Is steel structure engineering quoted according to existing drawings or optimized design?

    This is a common problem in bidding. If the design institute has completed the steel structure drawings, will the bidder be allowed to optimize the design of the existing drawings to reduce the cost, or will the construction be based on the existing drawings?In reality, there are two ways of bidding. Let’s see their advantages and disadvantages.

    1）Quote according to the drawing

    The advantage is that each bidding unit does not need to spend time and effort to redesign and calculate (generally, the optimization calculation needs an additional 1-2 weeks according to the complexity of the project), according to the existing drawing point quantity, and also saves the time for the second review of the new drawing (almost 2 weeks left and right).

    The disadvantage is that the original design may not be economical enough, which unnecessarily increases the project cost (some up to 20-30%), and the technical strength of each bidding unit cannot be compared, and some new structural technologies cannot be applied.

    2）Optimal design

    The advantage is that if the original structure design is too conservative, after optimization by experienced steel structure designers, the project cost can be significantly reduced, and at the same time, it can meet the requirements of national specifications and owners.

    The disadvantage is that the bidding process and the subsequent second review of drawings may take an additional 3-4 weeks, and some bidding units may not have sufficient technical strength.

    After the above analysis, we can easily come to the conclusion:

    If the construction period of the project is very tight, the owner is not very sensitive to the cost of steel structure project, and if the project is delivered later than the scheduled time, it will cause greater losses in other aspects, then it is a wise choice to choose to quote according to the drawings.

    If the project duration is not so tight, and the owner is more concerned about the project cost, there is no doubt that the bidder with design ability should be selected to optimize the offer.

    In addition, in order to gain price advantage in competition, some bidders may over optimize the steel structure, or even fail to meet the national specifications. In order to avoid unsafe over optimization, they must review the optimal design of the steel structure company. Generally, in the bidding stage, they should first submit it to the Design Institute for preliminary review, and then submit it to the public for review after bidding.The second audit shall be conducted by the company.