The Selection of professional construction management firms: a quantitative approach

The right selection of a construction management (CM) firm is a crucial factor to the success of the project. Present selection practices identify a CM firm through a screening system to pre-qualify which firms are invited to submit their proposals. Technical as well as financial factors are then identified to select the CM firm in a simple evaluation form filled by selected evaluators. This evaluation form categorizes technical factors and allocate weights and percentages to each factor and sub-factor. The selection of a CM firm from several bidders through this simple approach often results in a sub-optimal selection, as the evaluation forms may not yield the optimal CM solution. This paper proposes the selection of a CM firm by considering the approved technical factors and quantitatively analyzing these factors with respect to several firms through the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). The AHP takes into account factors affecting the selection of a CM firm interactively. The system is demonstrated through a case study of selecting a CM firm from several international bidders for a large size project in Kuwait