Jr. Hendricks, A POSITION PAPER FOR A CENTRAL PROCUREMENT ORGANIZATION FOR THE NUCLEAR-POWER INDUSTRY, IEEE transactions on nuclear science, 43(3), 1996, pp. 1894-1898
This paper integrates the results of numerous nuclear utility industry
meetings with commercial business practices. The Central Procurement
Organization (CPO) is designed to achieve an immediate 30%-50% reducti
on in total procurement, engineering qualification, warehousing, and d
istribution cost. Three (3) areas define a CPO success criteria: {1} L
ean, credible, and cost-effective issues discussed include facility co
st, operational cost, staff expertise, product priorities, warehousing
, and distribution, {2} Common technical, commercial, and quality requ
irement issues discussed include current industry practices and propos
ed future methodologies, and {3} Financial survivability issues which
are the most critical since the CPO must exist during changing interna
l and external utility environments. Areas discussed are financial ret
urn criteria, liabilities, and survivability in the competitive market
place. Alternative implementation of CPO structures, consisting of uti
lity groups, a single utility, and/or partnering with commercial firms
, are discussed considering the current industry environment.