Research Trends and Results
The latest trend of procurement systems in the field of consultant
engineering
MORITA Yasuo, HeadOTANI Satoru, Senior Researcher
YOSHIDA Jundo, Researcher
MINAMI Masahiro, Guest Research Engineer
Research Center for Land and Construction Management, Construction Management Division(Keyword) Consultant engineering, bidding system, Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS), lowcost bidding provision
1.Introduction
Since 2007 the Quality and Cost BasedSelection (QCBS) has been introduced to get
totally proper contract considering engineering
as well as bidding amount. In this paper, thelatest trend of biding systems in the field ofconsultant engineering structured by ResearchCenterforLandandConstruction
Management are outlined.
2. Current contract situation by procurement
methodThe number of orders that were made during
in 2011 was ended up with fractional increase
due to the disaster reconstruction works for theGreat East Japan Earthquake comparing to
the previous fiscal year. On the rate of thenumber of each method to the whole ordernumber, although QCBS has been achieved
approximately 43% but about 34% is stillcompetitive price selection and 20% is Quality
Based Selection (QBS).
3. Generation status to prevent dumping
The rate of low price of successful biddings has
greatly decreased to 9.7% in FY2011 from40.9% in FY2008. Especially the rate of QCBS
has dramatically decreased to 0.7% in FY2011
from 39.1% in FY2008.Because of theintroduction of the assessment system forcertain accomplishments (multiply the numberby 0.0 to 1.0 and engineering points of a bidder
who’s bidding price is lower than the thresholdprice for low price inquiry), and by raising ofapplied ceiling price range in FY2011 (ceiling
price over ¥ 20 million to over ¥ 10 million inFY2011). On the other hand low price bidding
is still frequently generated in competitive
price selection and QCBS in cases where theceiling is set to be lower than ¥10million.
4. Bidder’s status in QCBS
Successful bidders who obtained first place inengineering point are increasing every year
and it has become as much as 88.6 % in
FY2010. Also the number of successful bidders
who do not obtained first place of price points
exceeds successful bidders who obtained firstplace in price in FY2011.(See drawing)
5. Performance evaluation points by procurement
type

Average value of operation performance
evaluation points of each type in FY2011 is
76.4 point in QBS, 75.9 point in QCBS, and74.4 point in price competition selection. We
estimate that switching over from recent
competitive price selection to QCBS iscontributed to quality assurance in consultantengineering.
6. Future investigation
As described above it becomes clear that
introduction of the assessment system forcertain accomplishment prevents dumping,and enlargement of QCBS contributes toquality assurance. On the other hand pricecompetition selection and QCBS in case ceiling
prices is lower than or equal to ¥10 million still
frequently exists low priced successful bidding.
Currently, the Regional Development Bureau
who operates the procurement system made its
own system by setting the standard value
equivalent to threshold price for low priceinquiry targeted to ceiling price lower than orequal to ¥10million. In future we intend toanalyze the effect of such preventions ofdumping.
Further we also intend to consider
streamlining the procedure for QCBS to reducethe burden of bidders on the Regional
Development Bureau.
ReferenceDetails are referred to following URL(Japanese)
http://www.nilim.go.jp/lab/peg/theme03.html

Figure: Successful bidder’s status in QCBS