Solving a procurement problem and enhancing business processes

Our client is a main contractor who provides offsite solutions using its manufacturing facility to construct buildings in the health, education, accommodation and commercial sectors. Following on from a number of contract wins in the education sector, we were appointed to support the client in their procurement of various building packages including landscaping, furniture, decoration, flooring, ceilings, wall tiling etc. The scope was challenging because of the geographical spread of the projects with sites located in Cornwall, Hinkley and Norwich among other locations.

We brought our extensive experience procuring packages within tier one main contracting environments to this challenge which included expanding the available supply chain, enhancing procurement processes, and leading on the preparation of robust package scopes to limit post award variations. This was necessary because our client, as a developing business, did not have a consistent procurement approach.

We prepared a tender package and enquiry letter which was covered all of our client’s requirements but was easy for the supply chain to review and understand what they were being asked to price. In these tender packages we shifted the approach from asking the supply chain to prepare their own quantities, to our client issuing NRM 2 compliant bills of quantities. Whilst the supply would take the risk, the bills of quantities meant the pricing process was quicker for the supply chain and our evaluation would be quicker and more robust.

In our performance of these services, we worked with the client to enhance other areas of their business. For example, our client wanted to update the schedule of rates used by its manufacturing facility. We combined our quantity surveying expertise with our innovative data science methods to prepare a price book for the client which took known values or required hours to conclude rates per item of per operative.

We worked with our client to successfully conclude these procurement activities to their satisfaction and left a legacy of improved processes which will improve their efficiency and performance on future projects.