Win the bidding only by lowest price ?

 Lesson paid with blood – To all Project Manager

21 workers lost their and 7 workers were injured in an explosion at a power plant in China’s  Danyang ,Hubei Province on August 11th ,2016 .

The key factors to guarantee the quality of high pressure steam pipeline

Total quality management of high pressure steam pipeline

Raw material, hot forming process ,heat treatment process and equipment, as well as the implementation of the process of personnel and the basis of the procedure  are the key factors to determine the final performance of the pipeline.

The bid evaluation rules of “only the lowest price can win the bidding”

How to make sure the lowest price to win for the bidding company?

1.Selection of the raw material

By using the domestic materials instead of imported materials, they changed the money losing business into a huge money earning one.

2.Selection of the processing pipeline

They can make the processed simplified ,  which saves labor cost, fabricating cost, so the project profits is squeezed out !

3.Selection of the inspection process

Due to check by their own inspectors instead of third party before delivery  , large cost will be saved for the manufacturer .

4.Selection of the key personnel

Originally it was required to machine the products by the professional senior welder ,but finally it was finished by the person who just graduated from the technical school, so a lot cost are saved.

Many people will doubt that there should be so many inspection procedures to guarantee the quality.

I have to say that : all the testing procedures are executed under the supervision of inspection Engineer .Even if a little hesitation and compromising exist ,a potential dangerous for the accident will be left .

After the accident happened

The bid winning company  think like this :
We have reminded  you earlier that it was impossible to manufacturer the products with all imported raw material in this price level, and we were strongly rejected to increase the price, so we have no responsibility to this ! We need to earn money to pay for our employees.

The victim staff  from customer side  may think like this:

Bidding rules of “winning bidding only by lowest price ”have to be rejected if we have known so seriously results. We have our own difficult : The top leaders repeatedly stressed that we must save the project cost, and  low quality valve with  lower price have to install on the pipeline .We have no choice but to obey.

The leader of the victim think like this:

 

The company has been in the advocacy of anti-corruption. For any high price bidding of projects, a report have to be submit and explain it carefully to the auditors . We’d rather choose the lowest price winning policy to avoid any wrong findings. The seriously accidents will be treat properly at the end ,and difficulty time will be over soon .

Every thought has their own consideration, but the 21 dead victim has left the world with the explosion of the boiler forever, along with happiness of their families, who will take responsibility for them ?

Following is the comment of the member from valve sales Engineer  

Mr.A

The rules of “Win the bidding only by lowest price”, like a gun , makes many manufacturers taking  risks to cheat end user with defective valves. Not only the suppliers ,but also the end user ,always think bad accident will not occurred by good luck . But the bloody event always gives people a slap in the face! Happiness of the 21 families disappeared at the moment of the explosion. The accident sounded the alarm to those customer: Please do not blindly pursue low price bidding. At the same time the seriously event remind the rule-making person  to reject it  . At the cost of safety and people ‘s lives ,It is really too harmful .

Mr. B

The rules of “Win the bidding only by lowest price” produced many messy brand valve manufacturer, and the real qualified valve company is too difficult to compete with. If the root of the problem is not solved, the big trouble will happen sooner or later. As one sales member, what actions should  we take to stop this kind of blood event happen again.