
Summary
A subcontractor is a construction company that contracts with a main contractor to undertake specific tasks on a project as part of the overall contract and may supply laborers, materials, equipment, tools, and designs (Arditi, Chotibhongs 2005; Eom et al 2008). Zavadskas et al (2009b) presented the comparative analysis of dwelling maintenance contractors aimed at determining the degree of their utility for users and bidding price of services by applying the method of multi-criteria complex proportional assessment. This study aims to make the subcontractor selection process more objective, less complex, less time consuming, and more user friendly by proposing a decision approach For this purpose, an integrated decision approach, which employs AHP and PROMETHEE together, is developed to help construction companies, namely main contractors, for the selection of the most appropriate subcontractor among a set of available alternatives. The proposed approach is applied to a problem of selecting the most appropriate subcontractor to be worked with in an international construction project
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