Info for suppliers

Responding to trends to win work

Local and national suppliers need to be responding to these changes through the following strategies:

  • Ensuring that they are up to date with the latest technologies.
  • Forming supply chain linkages to secure work in the major projects market. This includes networking and forming bidding teams to better target these opportunities.
  • Investment in systems to ensure that firms are compliant with regulatory and project system requirements.
  • Attraction and retention of workers and developing skills.
  • Having the capacity to meet regulatory and project requirements.
  • Improving quality.
  • Differentiating capabilities, products and services – focussing on a value added positioning.
  • Improving value and competitiveness.
  • Addressing environmental priorities including energy reduction, effective environmental systems and recycling.
  • Improving productivity.
  • Expanding capacity or size.
  • A stronger customer focus and building responsiveness to customer needs.
  • Improving performance.

Detailed comments from procurement managers included the following:

Technology

  • Keep technology up to date and reinvest in the business to develop new or innovative products.
  • Invest in design software.
  • Invest in software and use ICT in processes.
  • Adopt and develop online ordering systems.

Supply chain linkages

  • Increased joint bids on larger projects.
  • Need to partner to get work on major projects.
  • Local suppliers will need to look at consortium approaches and expanding out of local areas to give them access to capital.
  • Focus on long term relationships. The client would like to build relationships with suppliers to ensure the supplier has stable clients and the client has access to quality goods and services. The client is interested in umbrella agreements for all sites.
  • Be more open to early contractor involvement.

Systems

  • Need to demonstrate safety and due diligence.
  • Company growth must be well structured and firms should develop more processes and systems to better structure their businesses.
  • Comply with client EHS systems.

Skills

  • Ensure consistent staffing for projects – maintain high standard of staff. Poor quality staff were removed from suppliers in the economic downturn.
  • Employ younger staff to address the generation change.
  • Pay staff higher rates to retain them.
  • Need to offer housing packages to attract and retain staff.
  • Train staff in new technologies and processes.
  • Hire more staff to address skills shortages.
  • Need to attract experienced tradespeople to regional areas.
  • Train more apprentices to deal with skills shortages.

Regulatory and project requirements

  • Ensure compliance with regulations.
  • Meet project requirements, terms and conditions.
  • Need industry bodies to work for suppliers and oppose regulatory changes that have an adverse impact – need a critical mass.
  • Need government assistance to respond to legislation.
  • Get government support to increase input tariffs and support domestic manufacturing.

Quality

  • Maintain a high standard of product quality to differentiate the firm from cheap imports.
  • Fabricators will have to drop the 'near enough is good enough' attitude.
  • Maintain product quality and provide warranties – clients will look at the through life cost and not just upfront costs.
  • Provide more justification and verification of quality.

Capabilities

  • Maintain equipment and ensure supplier equipment is current.
  • Need more education in tendering.
  • Need more diverse products and services to suit infrastructure.
  • Broaden product ranges.

Value and competitiveness

  • Differentiate themselves from competitors through labour, operations and equipment.
  • Work with clients to maintain competitiveness in the market.
  • Provide free delivery to mine sites.
  • Charge a fairer price.
  • Keep up to date with future industry changes, e.g. Health conferences identify new technologies to be used in the design and development of hospitals but contractors never attend.
  • Be price competitive.
  • Price work to account for market place changes. This includes price reduction.
  • Firms need to be downsizing, restructuring and diversifying to address increasing competition from manufacturers overseas.

Environment

  • Develop systems to mitigate issues created by the CPRS and the need to reduce water usage.
  • Focus on supporting renewable energies and develop capabilities to serve these markets.
  • Local suppliers need to position themselves to recycle.
  • Adapt and change to the requirements of new energy generation technologies.
  • Promote sustainable work practices.

Productivity

  • Need to deliver more value to major project clients through the product or service offering, and to improve service and response times.
  • Provide more prefabrication in finishes and services.

Capacity

  • Gear businesses so that they can grow with projects.
  • Undertake better resource planning to ensure availability of stock in regional areas.
  • Do not take on more work than the firm has the capacity to deliver.
  • Suppliers need to grow.
  • Investigate how to supply larger volumes.

Responsiveness

  • Provide better responses to requests for information.
  • Suppliers need to align the businesses to the needs of the client and focus on winning more maintenance work.
  • Listen to the needs of customers and identify changes in the industry.

Performance

  • Improve reliability and accuracy in supply.

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