Multi-criteria decision making model for the selection of a construction contractor in Saudi Arabia

Construction industry is very risky and complex; it requires a lot of management and arrangements in order to achieve all parties' objectives and requirements.;One of the most important and complicated process in construction industry that encounters construction clients in Saudi Arabia and abroad, is how to come up with the best construction contractor that will meet owner and project requirements. Because the success selection of the best contractor will lead to the success project as a whole, this research aims to (1) investigate the current bidding system implemented by universities in Saudi Arabia, (2) determine criteria that shall be considered when selecting a contractor by universities in Saudi Arabia, and (3) develop efficient multi criteria selection model based on Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) for selecting construction contractors by universities in Saudi Arabia. Universities were selected to conduct this study in order to concentrate on one type of projects which is building stock. To achieve these objectives, exhaustive literature review was performed followed by developing and administering a questionnaire survey to the project management departments of thirteen universities at Saudi Arabia. Responds were gathered from nine out of thirteen. The results affirmed that most of universities highly depend on the lowest price when awarding contracts. In addition to that, the finding detected that respondents were not satisfied with the current bidding system due to large problems associated with it such as; poor project performance and delay of project completion time. Another interesting feature in the results illustrated that none of the project management department at universities implemented any decision support system during the evaluation or selection of construction contractor. The research also presented that three criteria out of sixteen namely: "contractor submit complete bid documents", "contractor classification", and "bid price" constitute about 50% of the impact on the final decision of construction contractor selection. Finally, the developed model that is based on Analytical hierarchy process (AHP) improves the selection process; where instead of using one criterion (lowest price) to select construction contractor other fifteen criteria were identified. The proposed model can be easily used by any universities, and at the same time the model had all capabilities to assess the criteria that impact on the construction contractor selection.