1. Bid mechanics PROGRAM PRESENTATION
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2. 1. The Point
Contract selection
3. deadly sins

3. A success-propitiating procurement strategy
1. THE POINT
A success-propitiating procurement strategy
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4. ”
Bid equalization is a fiction. Genuine equalization is only possible when the work description is conceptually bounded. Asking bidders to quote without such bounds, on the sole basis of specifications and standards is an exercise in futility.
Steven Keays (2013)

5. The futility of going through the motions
The illusion of validity through formality
The risks to a project start with the mechanics surrounding the preparation of a competitive bid in support of a contract. Why go through a bidding process as a prerequisite for contract award? After all, the most efficient way to go about this business is to go sole-source. Owners with plenty of vendor histories will already know whom they like,
whom they prefer, whom to doubt and whom to shun. Nevertheless, owners opt instead to go through the tedious, onerous and labor-intensive motions of competitive bidding. In North America, the Sarbane-Oxley Act passed by the US Congress in 2002 is the ominous force behind this motivation 4. Competitive bids create an impression of procedural righteousness and offers legalistic cover to business managers who choose losers and winners.
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6. HARD LESSONS Never learnt, somehow The vacuum of space
Vendor bids are always prepared in a vacuum. Unless the owner has figured out in details the execution strategy, bidders can only guess at how the work will be executed. Their proposals will be a measure of their understanding of the scope of work and the owner’s putative expectations. Asking for execution plans during the proposal stage is a waste of time. Such plans can only come to fruition when developed jointly with the owner.
Boiler plates
Boiler plate contracts and proposals are rampant. Whether a proposal contains a hundred pages or a thousand, their contents will come overwhelmingly from cut-and-paste lifted from previous bids. When a bid package creates the expectation of acres of felled trees to build up paper volumes, the bidders will be equally verbose with their contents which inevitably lead to filler fluff.
Mental midgets
People are incapable of holding a mental picture of a bid package containing hundreds of page, let alone a thousand. Consequently, neither the owner nor the bidder can realistically aspire to grasp in its entirety the true merits of a bidder’s proposal. For the owner, this difficulty is magnified manifold by the number of bid proposals received.
Slick book covers
Proposals are akin to job interviews and likewise detached from the nature of the position. Some people are sublimely competent in interviews but utterly useless in their jobs. The same goes for proposals. Some companies having mastered the art of the proposal. Others, less so (without implying that they cannot do the job). The true art of the bid evaluation process lies in being able to uncover substance from presentation.

7. 2. THE MECHANICS
Incremenalism in action

8. The reality of competitive bids
Process motions create the illusion of neutrality
Bid equalization is a fiction. Genuine equalization is only possible when the work description is conceptually bounded. Take the example of a custom house. It is impossible to assess even one proposal from a single architect if the work description is limited to building specifications, space allocations, number of levels, surfaces finish prescriptions and the likes. It is possible if you first develop the outline, footprint and floor plans – i.e. drawings. The same logic applies to equipment and plant projects as well. Asking bidders to quote on such work on the sole basis of specifications and standards is an exercise in futility.
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9. THE PPA BID MECHANICS A serialized sequence in four stages Stage 1
Identifies which organization (internal or external) are qualified in terms of skills, expertise, experience, project mechanics and mechanisms to execute the anticipated work in full compliance with the owner’s SOE. Stage 1 occurs before any contract work is considered.
Stage 2
Defines the conceptual baseline which will set the bounds of the work. This baseline would include things like drawing schematics, equipment outlines, allowable footprints, physical restrictions, and all pertinent engineering and regulatory specifications.
Stage 3
Invite pre-qualified bidders to bid. Stage 3 includes the “comparative equalization of the proposals” to determine which bidder offers the highest probability of fulfilling the putative contract in a manner that propitiates the realization of the profitably performing asset.
Stage 4
Award the contract, finalize the terms and conditions (T&C) and authorize the winning bidder to commence the work in accordance with the execution strategy designed by the Framework team.
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10. SCHEMATIC OF PROCESS Incremental bid mechanics
The selection of a winning bid goes through four stages, in sequence. It is the sole means of genuinely equalizing competing bids.
Identify which organization (internal or external) are qualified to execute the anticipated work in full compliance with the owner’s SOE.
Occurs before any contract work is considered.
Pre-qualifications
Define the conceptual baseline (bounds of the work to be quoted).
Include schematics, equipment outlines, restrictions and pertinent codes & standards.
Specifications
Solicit bids from pre-qualified vendors.
Equalization of bids.
Valunomy assessment.
T&C negotiations with prospective winnger.
Award recommendation
Selection
Contract award
Schedule acceptance
Acceptance criteria
Work
Award
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