Resource Flow based Order Selection Method in Project Cost Estimation Process

摘要

Since the project price is fixed in EPC (Engineering, Procurement, and Construction) projects, the contractor should devote significant resources to the cost estimation process to realize the accurate cost estimation and then accept profitable projects from clients in competitive bidding situations. However, it is impossible for any contractor to devote sufficient resources to all the orders because of the resource constraints. In this study, a multistage project cost estimation process model, consisting of pre-evaluation, order selection, man-hour allocation, and a series of cost estimation steps, is developed. Then, this study devises a resource flow based order selection method and man-hour allocation method to provide successful results to clients and to maximize the contractor's profits under the limited resources. Specifically, those methods dynamically select orders to estimate cost at each order arrival and allocate the resources to the selected orders, respectively. The effectiveness of our method is demonstrated through simulation experiments using the developed model.