Purpose: The problem is that small building entreprenuers generally don’t participatein public procurement since they are experiencing the process to be time-consuming,expensive and complicated. The main objective is to produce a proposal for howsmall municipalities can work to make the participation of small buildingentreprenuers in public procurement easier. Method: The main objective has been achieved with qualitative enquiries such asinterviews. These interviews have been made with three small municipalities and onesmall building entrepreneur. Findings: To make it easier for small building entreprenurs to participate in publicprocurement small municipalities can work with simplifying the administrativeregulations with the help of frequently asked questions from the entreprenurs. They can procure total contracts, partnering-projects or split contracts which afterward iscombined to a coordinated generalcontract. They can also try to keep a good contactwith their local entreprenuers. They can identify which documents that are necessaryto demand at the tendering and which they can submit afterwards. Another initiativeto increase the entreprenuers interest is to organize a gathering where the municipalitycan inform and answer questions about public procurement. Implications: The problem is not demarcated just in Sweden but throughout theEuropean Union. The proposal can be used in other member states but needs furtherdevelopment to make a greater difference during a longer perspective. Svenskt Näringsliv (2014) earlier warned that an increase of the direct procurement limitwould affect the competition badly. The essay clarify that the increase did not bringany difference to the competition since the municipalities uses internal guide-lines.The internal guidelines involves internal monetary limits for the municipalities. Thisis to ensure a good competition when procuring direct awards. Hopefully the proposalwill help to solve the overall problem that small building entrepreneurs generallydon’t participate in public procurement. Limitations: The essay only covers municipalities with a population ofapproximately 30.000 people, but the problem is most likely present in bigmunicipalities as well. It was a suitable boundary that was made becausemunicipalities with approximately 10 000 people often cooperate with bigmunicipalities. Such a small municipality would not contribute to the empirics thatwere necessary to fulfill the main objective. Keywords: Public procurement, Act (2007:1091) on public procurement,Municipality, Contract, Building entrepreneur.

This thesis examines the tendering process from the point of view of Swedish building contractors. The purpose with the study is to chart the decision process for the contractors during the tendering process.   The study is designed as a survey study. This made it possible to reach a wide base of respondents, not letting such factors as geography being an issue. The survey itself was characterised by a very high response rate compared to other similar studies.   The result from this study shows that former experience from similar projects, current workload and the clients economic condition are very important factors for both whether or not the contractor will bid for a project as well as the cost estimation and tendering price. Former experience from similar projects is also an important factor for the determination of the indirect costs. Furthermore the work of indirect cost determination is characterised by the view that site overheads in comparison to general overheads tends to vary to a greater extent depending on the project. The need for better methods for determination of site overheads is another study result that deserves to be highlighted. Finally this study shows that markup size for risks involved can be a tricky subject matter, especially for small building contractors.

Public procurement in Sweden is regulated by the Act on Public Procure­ment (lagen om offentlig upphandling, LOU, in Swedish). The Public procurement in Sweden stands every year approximately for 500 bil­lion Swedish crowns of the taxpayers’ money. It is therefore im­portant that the money is spent in the best possible way. The focus in this study is set on the relationship between the small- and medium sized building entrepreneurs and the government. The study is built on international scientific arti­cles together with Swedish industry articles and the results from our own interview study. A comparison has been made between the three and it has resulted in listing obstacles for SME (small- and medium sizes enter­prises) and how to overcome these obstacles.

This thesis investigates the adoption of digital technologies to improve logistics processes in construction projects. The focus is on the main contractor firms and construction projects, but first-tier suppliers, transportation firms, and technology vendors are also considered. The logistics processes that are studied are order-to-delivery processes and on-site logistics. Order-to-delivery processes and on-site logistics play a critical role in ensuring the availability of goods for the construction process, in the right amount and time, at the right location, and without damage. Inefficient logistics processes that do not support construction projects with the right resources (materials, tools, and machinery) are one reason for low construction project performance. Inefficient logistics processes cause disruptions to construction projects, such as material stockouts, material surpluses, unavailability, idle waiting and searching time, and waste (e.g., damages). On a larger scale, inefficient logistics processes cause significant project delays and cost overruns. Therefore, improving logistics processes can improve construction project performance. To address the inefficiencies of logistics processes, main contractor firms face increased pressure to adopt digital technologies. It is known that adopting digital technologies can improve communication between project stakeholders, construction automation, and data acquisition, visualization, and analytics. The adoption of digital technologies has also been reported to improve the construction process, such as design, production, logistics, and procurement of materials and services. However, the adoption of digital technologies is a complex and inter-organizational process, and the industry's decentralized, project-driven nature makes many efforts ad hoc and one-of-a-kind endeavors. Moreover, there needs to be more clarity in the path of digital technology adoption for increasing construction project performance. A knowledge gap in this context has been a lack of actionable recommendations to practitioners, such as main contractor firms. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to formulate recommendations for the adoption of digital technologies that enable the main contractor firms to improve logistics processes. Based on this, the following research questions guide the research: RQ1: What are the drivers and barriers for the adoption of digital technologies at the project level from a main contractor perspective? RQ2: What are the effects on logistics processes when adopting digital technologies in construction projects? RQ3: What are the lessons learnt from the adoption of digital technologies in construction projects? The findings identify drivers and barriers to adopting digital technologies at the project level from a main contractor perspective, the effects of adopting digital technologies, and lessons learnt from adopting digital technologies in construction projects. Furthermore, a successful technology adoption process is driven by identifying the drivers and needs of the project and the stakeholders/individuals involved. It is also found that the effects of adopting digital technologies are: (a) re-designing the order-to-delivery processes and on-site logistics and (b) accessibility and monitorability of information. Moreover, this thesis proposes an enhanced understanding of the process undertaken by the main construction firms in adopting digital technologies. The thesis complements the knowledge of digital technology adoption by focusing on construction projects. The thesis fills in a knowledge gap by formulating actionable recommendations to main contractor firms and bringing clarity to the path of digital technology adoption for increasing construction project performance. / Denna avhandling studerar införandet av digital teknik för att förbättra logistikprocesser i byggprojekt. Avhandlingens fokus ligger på byggentreprenören och dess byggprojekt, men även leverantörer, transportföretag och teknikleverantörer beaktas. De logistikprocesser som studeras är order-till-leveransprocessen och arbetsplatslogistiken. Order-till-leveransprocesser och arbetsplatslogistiken spelar en avgörande roll för att säkerställa tillgången på resurser i produktionsskedet där de behöver levereras i rätt mängd och tid, på rätt plats och utan skador. Produktiviteten i byggprojekt är låg. En orsak till den låga produktiviteten är ineffektiva logistikprocesser som inte förser byggarbetsplatsen med rätt resurser (material, verktyg och maskiner). Ineffektiva logistikprocesser orsakar störningar i byggprojekt till följd av materialbrist, materialöverskott, otillgänglighet, outnyttjad tid (t.ex. vänte- och söktid), samt andra former av slöseri (t.ex. skador på material). Ineffektiva logistikprocesser leder också till betydande förseningar och kostnadsöverskridningar i byggprojekt. Därmed kan förbättrade logistikprocesser bidra till att öka produktivitet i byggprojekt. Samtidigt som att byggentreprenörer behöver ta itu med ineffektiva logistikprocesser står de även inför ett ökat tryck att ta till sig digital teknik. Användning av digital teknik kan förbättra kommunikationen mellan projektintressenter, automatisera byggprocesser samt underlätta datainsamling och visualisering och analys av denna data. Användandet av digital teknik har även rapporterats förbättra hela byggprocessen i termer av projektering, produktion, logistik och upphandling av material och tjänster. Att ta till sig digital teknik är däremot en komplex process som spänner över organisationsgränser. Branschens decentraliserade, projektdrivna karaktär försvårar för byggentreprenörer att ta till sig ny teknik, vilket leder till att insatserna är fragmenterade och görs ad hoc. Dessutom saknas en tydlig bild av för hur byggentreprenörer bör ta till sig ny digital teknik för att öka produktiviteten i byggprojekt. En kunskapslucka i detta sammanhang har varit bristen på praktiska rekommendationer för branschaktörer, till exempel byggentreprenörer. Syftet med denna avhandling att formulera rekommendationer för att ta till sig digital teknik som gör det möjligt för byggentreprenörer att förbättra sina logistikprocesser. Följande forskningsfrågor ska besvaras för att uppfylla avhandlingens syfte: RQ1: Vilka är drivkrafterna och hindren för att införa av digital teknik på projektnivå utifrån byggentreprenörens perspektiv? RQ2: Vilka effekter har införandet av digital teknik på logistikprocesser i byggprojekt? RQ3: Vilka är lärdomarna från att ta till sig av digital teknik i byggprojekt? Resultaten visar på drivkrafter och hinder för att ta till sig digital teknik på i byggprojekt ur ett byggentreprenörsperspektiv, effekterna av att ta till sig digital teknik och lärdomar från att ta till sig digital teknik i byggprojekt. Resultatet visar på att en framgångsrik process för att ta till sig digital teknik kan främjas av att identifiera drivkrafterna och behoven för projektet och de involverade aktörerna/individerna. Det har också visat sig att effekterna av att anta digital teknik är: (a) förändringar av order-till-leveransprocessen och arbetsplatslogistiken och (b) en förbättrad tillgänglighet och översikt av information. Dessutom bidrar denna avhandling till en ökad förståelse av hur en byggentreprenör tar till sig digital teknik med ett speciellt fokus på kunskap om att ta till sig digital teknik på byggprojekt. Avhandlingen bidrar även genom de praktiska rekommendationer som formulerats för byggentreprenörer och genom att tydliggöra tillvägagångssättet för digital teknikanvändning i syfte att öka byggprojektens produktivitet.