Refining Our RFQ Rollout Approach

Part of our success implementing turnkey lighting and electrical projects is fostering a shared ability between EMC and our labor partners to deal with ambiguity.  

In many cases, our customers have a specific objective they want to achieve. Maybe it’s an energy efficiency milestone, an updated look and feel to their facilities or enhanced safety. Whatever the goal, the starting point for the project is often vast and undefined. Adding to the challenge is ongoing product and labor shortages. 

Providing audit data for all sites would add time and, in some cases, may not be available at the time we engage you for pricing. So instead, we sample a handful of sites and average the data. This sampling approach is effective for establishing unit pricing—we know what re-lamp or troffer kits are going to cost and can include the information in one multisite RFQ rather than issuing 50 individual ones.  

The challenge lies in when you and your crew enter those sites. It’s then any product under/overages are revealed, impacting POs and your ability to determine labor needed for those sites. While there is little we can do to make the ambiguity go away, we can deal with it more effectively. Here’s the approach EMC’s Labor and Sourcing is committed to taking: 

Four Week Timeline 

EMC Labor Sourcing is committed to upholding a four-week timeline between RFQ and rollout. We know from past experience and feedback that this has been ideal for planning purposes. 

We will get you POs and workplans four weeks ahead of the project start. Open them up and review them as soon as possible after you receive them.  

In addition to going over the plan, start thinking about the crew you will have on site and what flexibility you may have in moving crew from one site to another. What contingencies can you make? What flexibility do you have? 

Earlier Outreach From Project Managers 

If you are involved in a rollout and haven’t seen the work plans/POs, reach out to your project manager and schedule a meeting. If you aren’t hearing from your project manager or seeing the documentation in this four-week timeframe, let us know. 

This is the opportunity to share any concerns about the estimate and actual project scope not matching. The earlier these potential issues can be addressed the better.  

Increased Coordination Between EMC Departments 

EMC Finance, Sales and Labor Sourcing departments are increasing our collaborative efforts to create POs in this four-week timeframe. 

The ambiguity that surrounds us today makes perfection hard to achieve. While there will be the occasional misses on both sides, it’s important to maintain our ability to course correct as needed and keep striving for successful collaboration and superior results from each project we work on together.  

Nate de la O-Peterson is manager of EMC Labor Sourcing and Logistics. Previously, Nate held roles in the EMC Logistics group as both a logistics team lead and most recently a labor buyer. As manager, Nate oversees Labor Buyers and Logistics Coordinators and provides guidance in both areas with his experience and expertise.