Letting work to subcontractors is a very common practice in construction industry.
Subcontractors help contractors overcome problems including the need of special
expertise, shortage in resources, and limitation in finances. The decision to
subcontract involves designating work items to be subcontracted and making
assignments to subcontractors. Generally, work assignments to subcontractors can be
for the total quantity of a work item or a proportion thereof. This paper presents a
decision support system that makes assignments to subcontractors of the work items
designated for subcontracting. Moreover, the system calculates and plots the overdraft
profile based on the financial terms of the contract and project schedule. The ultimate
goal of the system is to make work assignments to subcontractors under constraints
economical and predict the expected profit at the end of the project. The system
encompasses four basic components including project data, linear programming
module, sensitivity analysis module, and financial analysis module. The sensitivity
analysis adds strength and flexibility to the system by allowing the user to experiment
with different scenarios. Finally, the developed system that represents a structured
method for making subcontracting decisions is demonstrated through an illustrative
example project.