28th November 2008, 11:44 AM
Quote:quote:Originally posted by the invisible man
What exactly is meant on here by "undercutting"? Naturally firms invited to tender, in limited competition, for a contract submit their best price for the work...."Undercutting" normally means something entirely different, that is knowingly submitting a price below that of a competitor whether or not it is feasible. Obviously one does not (one hopes) know competitors' tender figures at the time.
True, but it happens, for example where following a tender process the client/consultant goes back to the units and says these are the figures, can you do it for less. Don't tell me it doesn't happen because it does, it is common in some areas and with some consultants and is the reason why I haven't got work on at the moment.
In addition, it is fairly easy to work out competitors rates from which tenders they win, which they lose, how they staff the sites and their day rates (which are easy to work out). I've been involved in tenders where we've known damn well what the competitor was going to tender, and the pM has charged less to get the work.
Undercutting, cutting prices back as far as possible. We all know what happens and what is meant.
Quote:quote:Quality etc and work being not being done "to spec" is an industry problem. I would suggest that the solution lies with better procedure more akin to the construction industry upon which commercial archaeology is modelled: better specs, more detailed and comprehensive, with better administration of contracts (often incorrectly termed "supervision")by the appropriate parties. In short, contractors should know exactly what and how much is required by when, and they get paid for that, no more and no less. There is no greater incentive to producing good work than the knowledge that you won't get paid if you don't.
Yes, agree in most part, although if you look at the proliferation of middle management paper shufflers in a lot of construction build teams you may despair of that vision for archaeology and archaeologists. But then maybe we need to realise that not every job in a unit should be filled by an archaeologist? Shock horror
There is though the issue that in archaeology it is hard often to know exactly how much there will be to 'do'. Developer's often don't mind paying units to dig their site, they're used to it now, but they don't like the uncertainty of knowing when the job will be finished.