Construction project proposal evaluation under uncertainty: A fuzzy-based approach

Abstract

Construction project proposal evaluations received much attention during the recent years due to increased awareness of sustainability, value for money, and transparency. The bid evaluation matrix is the commonly used method in the construction industry for project proposal evaluation. The subjective judgments used for evaluation criteria are associated with significant uncertainty. Moreover, the transformation of qualitative evaluations raises significant data uncertainty. Attempts have been made by previous researchers to incorporate uncertainties associated with project bid evaluations, but the ability of those methods to account for “true uncertainty” is questionable. The objective of this paper is to develop a fuzzy logic-based evaluation framework for project proposal evaluation. This use of type-2 fuzzy numbers sets the proposed approach apart from the current body of knowledge. An algorithm using type-2 fuzzy numbers was developed to define input uncertainty and parameter weights. The developed method was demonstrated using a building construction project case study. The proposed approach enables quantifying qualitative evaluations more comprehensively from a scientific basis, forming a generic proposal evaluation method applicable to various industry sectors.