Page 16 - Enclosure Fall-Winter 2023-24

dan.payne.wagstaff.com www.WagstaffAT.com

Continued from page 14
Thoughts from Newman

on this process. Meanwhile, product suppliers working on project would surely be awarded to a competing bidder
a fixed price budget have no time for this. This process can who doesn’t understand this process. Thus, there is no
very quickly turn, what could be a profit into a loss for the budget to cover these added costs in the winning proj-
project. And at the end of the day, will it make the product ect. No one wants to pay for this, but unfortunately, it is
any higher quality or safer? Not very often. If you are all still imposed on the unsuspecting seller, robbing them of
wondering what the $600 toilet seat was all about, well, any possibility of making any profit.
this is it.
Are SME reviews even necessary? Well, it is beneficial
Part of the problem comes from the fact that most SMEs to have things reviewed by a person with detailed knowl-
have little involvement in the project at hand. They are edge of the pertinent subject matter. But they need to
only required to look at the area of their expertise and think about the practical side, making sure the project
never get to see the big picture of what the project is all equipment will function as intended and operate safely in
about. All they care about is making sure that their codes its intended environment. The world won’t stop turning if it
and standards are followed to a tee, caring little about the doesn’t meet every facet of a code because it is referenced
product’s function or how much cost they impose. Often in the procurement specification. The buyer’s project man-
it seems like they feel the need to justify their existence, agers need to reel in some of these SMEs and keep things
and if they don’t have any comments, they are considered in the proper perspective. Stop this endless back and forth
not doing their job. Sometimes, if you disagree with their over pointless things that cost everybody money.
decrees, it will become a battle of wills and egos that can
I suppose that we can’t blame it all on the SME, as there
go on forever, never getting solved. Ultimately it can bring
can be a lot of reasons why submittals get thrown back and
the project to a standstill.
forth. The point here is not to zero in on anybody, only to
From a supplier perspective, it isn’t easy to account for be aware that the situations I discussed are true and hap-
these extra project costs. Projects are traditionally bid pening regularly. Hopefully, what I am saying can be taken
and awarded on a lowest price basis. If one were to try to to light, and perhaps the process can be improved in the
predict these extra costs and add them to the price, the future. Hey, I just call it as I see it… v

16