A knowledge-based system for construction subcontractor appraisal

Abstract

While a significant proportion of work in a construction project is carried out by subcontractors, keeping track on their performance becomes an important management task to ensure their work is completed satisfactorily and to avoid inferior subcontractors from being appointed in future. Yet, the industry lacks a systematic mechanism to appraise the performance of subcontractors. Despite some clients and contracting organizations have produced their own internal guideline, it is not unusual for their staff to interpret the required quality standard qualitatively and this could lead to disparity and unfairness. To improve the rigor of subcontractor performance appraisal and to facilitate comparison, a more structured approach should be adopted for appraising subcontractors. Knowledge-based systems appear to be a promising approach to formalize the subcontractor appraisal decisions. In this paper, the decision structure governing construction subcontractor appraisal is first highlighted. It is then followed by an introduction to the prototypical knowledge-based system developed for subcontractor performance appraisal. Finally, the ways to apply the results of the knowledge-based subcontractor appraisal model to decision making concludes the paper.