Simple Solutions That Work! Issue 8

equipment, timing expectations, available areas (with plant layout drawings), available utilities, and a single point of contact. A single point of contact or procurement manager can help alleviate distraction amongst the investment committee. By assigning one person as the primary contact, a layer of control can be implied that helps keep the vendors on task with little confusion. As equally important, this allows your investment committee members to focus on their daily support roles for the foundry; not be distracted with routine project questions. Advise from the customer – “Assigning one person as our single point of contact helped to insure our successful outcome – we controlled vendor communications which eliminated project confusion and helped our team get the outcomes we expected” 39 needs will set the stage for the first meetings with potential solution partners. Advise from the customer – “Developing the proper team and working to align the mission statement precisely to the investment commitment proved to deliver our project on time and at budget.” THE CONSULTATION Before proposals or layout drawings are created, conversations about your project mission statement needs to be reviewed with capable vendors. This will be a review of current needs, future expectations, site challenges, and budget expectations. Fortunately for the foundry industry there are plenty of good suppliers that can address their needs. Preliminary due diligence should be conducted to insure the group of vendors are fully capable and have expertise in the areas of interest. Cost is not even a motivating consideration at this early stage; but gaining an understanding of the vendors design capability, staffing resources, financial strength, and history of success should be the main points of consideration. In this case the investment committee made a final cut from four separate potential vendors down to two potential solution providers based on the prime qualifications described above. Thorough due diligence in the early stages of qualification maybe time consuming, but will offer substantial benefits in time and controlled total cost. By narrowing the field to qualified providers that met these prime qualifications the customers investment committee can more precisely focus on partnering with the best suited solution provider. NEEDS ANALYSIS & DOCUMENTATION The next steps in a well organized and executed vendor qualification process requires the investment committee to consider what has been learned throughout the consultation phase with all potential vendors and creating a clear and concise specification. Its very likely that new ideas that were not part of the original thinking are open for discussion and inclusion to the final design and supply plans. The investment committee needs to craft a statement of specification that includes the obvious needs of the project. This paper won’t dig into the details, but it’s obvious to state casting needs, appropriate production rates, re-use of existing Continued on page 40