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Great news – the construction industry is brimming with complex concrete tenders. This means that there is a wide range of construction contracts, suitable for both small and large organisations.
Additionally, the concrete industry is rapidly evolving. Buyers and suppliers must consider innovations, sustainable growth and their supply chains.
Possibilities include:
The list really does go on. The concrete industry is rapidly expanding, and with that – tendering opportunities.
Broadly speaking, public sector buyers will advertise more framework tenders than private sector buyers. That does not mean to say that the public sector is short of single contract concrete tenders. Quite the opposite. Concrete tenders remain a high demand service provision across the changing urban landscape.
On any concrete tenders project, you may be required to work with a range of other contractors. For example, architects, quantity surveyors, and other material suppliers.
Working with other stakeholders, you must be able to demonstrate your ability to collaborate, manage contracts, and create mobilisation plans which will effectively deliver the work.
Familiarity with CDM 2015 is also essential for many concrete construction projects. More formally named the Construction (Design and Management) Regulations 2015, contractors must now create a construction plan. Dependent on the scale of work involved, contractors may also need to inform relevant regulatory bodies, like HSE.
For large-scale tenders, a principal contractor will be assigned to the contract. Their responsibility is to effectively manage a project’s construction phase, ensuring it is streamlined, organised and compliant with legislation.
Other projects may require you to be familiar with a JCT contract in a non-principal contractor capacity. Familiarity with CDM regulations and JCT contracts are therefore essential in the concrete tendering process. It may sound obvious, but If you have JCT contract experience, your case studies are invaluable here.
It’s worth building up a bank of your key experience. A useful approach here could be to spend time creating a JCT experience spreadsheet. This could detail aspects including:
This spreadsheet will support your case study development. It will also enable you to quickly gather all contract facts and figures from one place. The spreadsheet approach can save you time and reduce the number of back-and-forth emails between colleagues.
An understanding of Building Information Modelling (BIM) can be beneficial on some concrete tenders. This is because BIM facilitates better information sharing and data between parties involved in a project’s design and construction. Therefore, if you choose to tender as a concrete manufacturer, having product data sheets ready can be beneficial.
This data can be used to support BIM processes. Additionally, some buyers may require BIM as a specification requirement. Contributing to BIM data will also help deliver more effective sustainable processes during construction design. Therefore, the benefits of BIM to concrete tenders are:
Concrete is heavily linked to carbon, sustainability, and responsible sourcing processes. Within the tendering process, buyers may request concrete-specific standards and codes. These codes are standards for thermal performance, environmental impact, reinforcements, aggregates and more.
As a supplier, you should be familiar with standards and codes such as:
The above list is dependent on the type of service and material supplied. The key point here is ensure that your organisation is fully up-to-date with industry requirements. Not only this – you must be able to demonstrate these requirements.
You can do this through evidence, case studies, sample documents, training records, and similar. As a golden rule, the more specific and relevant your evidence is, the better.
The PAS 91 is often essential to complete in construction bids. It is a standardised pre-qualification questionnaire for the construction industry. The PAS 91 is a comprehensive questionnaire which requests supplier information about:
Whilst the PAS 91 is a very rigorous questionnaire, it does offer exemptions if you have specific accreditations. This is because those accreditations already demonstrate you have the required criteria. Certifications and memberships that may gain you an exemption to certain PAS 91 question responses include:
That is not to say that having these accreditations are essential to completing a PAS 91 questionnaire. It does however make the process a lot simpler! The reason is that these certifications save time and effort during the sometimes complex tendering process.
Bigger organisations who tender frequently would benefit from having these accreditations in place. Or, to be working towards accreditation.
There is a lot of cost, time and planning involved in becoming accredited. Smaller organisations must weigh up the benefits of each accreditation to the type of work they will tender for. Broadly speaking, having any level of ISO Quality Management Accreditation will benefit your organisation and the concrete tendering process.
The reason is that health and safety, quality and environmental quality management systems are organisation-wide processes. They demonstrate that you have processes, procedures and systems in place to consistently deliver a standard. These accreditations will enable you to discuss persuasively why your organisation is best placed to deliver concrete tenders.
To prepare for ISO accreditation requires a thorough review (and sometimes upheaval) of organisational processes. Careful consideration must be given to the end goal. This means not only thinking about accreditation but also that planning must be projected forward to maintaining those ISO management systems. This can be through people, planning, policies, training, company ethos, and documentation, for example.
As with any construction project, health and safety is absolutely paramount. When preparing concrete tenders, due consideration should be given to risk assessments, COSHH, RIDDOR and PPE.
Companies are now expected to manage coronavirus risk. These essentially come down to managing risk in various capacities. The key points here are to identify, assess and control risks. Essential to this process is to document your findings and propose mitigation strategies.
How can we help you with your next concrete tender? Contact us today to find out more. We offer a full range of service which can improve your organisation’s potential.
At Hudson, we also provide a dedicated portal, Construction Tenders. On this portal, you can find the most relevant construction leads and up-to-date concrete tenders across the UK and further afield.
Signing up, you will receive the following benefits which will support your tendering efforts:
Sign up to Construction Tenders today and receive a daily bulletin straight to your inbox, containing all relevant small construction tenders uploaded that day.
Concrete Survey
NHS South West – Acutes- South West- Budget: £70,000
Contractor Services for Steel and Concrete Repairs for Kingsway Fan Grill Replacement and Associated Works
Merseytravel- North West- Budget: Undisclosed
Framework Agreement for the Supply of Ready Mixed Concrete
City & County of Swansea- Wales- Budget: Undisclosed
Kirkby Wharfe New – Concrete Saddle
North Yorkshire County Council- Yorkshire and Humber- Budget: Undisclosed
Pre-cast Concrete L-Shape Retaining Walls
SCS JV- London- Budget: £2,500,000
The construction industry has a wide range of Concrete Tenders on offer. If you need support in your tendering efforts, contact us today.