Procurement
The procurement department has a very important responsibility because it is at the middle position of EPC. EPC stands for engineering, procurement and construction. These three are main components of plant engineering. The procurement department connects engineering and construction by cooperating closely on projects.
The main task of this department includes the following jobs: procurement of materials within the working budget of projects, production progress control after order, and quality control by inspections and transportations to sites according to a project schedule. The people who are in this department need to have skills such as sensitivities for market trends, correct understanding of international regulations, calm judgment for prices, strength to negotiate with suppliers, and strong will power for tough quality requirements.
Therefore, we feel a surge of pleasure when transportation and constructions are successful.
Worldwide purchasing
Procurement of plant engineering is on a much larger scale than usual industries in terms of their size of materials, price, and number of working people - though it depends on the kind of plants. In one of the biggest LNG plants in the world, for example, there were over 4,000 purchase orders to makers in over 20 countries. We are sensitive to suppliers all over the world that show us reasonable price materials. Some procurement operations may last more than two years including inquiry, negotiation, order, production control, and quality control.
Delivery Schedule Management
Timely delivery of the equipment and material is the most important factor for timely construction completion of plant.
To keep the construction schedule, we take necessary actions while comprehensively judging the means of securing the delivery date. We pay close attention to suppliers’ overall manufacturing process, and exchange information with other internal departments continually.
We are looking carefully to find any sign of delay. If there is any indication of delivery delay, then we will proactively take every possible measures to prevent the delivery delay. As a result, our purchased equipment and materials are delivered to our construction site according to the planned delivery schedule. Then we can be sure that our project construction schedule is maintained.
Quality control conscious
In procurement work, we translate engineering requirements, which are drawn on blueprints, into tangible items that are needed for construction of Oil and LNG plants. Our procurement is a key role of EPC and the most important part of our task is quality control. Ordered materials will be inspected through every stage of the manufacturing process, until they meet the requested quality level. Quality control is done with Chiyoda, suppliers, third-party organizations, and sometimes with clients based on precise, efficient and effective inspection plan.
Importance of transport planning
Materials and equipment are usually transported to sites by ship from supplier's shops, and the logistic process is reviewed in a timely manner. The process is influenced by the changing schedule of material production or weather over the ocean. Being organized throughout its schedule, mode or route of transport is very important. The materials are sometimes extremely heavy and/or large, and the schedule takes into consideration transport conditions such as roads and bridges, the route to the site, and special custom clearance in the site countries.