The better price the more clients we have

In 2014 a company where I worked was struggling issues because the recession. The directive board made an strategy that included beside other things develop a new team for estimation process. I was part of this new generation to came to change the company in the pursuit of achieve new level of success I spearhead a new team to obtain the more contracts as possible according to the business goals.

The situation

One of the first projects that I managed was a bid for a Design-Build, the client was a ceramic producer and it was an expansion phase of an existing plant in Cadereyta NL. My team had to develop the specifications of construction included architectural design and engineering. This process involve a lot of work in-house and from suppliers to make a good offer.

Stretegic actions

This project laid the foundations of the workflow for future projects. For this was necessary to apply the project management methodology of Project Management Institute to create the work breakdown structure. Once that we went all the way of the methodology was possible identify the key process, after the application of the scientific method of trial and error some clues were unveiled to establish some gold directives. The more time you have to develop the proposal the more accurate is the number, this rule propose a complete way to work dedicating the more time possible to improve the quotation process, not only with different suppliers but also high level of definition of the requirements, budget is an interative process. The respond to the question: Which process contribute more? The more called respond is value engineering. Previously considered a plus this maxim establish the value engineering like a regular action in bid process, for all the main inputs at least, this process imply to made structural design in each single project no matter if is only for budget, in this case of study the result of the value engineering was to make the structure very efficient by using a prefabricated system besides other improves in mechanical and electrical systems.

Results

With a new developed in-house methodology based on PMI, a new workflow was established for each bid process that allow the company reach a totally new level of success like never before in his own history, more than two hundred million dollars and sustained results for three years under my management

About the autor

Licensed Civil Engineer with ore than 18 years of experience in construction, Master in Project Management and Master in Business Administration, PMP Certificated CPIM Certificated and member of Project Management Institute. He has served as a professor at Universidad Iberoamericana. He has participated in multiple seminars and courses in Human Development.