Do you work on large capital projects involving multiple vendors and maybe even multiple EPCs? If so, you already understand the issues that arise with capital projects where you receive large amounts of information from multiple vendors:
- managing a large volume of work and documentation from multiple sources
- managing changes, document revision and other issues related to documents that are submitted, resubmitted and possibly double-counted
- dealing with multiple vendors/EPCs who usually have their own processes in place.
- ensuring all standards and specifications are followed by all participants even in the cases where the instructions aren’t clear or are overly complex
and more.
As projects get bigger, the documentation flow becomes larger and you have more to deal with in terms of work scope and deliverables.
A key takeaway from our survey entitled Supplier vs EPC: Why is Vendor Documentation so Painful? was the following:
More than 80% of EPC survey respondents stated that data validation and correct formatting are the most important factors for successful supplier document management.
Further to that, fewer than 20% of suppliers reported having dedicated document control resources. The rest rely on project managers or technical resources to perform this work as required.
Plus, while 75% of EPC respondents use an Electronic Document Management System (EDMS), only 2% of suppliers currently have an EDMS in place. Instead, they create and manage their documents using spreadsheets and PDF tools, leading to errors and rework.
And while 90% of supplier respondents using email regularly to send and track transmittals, only 49% of EPCs mentioned that this was their preference.
So the key result is that while EPCs put data validation and integrity at the top of their importance list, their vendors tend to use outdated, manual processes and often don’t even deliver the documentation in the format EPCs prefer.
Specifically, EPCs told us that the following were their biggest challenges dealing with suppliers:
• A lack of attention to deliverable timelines
• A lack of clearly defined submission protocols
• Receiving poor quality document scans or copies that simply aren’t usable.
How can you ensure a consistency of service while also ensuring that you’re working as efficiently as possible when you deal with multiple vendors who may all have their own way of submitting information with their own unique system to do so? How can do you do it right the first time?
Check out our EPC page to learn more about issues that you might be facing with this work and how you can do it better.