Fuzzy Pattern Recognition Approach to Construction Contractor Selection

Contractor selection is a complex process crucial to ensuring the success of construction projects. Existing methods by which owners select a suitable contractor have been inadequate because it is difficult for decision-makers to evaluate contractor bids against inexact qualitative criteria. The purpose of this paper is to propose a Multiple-layer Fuzzy Pattern Recognition (MFPR) approach to solve contractor selection problem. Integrating judgments, experience and preferences of decision-makers, this paper uses the paired comparison method to decide relative membership degrees of qualitative criteria as well as weights of the criteria set, a case study for a channel construction project was used to demonstrate the feasibility of this approach. The findings clearly indicate that the techniques may successfully harmonize different opinions and reach a group consensus.