response

Coming back from spring break, it is very difficult for me to settle down and focus on my topic of communication between contractors and subcontractors in construction. I must be coming off of some spring break high, and am down because I have to get back to work.  There are many important aspects to my research topic. I know the information will be important to other construction engineers because, and new people entering the field. Other construction engineers will find the information on the subcontractors communication process useful because it will help them further understand the people they work with. The new Construction Engineering students will find the research paper useful because it should give them an insight to what a lot of the writing and communication they will do on the job will consist of. In addition, it will help them to understand how they will need to communicate with other companies in the future, and what they might be shown or taught in classes past their general education classes.

In the first steps of my research process, I was having trouble finding sources, but as soon as I discovered some scholarly sources, I had the information I needed. There was a lot of information to be picked out from these long journals for my research, and still some to do. I still wonder if my examples of bids are considered visual. They are PDFs, but they are written documents, not an actual photo or video. It will help as a visual aid when describing the format to my audience in my paper.

Annotated Bib

Albino, Vito, and A. Claudio Garavelli. "A Neural Network Application to Subcontractor Rating in Construction Firms." International Journal of Project Management 16.1 (1998): 9-14. Print.

                -This article takes a scientific and methodical viewpoint of rating subcontractors on work done in a build, based on certain parameters of a job and their amount of emphasis. It leaves out many aspects of communication between the contractors and subcontractors, but does include details on the differences in importance of the factors of price, time, quality, and contract reliability. There is slight assumption in the order of emphasis of the given parameters, but the evidence does support authors’ point that there are differences of importance among these parameters that subcontractors are being rated upon.

Belout, Adnane. "Effects of Human Resource Management on Project Effectiveness and Success: Toward a New Conceptual Framework." International Journal of Project Management 16.1 (1998): 21-26. Print.

                -This article takes into account the personal side of construction management, and how that can affect the time it takes to complete a job, and its overall quality. Project managers reading this may come to emphasize a personal factor on the jobsite to increase lower costs and time consumption, and raise quality of work by laborers. There is some bias towards the importance of human resource, but it is backed by the authors’ evidence.

     
          

"Construction Proposals." Sample Proposals. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Mar. 2014. <www.sampleproposals.org>.

                -This site has background information on the different types of proposals used, such as bid proposals, management proposals, and general construction project proposals. It elaborates on what exactly is found in proposals, and what factors make them the most effective when implementing them. This will be the source to my paragraphs focused on bids, which will help the reader understand their purpose and what makes them successful in Construction.

Five Star Window Cleaning. Bid Proposal Example. Ames, IA: n.p., 2 Jan. 2014. PDF.

                -This visual source is an example bid proposal I received from The Weitz Company, which is building the new Biorenewables Building on campus, south of the Design Building. The proposal comes from Five Star Window Cleaning, and includes all of the details of what they are willing to do if subcontracted for this particular project. I will use this document to reference to from my paper, giving specific examples to help the reader further understand communication between the contractor and subcontractor.           

Hartmann, Andreas, and Jasper Caerteling. "Subcontractor Procurement in Construction: The Interplay of Price and Trust." Supply Chain Management: An International Journal 15.5 (2010): 354-62. Print.

                -This scholarly essay reveals the reason behind subcontractor selection as a basis on part price, and part trust. It tells that at first, price is important in finding the proper subcontractor, but as they build a relationship with the contractor, it becomes less important. Although the authors assume price is initially the most important factor in subcontracting, it doesn’t entirely neglect the factor of quality, which is also another important factor in subcontracting.

Iowa State University. Bid Scope Example. Ames, IA: n.p., 20 Dec. 2013. PDF.

                -This visual source is another document that will be used to reference back to and give specific examples of the different aspects of bid scopes. This comes from Weitz, and is requesting bids from cleaning companies on the Biorenewables Building project. It gives the minimum requirements needed for from the subcontractors to be hired out and complete a job.

Kawasaki, Seiichi, and John Mcmillan. "The Design of Contracts: Evidence from Japanese Subcontracting." Journal of the Japanese and International Economies 1.3 (1987): 327-49. Print.

                -This article investigates the amount of subcontracting done within a business, and how it effects the overall success and gross income. Although the authors do not emphasize subcontracting in the construction industry, it does give a good insight into what type and amount of subcontracting can maximize output and lower production costs, leading to a higher gross profit in any given industry.

Manu, Patrick, Nii Ankrah, David Proverbs, and Subashini Suresh. "Mitigating the Health and Safety Influence of Subcontracting in Construction: The Approach of Main Contractors." International Journal of Project Management 31.7 (2013): 1017-026. Print.

                -This article is a piece on how health and safety play a role in subcontractor procurement, and focuses how to increase health and safety on a project. It informs contractors what kind of subcontractors and bid packages to make to maximize these two very important factors of construction. Though the piece emphasizes health and safety, it gives good insight into what contractors emphasize when finding the right subcontractor for the job, other than price. It also gives ideas on how to increase a subcontractor’s health and safety standards via inter-organizational learning opportunities.

Tenold, Chad J. "Communication in Construction." Interview. N.d.

-I interviewed my peer mentor Chad Tenold in the Town Engineering building. He informed me on the daily communication between contractors and subcontractors, along with the technical writing they do to one another. We started off talking about the emailing that goes on and the reasons behind the emails usually being to discuss the schedule or any problems occurring on the jobsite. We also talked about phone calls they make to one another, filling in the blanks in the bidding process. He also informed me on how the bidding process works, and that it needs to be very specific because it always has to do with money and time, which are most valuable in the construction industry.

"Writing an RFP." RFP Template, FREE Template and Sample. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2014. <http://rfptemplates.technologyevaluation.com/rfp-template.html>.

-This source contains information on how to create your own bid proposal or bid scope. It reveals the different sections one would find in a typical bid proposal. It also includes the type of information the writer would need to include in their proposal. I will use most of this information throughout all of the body paragraphs of my paper, because it includes a lot of relevant information to my research topic in general.

research proposal

            The topic I will be researching is how contractors and subcontractors communicate via daily communication, bid proposals, and bid scopes to achieve an equal understanding to complete a job. The first step to completing a research paper is doing the research, so that’s where I will start. I will start by finding out what kind of communication is done on a daily basis and the exact purpose of bid scopes and proposals. I plan to either do this by finding articles online or just asking my teachers or my peer mentor. This will introduce what I am researching to my audience and will give them an insight and background knowledge on the topic so they may understand the technicalities I will later describe in the paper. This information will most likely be located in the beginning of each of the body paragraphs about bid scopes and proposals.

            After giving the background knowledge, I will move on to the actual facts on how these scopes and proposals are actually written to best communicate the in the first part of the body paragraphs. I plan on finding this information either through websites or scholarly essays, and sample bid scopes and proposals. I have already acquired specific examples from the Biorenewables Building project Weitz is doing here on campus, south of the Design Building. My plan is to analyze these papers and explain the style, delivery, and context of the writing. I have a gut feeling I will get most of my research information from these samples.

            Following talking about the style, delivery, and context of these pieces of writing, I will continue on to dissect the format and focus of the two samples. A lot of this information will be extracted from my samples, but I will also compare them to other examples that can be found online. I will search many different templates, and try to understand the differences in them and the reasons behind them. After making my conclusions, I will ask my teachers and peer mentor if I have made the correct inferences on the different formats of the bid scopes and proposals. I will also search scholarly essays finding what the most important aspects of the bid scopes and proposals to get the best response from the other party.

                        My final body paragraph will contain the daily communication that takes place after the bidding process. This mostly consists of emails and phone calls, but other time includes face to face interaction. I will start by giving reasons and examples why a contractor and subcontractor might contact one another during the span of a job, and continue on to explain how they would go about it. More often than not, the topic of daily discussion is problems with the schedule or quality of work.

After finishing my body paragraphs, I will continue on to my conclusion paragraph. This will contain no new information, but will restate the topics from the body, and tie all of it together. It should help the reader to understand the big picture of my research.