Specifications development is mainly influenced by users within an organisation, they determine the attributes of what is suitable to achieve the desired goals. Personal desires can be prioritised at the expense of organisational objectives. There is a danger to favour a product the user wants that might not achieve the desired organisational objectives during the specifications formulation stage.
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The problem is compounded by the fact that the buyers coordinate the design of specifications that require technical skills that they do not possess. Procurement professionals to be successful, must make an effort to appreciate the business and its related processes to effectively guide the design of specifications.
The specifications in the private sector must address the business requirements both technically and economically. They must be neutral specifications that satisfy the principles of value for money, transparency, equal opportunity and equal treatment of suppliers in the public sector. The risk in specifications designing could be that the specifications may be narrow; they may be inappropriate; they may be biased; and specifications may be inadequate. The consequences are the same, wrong products or expensive solutions are acquired at the detriment of competitiveness.
Narrow definition of requirements is identified by the use of brand names as a means of defining requirements when other methods of specifying are available. The use of brand names as a means to define a product results in the limitation of alternative solutions to the organisation. It literary leads to one suitable solution from the market. By limiting alternatives, the most suitable solution may not be considered and this inevitably increases costs to the organisation.
Definition of inappropriate product or service may be deliberate or by error. The result in both instances is that the need is not satisfied. In the process of rectifying the matter, time is lost, costs are increased as the right items are procured to replace the wrong purchase made, and production downtime is inevitable when the error is corrected.
Biased specifications are similar to use of brand names only that the brand is not specified, but the product attributes are described in line with the required brand. This includes the specification of inputs, architecture and finish that ordinarily differ from patent to patent. The effects are similar with the use of brand names too in that they limit variety and sufficiency of responses. In public procurement, use of brand names and biased specifications bring claims for unfair dealing with capacity to disrupt the whole procurement cycle to the detriment of service delivery.
Inadequate statement of requirements could be by error or deliberate. Encapsulation of necessary details of requirements results in suppliers failing to offer appropriate solutions and may lead to insufficient responses in cases were the market is totally confused. It leads to one supplier meeting requirements if the encapsulation was deliberate. If it was not deliberate, the evaluation process of highly technical requirements becomes very difficult.
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The solution to this problem is to define requirements in terms of output required or the expected function or the minimum performance required. Input specifications ignore the fundamentals that different patents have different inputs, while they may all achieve the same objectives. Some organisations found the use of committees to design and review specifications as the solution to this risk. Committees are able to verify that specifications are consistent with the organisational needs. For the committees to be effective, they must have the market knowledge. International and national standards can be used to ensure that the organisation is not unnecessarily misdirected to an individual preference. Where the organisation lacks technical expertise to formulate adequate specifications, there is an option to request for information to formulate specifications and care needs to be taken to guard against infringing intellectual property rights in the process.
Nyasha Chizu is a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply writing in his personal capacity. Feedback: [email protected] Skype: Nyasha.chizu
