Quantification of Qualifications

[Rjeffery]

Is there a way, a referrence or an established method of quantifying the qualifications of a contractor so that the low bidder may not get the contract because they may not be as qualified as a high(er) bidder? Subjective measurements tend to lead to litigation...

 

[IRstuff]

Anything other than cost tends to be somewhat subjective.

However, technical merit and past experience, which are subjective, are also used as criteria in bid evaluations. You should set a set of criteria that are important to your project and assign weights to each of the criteria, including cost.

Criteria might include:

Cost

Past performance -> What is their history on cost and schedule as well as workmanship. Can they give you references? We've gotten multipage questionaires to be sent to our former customers to fill out.

Relevant experience -> Did they do a similar project before

Is their bid sufficiently detailed for you to audit during the evaluation. Do they have basis of estimates that are sound and comparable to bids you've received or experienced in the past?

What is their quality assurance process and how much are they including?


TTFN

 

[eyec]

in my former life we performed what we called vendor qualification technical inspections.

we developed a series of questions based on the vendors "technical ability" to provide the work in accordance with the project & schedule. with such a questionaire in hand either one of our engineers or a third party inspector familiar with the product/services being bid on would visit each bidder and ask the questions and visually verify the answers matched what they saw.

items we looked at were:
manpower
equipment
QA/QC programs
material suppliers
current work backlog or absences of worklog
shopfloor capabilities
subcontractors used

quite often someone with the lowest bid was actually not able to meet scheduled milestones because of a lack of manpower to meet their exisitng production requirements. location was also a consideration due to weather extremes impact on shipping schedules.

assign a numerical value to each pro/con and total them up - thus you now have qauntitative information to support your decision.

in order to evaluate a specific vendor look at the specific technical pros/cons of each bidder. this should help support the economical conditions of awarding the contract.

 

[griffengm]

Rjeffery,
The two most common qualifiers are performance bonds and licenses. Another is checking with the local Better Business Bureau. Checks with banks can be helpful as well. Add to the list Standard and Poors along with a credit check.
You may need to develop your own quantification method because what is important to me may not be as important to you.
One last check, and often the least used, is references from past projects.

Griffy

 

[zeusfaber]

One thing we sometimes do if we're competing large contracts is to run a prequalification round. We decide up front what characteristics we would expect to see in a competent supplier, and what characteristics we'd want to avoid. (eyec's list is a good starting point)

Everybody who expresses an interest gets a questionnaire seeking evidence of competence in these areas - the evidence we ask for depends on the area, ranging from the "describe your approach to....." )which works right up until the moment they buy in a consultant to answer the question for them) through to "List all the times you've been taken to the employment tribunal in the last 5 years".

We decide beforehand whether there are any responses which would automatically disqualify a bidder, how we'll weight and score different levels of response above that, and where we'll set the pass/fail threshold. The process also involves an assessment of financial stability and capacity to perform the work based on the last couple of years' accounts.

Those who get through this process get invited to submit a formal tender.

It sounds bureaucratic, but for large contracts (particularly those burdened by having to conform to EU Public Procurement regulations) it works surprisingly effectively.

Key tips are

0. Do your bidder qualification BEFORE you've involved the interested parties in all the expense of preparing a full bid. Chuck the dud ones out before they've made too great an investment, and they have less incentive to sue.

1. Set your downselect criteria up-front

2. Only ask a question if you really care about the answer

3. Stick with your criteria - if you bend the rules to let someone in even though they don't quite qualify, the decision will probably come back to haunt you.

4. Once you've established a firm is competent, let them bid and make your selection only on product and price.

A.

 

[TACJ]

Not sure if this is what you are asking.

Beside the pricing, I will definately look at these,
- Liability Insurance Coverage. how much you are looking for or expecting. Normally nowaday is $10m.

- Are the contractor's workers licenses as Millwrights, Electricians, Piper fitters, Welders, etc.

- Are the workers union.

- Contractor's work experiences and how long and what their specialty

- If they have worked in a similar project before and where

- Call a few of their references

St. Lawrence Cement

 

[lorman]

When evaluating tender returns and contractors, several criteria can be scrutinised.
As a rule I use the following;

Quality of Tender Documents
Commercial Compliance
Technical Compliance
Technical Solution Proposed
Innovation/Options
Build Quality
Vendor Location
Project Management Capability
Costs within Budget
Annual Cost of Ownership
Delivery Schedule

hope this helps,

Lorman