-->PONE-D-25-38715-->-->Intelligent system in the cost control of commercial complex projects: data-driven optimization method-->-->PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Li,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

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The paper must be addressed all comments to improve the quality of paper. The authors read and revise carefully their paper. I am looking forward to receiving your revised paper.

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Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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We note that one or more of the authors are employed by a commercial company: Bank of Fuxing.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

-->Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. -->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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-->2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: No

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-->3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.-->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

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-->4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.-->

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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-->5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)-->

Reviewer #1: The paper may have some merit, about the enhancement of VE with experts fuzzy system. However, there is no clear methodology on how the integration is made.

1. In addition ,the FAST (Function Analysis System Technique), is known VE framework. I suggest to revise the method in the article and align it with FAST.

2. The introduction should not talk about the case but rather the VE applications in cost reduction.

3. Authors need to identify possible drawback on the traditional VE and how the Fuzzy AHP system solve it

Reviewer #2: This paper proposes an intelligent, data-driven cost control system for commercial complex construction projects, integrating Value Engineering (VE) with the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP). The core of the method is a model that calculates functional, cost, and value coefficients for different project components (e.g., civil works, HVAC, electrical). Components with a low value coefficient (V<1) are flagged for optimization, as they represent poor cost-to-function value. The model is applied to a case study, the "YS Commercial Complex" project. The authors claim that by optimizing the design and construction methods of low-value components, the intelligent system reduced the total project cost from 74,886,333.3 yuan to 72,740,121.5 yuan, achieving a 2.87% cost saving compared to traditional methods.

The following feedback is structured from major conceptual issues to specific presentational details:

1. The "Intelligent System" is Vague and Underdeveloped: The title and abstract heavily promote an "intelligent system," but this is the paper's weakest point. The system is described only in a brief, non-technical section (Figs. 6 & 7) that lists generic module names (e.g., "Smart IoT," "Engineering command and control") without explaining:

What data is collected? (e.g., real-time material costs, labor hours, sensor data?)

How is it collected? (What hardware/software is used?)

What algorithms constitute the "intelligence"? Is it just the FAHP model, or is there machine learning for prediction?

How does it enable "real-time monitoring"? The paper describes a one-time design-phase optimization, not real-time control.

Suggestion: Either substantially develop the technical architecture of the intelligent system with specific technologies and data flows, or reframe the paper's contribution around the integrated VE-FAHP framework itself, which is robustly demonstrated.

2. Lack of a Clear Comparative Baseline: The paper claims the model outperforms "traditional methods," but it does not define what these traditional methods are. Was the original project cost (74.8 million yuan) a result of poor traditional management, or was it a well-justified budget? The 2.87% saving is presented as a success, but without context:

Suggestion: Compare the optimized cost not just to the original budget, but to a proper baseline. This could be the cost estimated by standard industry practices or a detailed explanation of why the original design was inefficient. Justify that the saving is significant in the context of construction project margins.

Inconsistent Terminology and Currency: The text and tables inconsistently use "yuan" and the dollar symbol "$". For example, Table 13 uses "yuan" but the results section on pages 41-42 uses "$". This is confusing and unprofessional.

Suggestion: Consistently use the correct currency symbol ("¥" for yuan) throughout the manuscript.

3. The abstract should be more precise. Instead of "employing advanced software and hardware," specify the core methodology: "by integrating Value Engineering with a Fuzzy AHP model." The introduction's literature review is adequate but could be more focused on intelligent systems in construction management to better set up the paper's claimed contribution.

4. The results and discussion section is the core of the paper but is poorly structured. It mixes methodology (how coefficients are calculated) with results (the final numbers) and discussion (why a value is high or low). Present the calculation of FAHP weights, functional coefficients, cost coefficients, and finally the value coefficients for the YS case study. This is the "how." Clearly present the key result—Table 14 showing the value coefficients and identifying components with V<1. The discussion should analyze why certain components (like main construction Y21) have a low V. Discuss the practical optimization measures taken (e.g., "product selection optimization, installation process improvement" mentioned on page 42) in detail here, linking them back to the model's findings. This is the "so what."

5. The conclusion is very brief and simply restates the results. It should be strengthened to: (1) Summarize the key findings; (2) Explicitly state the research contribution (e.g., "This study demonstrates a structured framework for prioritizing cost optimization in complex projects."); (3) Acknowledge the study's limitations more thoroughly (e.g., the model relies on expert judgment for FAHP, the case study is a single project, the "intelligent system" aspect is conceptual); (4) Provide concrete directions for future research (e.g., integrating real-time BIM data, applying machine learning to dynamically update value coefficients, testing the framework on multiple project types).

6. The FAHP calculation process in Sections 2.2 and 3.3.3 is confusing. For example, in the calculation of the criterion layer weights (page 31), the formulas are shown but the intermediate steps for normalizing the judgment matrix are missing, making it difficult to verify the results.

7. Figures 1, 6, and 7 are rudimentary and lack professional quality. Figure 1's data source ("AiMedia Consulting") needs a proper citation. Figures 6 and 7 need to be properly labeled and integrated into the text.

8. The manuscript requires thorough proofreading by a native English speaker or professional editing service to correct grammatical errors and improve sentence fluency (e.g., "commercial complicated project" should be "commercial complex project").

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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-->PONE-D-25-38715R1-->-->Intelligent system in the cost control of commercial complex projects: data-driven optimization method-->-->PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Li,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

==============================

Kindly address carefully the further comments which the reviewers had indicated the drawbacks. Additionally, the figures of structures should be redrawn clearly to make separated each functional block. There are a lot of typing mistakes in this paper.

==============================

Please submit your revised manuscript by Jan 10 2026 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:-->

• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Tien Anh Tran

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

If the reviewer comments include a recommendation to cite specific previously published works, please review and evaluate these publications to determine whether they are relevant and should be cited. There is no requirement to cite these works unless the editor has indicated otherwise.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

-->Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.-->

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

**********

-->2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. -->

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: No

**********

-->3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: No

**********

-->4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.-->

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: No

**********

-->5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.-->

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: No

**********

-->6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)-->

Reviewer #2: The authors' responses are highly appropriate, comprehensive, and effective. They directly address every point of criticism with specific, actionable revisions. The responses demonstrate a clear understanding of my concerns and a strong commitment to improving the manuscript. The proposed changes significantly strengthen the paper by clarifying its methodology, contributions, and technical details.

Reviewer #3: The article addresses important topic for construction industry practice.

However, there are fundamental methodolological mistakes in the paper.

The mistakes mainly result from the misuse of AHP methodology.

For example, Fuzzy AHP is declared. Hwever, crisp AHP assessments are finally applied to get the priorities.

On the other hand, consistency check is inadequate to prioirity estimation technique used (Geometriic Mean technique). This is why Geometric Consistency indcators should be rather applied fror the consistency check and not consistency ratio indicator (CR).

BTW is fuzzy AHP really more confident thatn crisp AHP - see: opinion of AHP inventor (TL.Saaty) about fuzzyfing AHP calculations.

The language and communication merits of the paper are rather poor - there is a need for urgent improvement with this regard.

**********

-->7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

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Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review?   For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.-->

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

**********

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To ensure your figures meet our technical requirements, please review our figure guidelines: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/figures

You may also use PLOS’s free figure tool, NAAS, to help you prepare publication quality figures: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/figures#loc-tools-for-figure-preparation.

NAAS will assess whether your figures meet our technical requirements by comparing each figure against our figure specifications.

-->PONE-D-25-38715R2-->-->Intelligent system in the cost control of commercial complex projects: data-driven optimization method-->-->PLOS One

Dear Dr. Li,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Mar 05 2026 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:-->

• A letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

-->If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Tien Anh Tran

Academic Editor

PLOS One

Journal Requirements:

If the reviewer comments include a recommendation to cite specific previously published works, please review and evaluate these publications to determine whether they are relevant and should be cited. There is no requirement to cite these works unless the editor has indicated otherwise.

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Additional Editor Comments:

There are some typing mistakes which have been found in this paper. Kindly proofreading this manuscript carefully and correct this mistake.

For example: Figure 2, Kindly adjust this phrase word: Vertical channel.

Figure 4, Missing some words at mid block: Preparat, etc.

so on.

[Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.]

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

-->Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.-->

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

**********

-->2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. -->

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

-->3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? -->

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

-->4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.-->

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

-->5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.-->

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

-->6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)-->

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed as per my earlier feedback. I don't have additional comments to the authors of the paper.

**********

-->7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review?   For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.-->

Reviewer #2: No

**********

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NAAS will assess whether your figures meet our technical requirements by comparing each figure against our figure specifications.

-->

Intelligent system in the cost control of commercial complex projects: data-driven optimization method

PONE-D-25-38715R3

Dear Dr. Li,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

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Kind regards,

Tien Anh Tran

Academic Editor

PLOS One

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments: