Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 5.1
Programme scope and procurement
Steps
The tasks
Step 1 - the 'what':
performance criteria
Understand the programme scope and specify the products or
components to be procured.
Step 2 - the 'why':
assessment for
common component
procurement
Prepare a business case to demonstrate the benefi ts and test the
validity of a fragmented separate procurement approach, taking
into account:
- the need for consistency, quality and aesthetics
- the budget, cost control and cost certainty
- risk reduction and risk transfer
- relationship to the rest of the programme
- liability issues, and
- market interest and the capacity of fi rms to deliver.
Step 3 - the 'how':
procurement strategy
Prepare a detailed procurement strategy for each common
component to defi ne the delivery and supply model, both before
and after purchase. Four options need to be considered. They
are:
- procure and sell
- procure and free issue
- reserve capacity and stock holding
- joint purchasing for different elements of the programme, where
common components can be sourced, as in buying clubs.
Because a common component or commodities strategy involves com-
bining the requirements of many disparate materials and components
over a large number of different and diverse projects, it is extremely
important to pay attention to detail. Even only slight issues with a
poorly executed common components strategy can have catastrophic
consequences far greater than the saving in costs of a particular compo-
nent. For this reason the benefi ts can be great, but the consequences of
error can be serious and therefore the strategy should be developed in
three stages, to reduce the risk of making a false economy when purchas-
ing a common component or material.
Stage 1: Performance criteria
The key question is: what are the specifi cations that the component
must meet in order to be acceptable? This critical test establishes
whether suffi cient and robust component criteria can be generated to
communicate the needs of the project teams, taking into account the
constraints of time and design aesthetics. This stage therefore engages
