A fuzzy rating method for the bid/no-bid decision in road construction projects

Contractors realize the importance of making the right decisions during the tendering stage. Failing to be clear about project suitability at this stage could lead to significant monetary losses in the future or losing good opportunities when contractor retreats from bidding on one of the better projects. The literature has investigated the bidding decision-making process; however a gap is frequently pointed out in regards to having an easy-to-use rating scheme that can measure project suitability/attractiveness and help with the final bid/no-bid decision. The paper attempts to provide such facility for the road construction sector in Egypt. Based on an in-depth study of this sector and a survey of the most critical factors that are typically accounted for in the bid/no-bid decision, a modified version of a fuzzy linguistic rating model that was previously presented in the literature is utilized. that characterizes the bid/no-bid decision problem. Through these critical factors, the model determines the level of attractiveness of the bid opportunity and helps with recommending the bid/no bid decision. A large road construction company - classified as First Class in the category Roads, Bridges, Railways, Airports and Tunnels by the Egyptian Federation for Construction and Building Contractors (EFCBC) - was chosen for demonstrating system usage as well as validation. The results show the potential of this model in determining the level of attractiveness of bid opportunities of road projects and recommending the bid/ no bid decisions as well.