TECHNICAL STANDARDS

The technical specifications for the RFP for a specific material or equipment item can either define all of the technical requirments of the item or refer to a standard.

There are three approaches that are used for standardizing procurement on a project :

1. Individual material and equipment items are procured by referencing standards.
   
2. Material, equipment, and service items are grouped by systems that are procured by referencing standards. 
   
3. The entire project is procured by referencing a standard project.

The approaches selected for standardizing systems and projects have a significant effect on the management of a project.

BENEFITS

If an appropriate standard can be found for a procurement item, there are a number of quality, cost, and schedule benefits that can be achieved on a project.

QUALITY

The quality of the item can be evaluated from the performance of items already manufactured to the standard. This performance information is obtained from sources such as industry publications, government publications, and directly from users.

COST

This results in less cost to a project than would be incurred if the item had a detailed technical specification requiring project specific design, procurement, and production setup activities by the supplier. 

In addition to savings in initial design and production setup costs, standardized materials and equipment have cost savings due economies of scale.

SCHEDULE

If materials and equipment can be procured to a recognized standard, the time required to complete the basic steps in the prourement process is significantly reduced.

Utilization of standardized materials and equipment can have schedule benefits other than those associated directly with shortening the basic steps in the procurement process.

SOURCES

There are many sources that can be used to obtain standards for specifying materials and equipment for a project. A number of these sources are relatively independent of the suppliers producing the materials and equipment.

Industry Standards

Industry groups have been established to develop standards for spesific materials and equipment.

• American National Standards Institute

• American Concrete Institute

• American Institute of Steel Construction

• American Society for Testing and Materials

• American Society of Mechanical Engineers

• American Welding Society

• Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers

• National Lumber Manufacturer’s Association

• Society of Automotive Engineers

• Underwriters’ Laboratories

Government Standards

The federal government has established several groups that develop standards. Services and programs offered by the Technology Services unit that are involved with standardization include the following :

• Standards Information Center

• Standards Analysis and Assistance

• Standards Management

• Weights and Measures

• Standard Reference Data

• Standard Reference Materials

• Metric Program

In addition to the standards work that is included in the NIST Technology Services unit, NIST has laboratories in several technical areas that are involved with the development of standards in their respective areas.

• Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory

• Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory

• Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory

• Physlcs Laboratory

• Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory

• Building and Fire Research Laboratory

• Computer Systems Laboratory

• Computing and Applied Mathematics Laboratory

There are four basic categories of federal standardization documents included in the index.

1. Federal Specifications describe essential and technical requirements for items, materials, or services bought by the federal government.
   
2. Federal Standards provide data for reference in federal specifications.
   
3. Commercial Item descriptions are simplified specifications intened for use in the acquisition of products available in the commercial marketplace.
   
4. Qualified Products Lists are lists of products which have been tested for conformance with the appropriate specification requirements.

International Standards

International standards have expanded significantly with the growth in world trade.

The United States Trade Act provides for ANSI to represent U.S. interest in non governmental international standards organizations.

Although many countries recognize the need for international standards to facilitate world trade, the adoption of international standards is a slow process.

Metric system measurements are an important part of international standards.

Supplier Standards

Individual suppliers of materials and equipment have developed standard products that offer many of the benefits of standardization. These suppliers have completed the necessary design, procurement, and production activities to provide materials or equipment to a buyer that specifies requirements that can be met by their standard materials or equipment. Supplier can provide performance data on their standard materials or equipment. Suppliers may also have independent test data on the performance of their materials or equipment.

The standard materials or equipment offered by one supplier are seldom exactly the same as the standard materials or equipment offered by another supplier of similar items.

Many engineers and architects responsible for preparing technical specifications use a particular supplier’s standard as a means to describe the technical features of a procurement item.

CUSTOMIZING STANDARDS

The large number of standards that can be used to specify the technical requirements for the mateials and equipment procured for a project offer the preparer of the technical requirements for the RFP an appealing choice. There are two problems that can develop when a standard is used to define technical requirements.

Incompatibility of Standard Materials and Equipment with System Design

Most engineered materials and equipment are part of the design of one of the basic systems required for a project. This makes it essential that the technical requirements of individual items are compatible with the design requirements of the system that includes the items. The engineer who is responsible for the design of a system is not always completely familiar with the technical capabilities of the standard materials and equipment that are furnished for a system by a supplier.

The person responsible for preparing a technical specification must be familiar enough with the technical limitations of standard components to avoid situations such as the one described in the preceding paragraph. The communication between the buyer and the supplier must be sufficient to assure that the buyer understands the limitations of the item that is procured and the supplier understands the system design.

Incompability of Owner and Supplier Quality Programs

Standard materials and equipment produced by suppliers are normally assembled using the supplier’s quality program. Supplier quality programs can vary significantly in terms of the amount of inspection that is devoted to a particular item.

Acceptance criteria are not always explicit in standard welding codes. There are arguments between owners and suppliers over the acceptability of specific welds.

STANDARDIZATION OF SYSTEMS

The cost of the standard system is less than the cost of a system specially designed for one project since the cost of the initial system design, procurement, and production setup is shared by all of the projects that procure the standard system. If the costs of a particular system represent a large percentage of the cost of a project, the ability to standardize that system has a significant impact upon the cost of a project.

The adoption of a standardized system approach eliminates the owner’s responsibility for incompability of individual component and system design requirements since the supplier has the responsibility to resolve any discrepancies between component and system design.

STANDARDIZATION OF PROJECTS

Standardization of projects is an extension of the standardization of systems approach. Many owners have recognized that there are substantial benefits in standardizing entire projects. If an owner has completed a project such as a new facility and has the need for more facilities of a similar nature, there are quality, cost, and schedule benefits in duplicating the design of the existing facility for the new facilities.

Duplication

Although it is seldom possible to have a new project duplicate one hundred pecent of the design features of another project, it is possible to duplicate a major portion of the design. Site specific differences in projects often preclude complete duplication of the design o an existing project.

In addition to the engineering cost savings associated with project duplication, there can be substantial savings in equipment and material costs due to the fact that suppliers benefit from the work performed upon the first project.

There are major advantages in the licensing area if projects are duplicated.

There are significant cost savings in construction if projects are duplicated.

There are testing cost savings if projects are duplicated.

There are operations and maintenance cost savings associated with duplicate projects.

Reference Projects

Another common approach to standardization of projects is to use a reference project as the baseline for designing a new project that is similar in nature.

Sources of Standardized Projects

Owners that have a need for multiple projects of a similar nature have an excellent opportunity to standardize projects.

Certain owners have joined together to sponsor standardized designs that can be used by each of the owners to construct additional facilities of a similar nature.

Industrial suppliers and engineering contractors have joined together to develop standardized industrial projects that owners may procure.

Cost and Schedule Savings from Project Standariztion

The cost and schedule savings from project standardization are significant for large projects.

RESPONSIBILITIES FOR STANDARDIZATION DECISIONS

Decisions concerning the appropriate standard to use in specifying individual procurement items are normally made by the group responsible for defining the item to be procured.

Decisions regarding the procurement of standardized systems for a project are made by project management, engineering, and procurement.

The decision to standardize an entire project may well be the most important decision made on a project. The project that is selected as the basis for the new design is evaluated to determine the extent that the new design should duplicate the existing design.