Assuming that lowest bidder wins at the lowest bid price, your firm’s cost estimates and bids, and bids of its competitors for the last five construction contracts are as below. (Show all calculations, 22%)

(a)  What is the average percentage mark-up of your firm for the five bidding attempts? (5%)

(b)  For the five bidding attempts, evaluate the bidding performance (i.e., bidding competitiveness and consistency in bidding) of your firm using the Bid Competitiveness Ratio (BCR) measure. (10%)

(c)   Make two comments on the results obtained in (b). (3%)

(d)  Calculate the market share of your firm and its competitors, comment on the results. (4%)

Your

firm has kept a good database of its bids, cost estimates and the winning bids

for past bidding attempts. As a chief estimator who just joined the firm, you

propose the use of cost estimate competitiveness ratios (CECR) from your firm’s past bidding attempts in

assessing the competitiveness of your firm’s cost estimate. The output of this

CECR measure can be used in the formulation of your firm’s bidding strategies

for future bidding attempts. Use a hypothetical plot to present and discuss your

proposal and its application in future bidding attempts.

You are required to build up the net cost unit rates

for work items in a bill of quantities from first principles.

(a) 

Explain how to build up net cost unit

rate from first principles. (2%)

(b) 

Estimate the net cost unit rates for

following work items and calculate the total net cost of these items. (NB: Show

all calculations, 20%)

Additional

information:

Materials

(supply only delivered to site):

Common bricks

(230 x 110 x 76) $ 1,200.00/1000

Face bricks

(230 x 110 x 76) $ 1,400.00/1000

Cement

$ 12.50/bag; Sand $ 120.00/t;

Dry material for mortar required for 110mm thick brick

walls: allow 3 bags of cement, 3.2 bags of lime and 0.70t of sand

Dry material for mortar required for 76mm think edge

walls: allow 2.4 bags

cement, 2.6 bags lime, and 0.55t of sand

Yellow

oxide $ 40.00/kg; allow 4kg per 1000 standard bricks laid

Allow 10%

wastage on face brick and mortar, 5% wastage on common brick

Subcontract

labour rates:

Common

brickwork $ 2,100.00/1000

Face brickwork

$ 2,300.00/1000

Make no

allowance for attendance and supervision of subcontractor (included in

preliminaries)

Plant:

Cement mixer

hire $ 85.00/day

Make no

allowance for scaffolding, included in preliminaries

All further

information is to be assumed

(a) 

What

is your preferred source of cost analysis?

(b)  Assuming the

comparable cost

analysis is for a project in

(c)  

(d) 

In

costing the ‘floor finishes’ element of the new project that is different from

the past project, which method would you select for costing this element?

Explain the selected method.

There

is a ‘right’ bid for each contractor, but there is no single bid that suits

every contractor. Discuss this statement. (10%)

In

preparing a pre-tender estimate for a 2-storey hospital clinic, you have access

(a) 

Which method would you use in preparing

your pre-tender estimate? Justify your selection. (4%)

(b) 

For the method selected in (a), explain

the pricing process for floor finishes

of this two-storey clinic of similar layout plan by using

(c)  

In

preparing a pre-tender estimate for a 2-storey hospital clinic, you have access

(a) 

Which method would you use in preparing

your pre-tender estimate? Justify your selection. (4%)

(b) 

For the method selected in (a), explain

the pricing process for floor finishes

of this two-storey clinic of similar layout plan by using

(c)  

Which of the following is not the key component of a mark-up in bid pricing?

Which of the following would explain why contractors decided to bid for a project?

Which of the following is not true of the findings in Oo et al.’s (2008) study on contractors’ bid or no-bid decision in Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore?