Research Trends and Results
Bidding trends in the field of civil engineering consulting
MORITA Yasuo, Researcher
KOBAYASHI Hajime, Senior Researcher
YOSHIDA Jundo, Researcher
MINAMI Masahiro, Guest Research EngineerConstruction Management Division, Research Center for Land and Construction Management(Key words) consultant engineering, bidding method, Quality and Cost Based Selection (QCBS)

2. State of bid value with QCBS
The ratio of each bid value to Threshold Price forLow Price Inquiry is defined as the “Threshold PriceRatio”, and the table shows the frequency of theappearance of Threshold Price Ratios from 1.0 to 1.05
in bidding for works executed by regional
development bureaus etc. It shows that all bidders
which include a successful bidder who bid directly
above the Threshold Price for Low Price Inquiry are
increasing every year. We interviewed contractors
about this tendency, and they pointed out that incases where, even through their technological capacity
is superior, the difference in technology scores
between them and others are small or unclear, it isdifficult to shift their technological capacity to price,
and ultimately, the competition becomes a simple
price competition2).
Table. Frequency of Threshold Price Ratios from 1.0 to1.05
Successful bids
All bids

FY20090.211
0.231

FY20100.359
0.420

FY20110.553
0.600

FY20120.635
0.657

3. Technology evaluations in QCBSIn response to the information pointed out above,the distribution of first or second technology scores forvarious works to which QCBS was applied in FY2012
when QCBS was applied, were organized in the chart.
Although the difference in scores exceeded 5 points inabout 27% of the work cases, the technology score
difference was extremely small at 1 point or less inabout 26% of the work cases.
Figure. Distribution of Differences Between Scores ofFirst and Second Technology Score
Number ofcases
件数

1000800
600
400200※分析対象件数：5,090件※Numberof cases analyzed: 5,090

Average score: 4.06
平均得点差：4.06

Percentageof all cases
全件数に占める割合

5<
27.2%

=08.2%<=1
18.1%<=56.8%<=48.7%<=216.7%<=3
14.3%

0=0<=4<=8<=12<=16<=20<=24<=28<=32<=36<=40<=44<=48<=52<=56<=60

1. Introduction
Since the FY2007 introduction of the Quality andCost Based Selection (QCBS), method of deciding
the successful bidder by comprehensively evaluating
price and technology, for civil engineering consulting
ordered by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure,
Transport and Tourism , the number of orders has
steadily increased until it reached about 47% of allorders for civil engineering consulting in FY2012.
And during this period, various low bid prevention
measures such as the Assessment System for Certain
Accomplishments (multiply the number from 0.0 to
1.0 by engineering points of the bidder whose bidding
price is lower than Threshold Price for Low PriceInquiry) were introduced to QCBS, lowering the low
successful bid rate to 0.2%.
On the other hand, the tendency for bidding prices tobe concentrated near the threshold price for low priceinquiry has strengthened, and bidding is being
conducted under strong consciousness of pricecompetition as in the past.

Difference between
得点差 scores

4. Future research
We are worried that excessive price competition
lowers not only quality, but also technology capabilityof the entire construction industry. In order toappropriately evaluate technology capability, we wishto study revising the technology evaluation procedure
in QCBS, and also to study the best way to apply
ordering methods including Quality Based
Selection and competitive price selection .
And as a result of decline in the quantity of orders
in recent years, competition between regional
companies and major consultant companies
which
active over wide areas of Japan has been seen in somefield of works3). In order to study ways to carry out
nurturing of regional companies to handle theresponse to disasters, we wish to spotlight bidding
trends by company category in the future.
[Sources]
1) State of implementation of bidding and contracting
in consultant engineering
http://www.nilim.go.jp/lab/peg/siryou/chousasekkei_hinkak
ukon/20130325shiryou2.pdf

Research Trends and Results2) Yoshida, Morita, Otani, Minami:
A Study Of Competition Between Major Consultant
Companies And Local Ones In The Field Of
Construction Engineering Service, Journal ofConstruction Management and Engineering(VI),December 2013
3) Minami, Morita, Otani, Yoshida:
A Study of the Quality and Cost Based Selection
System which is Operated by Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in the field ofConstruction Consultant Engineering, Journal ofConstruction
ManagementandEngineering(VI),December 2013