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money and buy powered roof supports from less
well-known and quality manufacturers, with
greater risk of losing quality. Raspadskaya
already had experience of the latter having, in
2012, purchased powered roof supports from
the largest Chinese manufacturer. For seven
years of operation, Raspadskaya had to spend
significant funds on repairing these powered
roof supports, as well as incur costs associated
with equipment downtime. The company was
extremely disappointed with this experience and
did not want to repeat the same mistakes, but
also did not want to overpay for equipment from
a big-name supplier or increase the budget of
the investment project.
In fact, the task was formulated as follows: to
develop an effective approach that will allow
them to purchase high-quality powered roof
supports at the lowest possible price.
As a result, during a detailed discussion and
several days of work, we developed a solution
that actually became a road map (see box
below) for the tender process and further
implementation of the project for the purchase
of powered roof supports. As key mandatory
requirements for each of the bidders in the
tender process, we included a contract draft
with the audit condition of all stages of
realisation of the contract for compliance with
the standard EN1804 and technical
A road map for the tender and further execution of the project for
purchasing powered roof supports developed by Technical Audit
company and Raspadskaya coal company (EVRAZ)
1. Check the references
At the tender, the buyer invites tenders from powered roof support manufacturers with
experience of international projects (not only domestic market) that comply with the EN1804
standard. At this stage, it is important to evaluate the number and the quality of the
references, getting feedback on the maximum number of international (export) deliveries over
the past 10 years. The tender participants must present to the buyer the reference list with
contact details for each project of previously delivered powered roof supports and the buyer
should send requests to these contacts asking for feedback that answers standard questions
such as, or related to: Was the equipment delivered on time? Did you face any problems? Is
the equipment currently operating? Are you satisfied with its performance? Did you
experience any defects or faults during the warranty period or after? etc.
2. Contract draft with audit conditions and extended warranty period
The contract draft should include an extended warranty period: five years for the steel
structure of the roof supports and three years for the power hydraulics of the roof supports,
with the obligation to provide unconditional bank guarantees. This should amount to 10% of
the contract value for five years – to confirm the warranty for the steel structure of the roof
supports – and another 10% of the contract value for three years – to confirm the warranty of
the power hydraulics.
Before the start of face-to-face discussions, all invited participants must agree with the
proposed contract draft.
3. A face-to-face technical stage
First, the buyer conducts a face-to-face technical stage where comments on technical
proposals are openly issued and the bidders confirm their elimination and immediately make
appropriate changes. The goal of this stage is to consider and resolve technical comments in
an open way and allow the maximum number of participants to participate in the next stage –
the face-to-face commercial stage.
4. A face-to-face commercial stage
The buyer conducts a face-to-face commercial stage, where he/she can choose the cheapest
offer. Having the contract draft with extended warranty obligations confirmed by bank
guarantees, as well as points for audit of the manufacture of powered roof supports and the
option of terminating the contract should the auditor issue a negative report, the buyer
virtually eliminates the risk of supplying low-quality equipment, even at a low price.
Results:
Raspadskaya used this approach and was able to conduct a very effective tender for the
supply of powered roof supports, choosing the offer of one of the Chinese manufacturers and
receiving savings of about 20%, or €6 million ($6.8 million).
At the moment, the contract for the supply of powered roof supports is being successfully
executed, a positive conclusion has been obtained based on the results of load tests for
50,000 cycles in the independent TLO Opava laboratory and serial production is being carried
out under control of the Technical Audit company.
A Technical Audit employee carrying out UT
Testing of the powered roof support’s goaf
shield for Raspadskaya’s project
requirements. Namely: audit of design
documentation (including verification of the FEM
calculations), audit of the prototype powered
roof support production, cycle test audit of
prototype powered roof support, and audit of
serial production of the powered roof supports.
The contract with the selected supplier
should also include a condition that the buyer
hires a technical auditor who will audit all
stages of the contract execution. In cases that
come with a negative conclusion from the
auditor (non-compliance with the terms of the
contract in terms of the quality of manufacturing
equipment according to technical specifications
and standard EN1804) at any stage of execution
of the contract before shipment, the buyer is
entitled to cancel the contract and the supplier
will be obliged to return the advanced payment
and pay the buyer a penalty of 5-10% of the
contract value.
Raspadskaya held a tender using this
approach, which led to a 20% reduction in the
cost of purchasing the powered roof supports,
or about €6 million ($6.8 million). Currently, the
project for the delivery of powered roof supports
for the Uskovskaya mine is in the final stage –
serial production is carried out very successfully
under control of the Technical Audit company
and Raspadskaya is very satisfied with the
results.
It should also be noted that this approach can
be used when purchasing any expensive
equipment with a long service life.
If you would find this approach useful, and
would like to reliably improve the quality of your
equipment while also saving substantial costs,
please feel free to contact us.
Technical Audit Sp. z o.o.
ul. Stadionowa 10, 41-400 Mysłowice,
Poland
https://www.technicalaudit.pl
[email protected]
+ 48 661 522 521
APRIL 2020 | International Mining 9