Steps 13-23 of 33 – The Art of Bidding

Step # 13 Organize the Information Create a List of Special Work Conditions

Example:
– Site Conditions
Tight Work Space
Hard Ground
Wet Conditions
Contaminated Soils
Environmentally Sensitive Areas
Difficult Access
Haul Routes
Scheduling Conflicts

Environmental Mitigation

What Must I Protect?
What Must I Replace?
How Much Will it Cost?
How Long Will It Take?
Conflicts with Other Trades

Step # 14 Organize The Information Create and Maintain a Bid RFI System

Step #15 Organize the Information Create and Maintain an Issues Log

XYZ Construction

Log – Log – Log

Step #16 Organize the Information Addressing Alternates and Special Pricing in the Bid

XYZ Construction

Pricing for Alternates and Other Special Pricing Requests Always Carry Certain Risks

How likely is it that the work will be performed?
How much overhead and profit do you apply to this alternate?
Are you giving away profit and project overhead if the alternate work is not performed?
You will most likely have to justify this price in the future

Step #17 Organize the Information Create and Maintain a Log of Value Engineering Ideas

Value Engineering Ideas

Creating a log of value engineering possibilities is like creating a list of “Plan Bs” that could help mitigate certain risks on the project

3rd – Distributing Information

Takeoffs (Sheets/forms/software)
Invitations to Bid (Bid Packages)
RFQs (Requests for Material and Sub Quotes)
RFIs (Requests for Information forms)
The Bid Proposal (Form/format)
Database of YOUR own information
Budget for accounting department
Data for schedules
Data for Project Management Software
WBS (Worksheets for developing the Work Breakdown Structure)
Data for contracts

Getting to the Bottom Line Six Basic Elements of the Price

Labor
Equipment
Material
Subcontractors
Overhead
Profit

Step #18 Establishing Your Cost Basis

Hourly labor rates
% rate for sales tax
Fuel per gallon rates
Owned equipment rates (per hour/day/week/month) including maintenance
Equipment rental rates
Materials and common overhead
Daily company overhead
% rate for profit
Insurance rates

Labor Basis Worksheet

LABOR RATES – Cost Basis Worksheet

Step #19 Develop a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) and/or Bid Item Take Off

What is a Bid Item?
– An item of work or other cost related to the project for which a unit price is desired
What is a Work Breakdown Structure?
– A logical breakdown of various components within those bid items that clearly reflect how the project is likely to be constructed

Bid Item Take Off

Let’s assume there are no pre-defined bid items for our sample project. If you could create bid items to best reflect the scope of this project what would they be? Use the form above to break this project down into bid items. Remember, the WBS – Work Breakdown Structure should be a snapshot of how the project might actually be constructed. For now let’s not be concerned with quantities. Just record a logical breakdown of the work.

Identifying “logical” bid items will help the entire bid process. Not only will you get better prices, you will probably get them faster.

The value of a detailed WBS