Optimal Number of Bidders


Nederlandse versie
Optimal Number of Bidders, Normal Distribution

The tool is based on a Normal Distribution of the bids
 With the Procurement Tool on the left you can determine the Optimum Number of Bidders to be selected in a (public) tender. The Optimal Number of Bidders depends on only two variables (both expressed in %):
  1. The Transactions Costs per bid (X-axis);
  2. The Variation Coefficient of the bids (Y-axis).
You can use the tool as:
  1. an evaluation tool, to check how close the (public) tender was to the Optimal Number;
  2. a prophecy tool, to determine the Optimal Number of bidders to be selected for the (public) tender.
It is a General Procurement Tool:
  1. timeless;
  2. independent of currency;
  3. independent of the type of the product, object or service to buy.
This Procurement Tool should become a part of future European Directives on Public Procurement, because it is flexibility, instead of the contemporary rules (with fixed numbers).

This Procurement Tool is developed by ir. J.C. (Hans) Kuiper
Knowledge manager Building Costs and Building Contracts
Holland Railconsult
Utrecht
The Netherlands


E-mail your reaction to Hans Kuiper

I published about this subject (in Dutch) in the periodical "Cement" in 1997.
I presented a paper about this subject in the COB/JTA workshop in 2003 in Delft.