Choosing the right OEM has a significant and lasting impact on a project's success.

The selection of OEM solution providers affects site selection, utilities, layouts, facility design, permits, and economic incentives. Once commissioned and operational, the chosen OEM solution greatly determines product quality, throughput, operational efficiencies, and protection of the company’s brand. Things can go very right or very wrong depending on this one decision.

To mitigate risk and improve long-term outcomes from your OEM selection, four things are required:

1. Relevant and reliable data.
2. Consideration of the interdependencies and related impacts that exist between the process equipment, the balance of plant, and related resources (materials, people, tools, etc.).
3. An OEM evaluation and procurement strategy developed within the context of a comprehensive stage-gated project development plan that clarifies expectations, benchmarks progress, and defines required tasks and work products.
4. An OEM evaluation and procurement team with proven experience.

OEM selection typically occurs early in the project development lifecycle when essential data is still being developed. To help ensure a comprehensive analysis that supports full integration with other systems, facilities, and resources, we encourage Owners to collaborate with a 3rd party OEM integrator like Hansen-Rice, Inc. (HRI). A qualified integrator should act as your advocate and understand the relationships between the facility, the equipment centers, and every other aspect of the balance of plant. The integrator must have proven experience and insight to uncover hard-to-notice issues or data gaps and fill in the blanks with historical data. As part of your project development plan, a well-defined OEM evaluation and procurement strategy should start with the following steps:

1. Develop measurable performance criteria considering every aspect of the process workflow.
2. Establish the minimum commercial requirements and interview existing clientele utilizing the OEM solution in production environments.
3. Consider and define areas or resources directly or indirectly impacted by the OEM solutions.
4. Identify and include criteria around design technology platforms needed to produce detailed drawings, renderings, and efficient 3D models that support design and constructability reviews.
5. Account for conversion requirements between metric and imperial systems.
6. Perform a comparative analysis of capital funding sources and return metrics.
7. Define and establish go-to-market procurement strategies, (i.e., contract delivery methodologies, bonds, and performance guarantees) and other risk mitigation essentials.
8. Define your selection criteria based on 1-7 above.

Once those are complete, prepare your RFP and follow the selection process.

Get the full plan from your HRI subject matter expert below.