Challenges in procurement of engineering services in project business

In plant construction business engineering has an outstanding influence on project success. Thereby, a plant is usually provided by a general contractor as turnkey solution. However, to win these projects, the general contractor is depending on external engineering service providers. The reasons are e.g. missing expertise in non-core-competence activities, lack of staff or too high costs of internal personnel. Thus, specialized companies are offering engineering services. But purchasing and engineering services is a challenge, because there are many stakeholders with different goals. This paper analyzes the main characteristics and challenges in purchasing of engineering services. It is shown, that especially the description of the engineering demand is a key element. The contract design and the service execution are based on the specification of the demand. But due to time pressure and established structures the accuracy of specifications and with that the contract design is neglected more and more.