Traditional bidding processes have a low level of digital integration. For instance, bidding documents are often prepared and printed separately, with buying and selling transactions conducted exclusively on-site. Engineering quantity calculations remain confined to paper records. However, leveraging information and network technologies, Building Information Modeling (BIM) has emerged as a modern approach to engineering contracting transactions in the construction market over recent years.
The construction unit, also known as the tenderer, primarily manages the project value within a bill of quantities pricing model, while contractors (bidders) focus mainly on cost management. During bidding and contract execution, there is a strategic interplay between both parties regarding project pricing. This dynamic requires cost management professionals to skillfully and precisely understand how project costs are calculated and formed, along with their attributes and underlying principles, within the relatively autonomous construction market environment.
The list pricing method demands the development of a comprehensive unit price for each item, incorporating labor, materials, equipment costs, as well as construction enterprise management fees and profits. Initially, the owner or an authorized bidding agent drafts the bidding documents and bill of quantities, following pricing bases and methods standardized by relevant regional government departments. They also establish the maximum bidding price for the construction project during the bidding process.
However, the quality of the bid list prepared by the tenderer often suffers due to limited time for engineering quantity calculations and price determinations. Payments for construction progress and settlements typically rely on actual completed quantities, which frequently fluctuate due to changes, approvals, or claims during construction—often leading to settlement costs exceeding the contract price.
For tenderers, BIM provides essential engineering entity data that enables rapid and accurate quantity calculations. Automated quantity calculation enhances precision, allowing cost managers to shift focus from repetitive computations to analyzing and controlling factors influencing project pricing, thereby preparing more accurate and scientific budgets.
Bidders must prepare bid prices that align with their own conditions, based on the bidding documents, engineering design materials, quantity lists, and completion of project entities that meet relevant quality standards provided by the tenderer. When bidders face tight deadlines, accurately and swiftly calculating engineering quantities becomes a significant challenge during the bidding stage.
Besides quantity calculation, determining unit prices within the quantity list is critical. Construction units prepare comprehensive unit price lists using regional or enterprise quotas, which compile extensive consumption standards. These quotas serve as a standardized database covering personnel, machinery consumption, and various cost indicators, making them highly accessible and practical for cost professionals.
Currently, many engineering pricing software solutions utilize this standardized database to quickly estimate engineering costs. Quotas should be applied in production management—not only in construction engineering but also across other manufacturing sectors—to track material usage and project cost data throughout production. In international consulting firms, extensive engineering cost data is collected and organized through design, construction, and completion phases, building proprietary databases to support bidding and documentation.
Bidders benefit from maintaining their own bidding price data while integrating BIM to efficiently calculate and comprehensively store consumption standards throughout construction. By reusing or rapidly creating 3D models, fast and accurate quantity calculations become achievable. Beyond quantity calculation, 3D design models help bidders quickly identify critical and complex areas, coordinate construction information, make informed decisions and adjustments based on project conditions, accurately assess project difficulty, and provide precise pricing.
The two most common methods for creating BIM models today are: first, rebuilding the BIM model directly from CAD drawings using fundamental techniques; second, importing CAD drawings into BIM software in electronic format, then leveraging the software’s image recognition and conversion functions to generate a 3D model. This latter approach minimizes data loss and allows direct reuse and import of the BIM model for computational purposes.
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