Introduction

In the field of construction, contractors are those involved in the

construction stage of construction projects and thus have an important
effect on the progress and success of construction projects. Therefore, it is
of significance for a project management organisation to select an
appropriate contractor in the process of construction management. This
essay will introduce the construction contractor Hutchinson Builders, and
then it will evaluate this company by using six criteria of our own project
management organisation in the process of qualification, which are
financial stability, technical abilities, management capabilities, standard of
quality, health and safety, and relationship. Then this essay will elaborate
the benefits of prequalification to the tendering process and to the
successful project outcome based on the relevant situation of our
organisation.
Company Background
s a construction project management organisation, after ma!ing the
decision to develop the construction project, our organisation selected a
qualified contractor"Hutchinson Builders.
ccording to its official website #Hutchinson Builders $%&'(, Hutchinson
Builders is one of the largest and most respected private building and
construction entities in ustralia. Hutchinson Builders established in &)&$,
and set up its headquarters in Brisbane, with other $% stores in *airns,
Hobart, the Bowen Basin, the +ilbara, ,ydney, +erth and so on. +rojects
underta!en by Hutchinson Builders are mainly in ustralia and also in
other countries li!e -ew .ealand, /apan and *anada. These projects are
various, including commercial and residential building, education,
government, health, sporting, hotels, clubs, industrial, retail, tourism, civil
wor!s and modular construction.
Prequalification
+roject management organisation can select contractors through the
process of tendering. In order to select a qualified contractors,
prequalification, a beforehand tendering activity, can be carried out.
+requalification 0is a process of screening construction contractors by
project owners or their representatives according to a determined set of
criteria deemed necessary for successful project performance, in order to
determine the contractor1s competence or ability to participate in the
project bid1 #jayi and 2gunsanmi $%&$(. The process of prequalification
can allow project management organisations to evaluate contractor
capabilities and to limit inappropriate potential participants. Therefore,
during the process of tendering, they are supposed to not only estimate
whether contractors meet the criteria, but also to what degree contractors
meet the criteria. s the result of the tendering, our organisation chose
0Hutchinson Builders1 as our construction contractor from a number of
bidders, based on the following main criteria and sub3criteria for
contractor prequalification.
The first criterion is financial stability. It can be reflected on unmodified
audited accounts and annual reports for last three years, including balance
sheet, profit and loss account, director1s report, confirmation that the
company is still trading, a statement of turnover since the last set of
published accounts, details of any outstanding claims or litigation against
the company and so on #.edan and 4artin &))5(. ccording to the official
website of Hutchinson Builders #Hutchinson Builders $%&'(, shown in
ppendix Table &, Hutchinson Builders has a strong financial capability.
6uring the financial year $%&$3$%&7, its turnover was 8&.7 billion, with its
current assets 87%5,'55,957, and its non3current assets 8&:%,9:7,:':, and
its net assets 8&);,&$7,$&;. Besides, the turnover of past three years
increased steadily. Ta!en financial stability into consideration, our
organisation regards Hutchinson Builders as an appropriate contractor due
to its strong balance sheet and prudent financial management.
The second criterion is technical abilities. Its sub3criteria are project
completed, current load, and success or failure of past projects #Bubshait
and Al-Gobali 1996(. The official website of Hutchinson Builders
#Hutchinson Builders $%&'( shows that this construction company
completes a great number of successful projects, including -orthbridge
Tower, <T,, <= Heron Island, =>6 ?overnment 4agistrates *ourt,
,tate ?overnment Building 4aroochydoore, =ueensland @mergency
2perations *entre, Toowoomba +olice ,tation, <= Health ,ciences
Building, -orth >a!es Health +recinct, *hal! Hotel Aefurbishment, *oles
Ipswich ,uperstore, Brisbane rcade, and so on. ccording to its current
project schedule #Hutchinson Builders $%&'(, shown in ppendix Table $,
Hutchinson Builders also has a lot of projects carrying out, including &&&
=uay ,treet, =ueens Bal! Aefurbishment, *oles 6oncaster, Boolworths
+impama /unction, 4c?rath Aesidence, Cingsford ,mith 4otel and so
on. These successful projects illustrate the excellent technical competency
of Hutchinson Builders, and finally our organisation selected this
construction company as our contractor.
The third criterion is management capabilities, including the following
sub3criteriaD past performance and quality, management !nowledge,
experience of technical personnel #>am et al. $%%%(. The board of
Hutchinson Builders comprises four executive directors and one non3
executive director with abundant management experience, all of whom
with construction industry and financial experience #Hutchinson Builders
$%&'(. Besides, Hutchinson Builders says on its website that 04anaging
projects from the ground up1, and regards itself as 0a well managed
company1 #Hutchinson Builders $%&'(. In addition, Hutchinson Builders
holds a >evel ' Aating of =ueensland ?overnment +requalification and
*ertification #Hutchinson Builders $%&'(. Bith such abundant
management experience, we regard Hutchinson Builders as competent to
underta!e our construction project.
The fourth criterion is standard of quality #>am et al. $%%%(. The
construction quality is the totality of features of a product or service in
order to satisfy some given demands #HamEah &))7(. Hutchinson Builders
has a quality control programme aiming to identify and solve the potential
quality ris!, ensuring the superior quality of projects.
The fifth one is health and safety. This criterion has two sub3criteria, one
of which is health and safety standards, and the other is occupational
safety and health administration incidence rate #>am et al. $%%%(.
ccording to its website #Hutchinson Builders $%&'(, Hutchinson Builders
has its Health and ,afety 4anagement ,ystem aiming to perform its
commitment to the safety and wellbeing of staff. Hutchinson Builders
regards Health and ,afety as both an individual and shared responsibility
of all employees of the corporation, and adhere to safe wor! practices in
order to ensure employees protected from health and safety ris!. To
implement its Health and ,afety +olicy better, Hutchinson Builders will
comply with relevant regulation, provide information and training for
employees to increase their !nowledge about wor!place haEards, provide
support to employees sustaining injury and so on. *onsidering its superior
health and safety management, our organisation decided to select it as our
construction contractor.
The last criterion is relationship, that is, relationship with client1s
representative, design team and subcontractors #>am et al. $%%%(.
Hutchinson Builders1s website says that they 0have nurtured long3term
relationships with highly s!illed sub3contractors that subscribe to a similar
wor! ethic1 #Hutchinson Builders $%&'(, and that they provide services to
their clients, their staff and the whole community, based on their strongest
relationships.
In summary, ta!ing into consideration these six criteria, our organisation
regard Hutchinson Builders as competent in these aspects and decided to
select it as our construction contractor from all participants of the
tendering.
Prequalification Success
In the construction process, each of steps can be a potential obstacle to the
project if it does not contribute to the intended goal of the construction
project. In this case, project construction needs to be managed effectively.
qualified construction contractor can be regarded as one of the
indispensable conditions of a successful construction project. The
selection of a competent contractor increases possibilities of a construction
project being delivered successfully. Besides, the ultimate goals of projects
include cost, time, quality, and the operational goals include the level of
uncertainty, the flexibility to ma!e changes, the allocation of ris!, the
ability of the contractor to deal with the level of complexity involved
#.edan and 4artin &))5(. These goals can be only achieved by a proper
construction contractor. Therefore, it is critical to carry out the process of
prequalification, which allows our organisation to select an appropriate
construction contractor in the tendering process, and increasing chances of
successful completion of this construction project. To be specific, the
benefits of prequalification mainly include the following aspects.
Firstly, prequalification saves a lot of time, money and effort for our
organisation in selecting the contractor #+eter $%&'(. This process helps to
avoid time and wor! being wasted on inappropriate bidders #+eter $%&'(,
and to reduce the amount of time and wor! involved in evaluating bidders.
Besides, prequalification allows our organisation to focus on the important
specifics of the project, without being distracted by other insignificant
aspects. 6ue to these criteria, our organisation can evaluate each bidder
efficiently without wasting time, money and effort unnecessarily, and then
have access to produce a satisfactory construction project outcome.
,econdly, prequalification can allow selection of a qualified contractor
#+eter $%&'(. ,ince unqualified bidders can be eliminated before starting
the tendering due to failure to fulfill these criteria, prequalification can
enhance the participation of qualified and serious contractors in the
tendering. In addition, prequalification can allow our organisation to ta!e
adequate time to evaluate each bidder whether is indeed competent for this
construction project. fter deliberate consideration, our organisation
finally selected Huthinson Builders amongst all the participants because
this construction company fulfills each of our criteria satisfactorily.
Thirdly, prequalification helps our organisation to ta!en into account the
lowest final cost and capabilities of bidders instead of the lowest bid #+eter
$%&'(. For a long time price has been an important evaluation factor.
However, focusing on bid price alone is ris!y and short3sighted to some
extent #Hatush and ,!itmore &))9(. In some situation, the unreasonable
low bid prices often lead to low project quality, extensive delay, shortage
of fund and so on. In order to avoid such situations, it is critical to pay
attention to the lowest final cost and to evaluate the capabilities of bidders,
which can reduce significantly problems related to the lowest prices
provided by unqualified bidders of doubtful capabilities. Thus,
prequalification allows our organisation to select the competent
construction company Hutchinson Builders although its bid price was
higher than some other unqualified bidders our organisation rejected.
>ast but not least, prequalification can reduce some unnecessary
controversy, for example, complaints of unqualified bidders. If our
organisation rejects some inappropriate bidders without explaining to them
the reasons or these bidders are not satisfactory with the reasons, then they
are li!ely to complain to our organisation. In this case, the specific criteria
for prequalification can reduce such controversy when unqualified bidders
realise that lac!ing of one of some capabilities causing their failures. 6ue
to the process of prequalification, our project management organisation
succeeded to select our proper contractor without any complains.
To sum up, prequalification enables our organisation to complete the
tendering process satisfactorily and to choose the competent Hutchinson
Builders to achieve the construction project successfully.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as an ustralia1s largest and most respectful building and
construction company, Hutchinson Builders succeeded in the tendering
process because it fulfills the prequalification of our project management
organisation with its excellent financial stability, technical abilities,
management capabilities, standard of quality, health and safety, and
relationship. The process of prequalification is of great significance to the
tendering and to our successful construction project. It can help our
organisation to save resources including time, money and effort, to select a
qualified contractor, to focus on final cost and capabilities of bidders
rather than the lowest bid, and to reduce unnecessary complaints of
unqualified bidders.
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