Planning & Administering Project Contracts and Procurement, Request for Quotation (Rfq) Assignement
Request For Quotation (RFQ) Assignment
It should be noted in the first instance that shipping and freight is specialist in nature and it is best to entrust arrangements for long distance transport, shipping, airfreight, seaport, airport and international frontier formalities to a specialist organisation (Lock, 2007, p.348) in such circumstances if a relationship has been developed with a freight specialist there may be an argument not to go out to competitive tender in the first place and adopt a nominated supplier attitude. It is my opinion however that even though there may be limitation of choice of freight and shipping companies a recommendation should be given for at least three companies to be approached.
Receiving the quotation after issuing the RFQ is covered in phases one and two of the four phases of procurement as outlined in (PMBOK, 2008, p.313) Plan Procurements, Conduct Procurements, Administer Procurements and Close Procurements.
Conduct Procurements, Phase two also relates to selecting a provider and awarding the contract. In order to select the provider a bid evaluation process is undertaken whereby cost, bidders’ reputation and standing may be taken into account together with a technical evaluation.
Once the shipping agent has been chosen, the next phase of the procurement cycle is the issuance of a Purchase Order, on issuance of the purchase order it is then the purchasers responsibility to expedite, or follow up on the progress of the shipment to ensure any critical dates are kept and in conjunction with the shipping agent highlight any risks that may occur in the carrying out of the contract.
On delivery of the machinery, the consignment must be examined to check for any possible damage caused in transit, once satisfied the machinery will be placed in the central stores or issued to the project team for installment.
On satisfaction of the order and once an invoice for payment has been received the shipping agent will be paid
It should be noted in the first instance that shipping and freight is specialist in nature and it is best to entrust arrangements for long distance transport, shipping, airfreight, seaport, airport and international frontier formalities to a specialist organisation (Lock, 2007, p.348) in such circumstances if a relationship has been developed with a freight specialist there may be an argument not to go out to competitive tender in the first place and adopt a nominated supplier attitude. It is my opinion however that even though there may be limitation of choice of freight and shipping companies a recommendation should be given for at least three companies to be approached.
Receiving the quotation after issuing the RFQ is covered in phases one and two of the four phases of procurement as outlined in (PMBOK, 2008, p.313) Plan Procurements, Conduct Procurements, Administer Procurements and Close Procurements.
Conduct Procurements, Phase two also relates to selecting a provider and awarding the contract. In order to select the provider a bid evaluation process is undertaken whereby cost, bidders’ reputation and standing may be taken into account together with a technical evaluation.
Once the shipping agent has been chosen, the next phase of the procurement cycle is the issuance of a Purchase Order, on issuance of the purchase order it is then the purchasers responsibility to expedite, or follow up on the progress of the shipment to ensure any critical dates are kept and in conjunction with the shipping agent highlight any risks that may occur in the carrying out of the contract.
On delivery of the machinery, the consignment must be examined to check for any possible damage caused in transit, once satisfied the machinery will be placed in the central stores or issued to the project team for installment.
On satisfaction of the order and once an invoice for payment has been received the shipping agent will be paid
References: Lock, D. (2007) Project Management Ninth Edition: Gower Publishing Ltd. Aldershot Project Management Institute. (2008) A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide). 4th ed. Newton Square (PA) Young, K. (2013) Standard Operating Procedure, Request for Quotation Format, Amer Group, Egypt