Improving Bid Preparation in Supply Chains in the Construction Industry

Bid preparation is a non profitable process per se and thus offers a high potential for improvement: The costs and time for preparing a bid have to be little and the success rate must be high. This paper presents a case study which demonstrates how a small company in the construction industry can increase its efficiency in the area of bid preparation by redesigning its processes and introducing new information and communication technology. The paper summarises the current problems in bid preparation and outlines the approach which was taken to improve them. A reference model for an ideal bidding process is presented and a corresponding software system is described which provides specific support for co-operative bidding in the supply chain. The benefits which were achieved in a pilot project at a manufacturer of marble and granite are outlined and the findings from the approach are summarised.