Research On Procurement Strategy And Methods Of Main Material For Highway Construction Project

Material cost takes up 60% to 70% of the total cost of highway construction project, in which the main material cost accounts for over 80%. The material procurement cost is easily influenced by outside uncertain factors and human factors, which is a vulnerable part of highway construction project management. The highway construction project is featured by its wide distribution across different areas, covering long distance with large number of construct sites, inconvenient transportation due to remote constructions sites away from cities, plus flexible material purchase plan subject to the actual construction progress and fluctuating price of main material subject to the international market, and so on. In regard to this, it is of great significance to explore suitable procurement strategies and methods of main material in highway construction project, and stress supplier relationship management which helps reduce the procurement cost of main material and the total cost of highway construction project, so as to improve the economic benefit and market competitiveness of construction enterprises.The thesis takes three stages of procurement management as the main thread. Firstly, it defines the main concepts in the thesis and introduces the theoretical framework. Then it analyzes the features of the highway construction project, categories of material used in construction, the current situation and the existing problems of procurement management of the main material in highway construction project, based on which the procurement features of main material and procurement cost control outlines are summarized.Secondly, the thesis points out that the material procurement plan is the start point and the very foundation of procurement, which is subject to the actual construction progress. Then methods of adjusting the construction progress schedule and drawing the procurement plans are explored.Thirdly, the thesis studies the merits and demerits of centralized procurement strategy, decentralized procurement strategy, open tender method, invited-to-tender method, and inquiry procurement method in procurement the main material of highway construction project respectively with the aim to facilitate the decision-making of construction enterprises on choosing the best strategy and method of procurement main material based on the actual situation, and the achievement of the procurement management objectives by taking effective measures. This part is the key part of the thesis.Fourthly, the thesis stresses that supplier management is an important element of procurement management. It studies how to strengthen the supplier relationship management, and how to establish a long-term cooperation partnership with suppliers, in order to reduce the procurement cost of the main material.Finally, the thesis demonstrates with statistical analysis of a case the validity and feasibility of a particular strategy and method of main material procurement in highway construction project.