“Can you subcontract your responsibilities?” Industrial partnerships in power generation-a supplier´s view

The ever increasingly competitive and changing nature of the power supply industry has caused many operators to review their current operational arrangements with regard to contracting goods and services from the supply industry. This has caused, in certain cases, a radical shift in their policy away from the traditional methods of simplex contract procurement on an `arm´s length´ basis, to the adoption of longer term strategic alliances with key contractors in the form of partnerships. Such partnerships are seen to provide unique benefits to the operation of their business, whilst providing a long-term environment of commitment and continuous improvement resulting in security of business operation. The UK power generation market is internationally recognised to be amongst the most commercially competitive in the world today. Siemens has developed, and implemented within this market, such a partnership arrangement with one of the leading UK generators. This has proven to be a great success for both partners and acts as a lead example of this new contracting concept in the industry. This paper introduces and discusses the environment for partnerships to succeed, the needs and wants analysis to be undertaken, the commitments and the process involved and the potential benefits to the partners of such arrangements