Scott Bissen, Sr. Director of the Supply Chain Management Center, gives opening remarks at the SCMC's recent supplier industry day.

 

Erik Woloszczuk, Program Analyst for the National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of Infrastructure gave an enterprise-level overview of the department's upcoming infrastructure needs.

Erik Woloszczuk, Program Analyst for the National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of Infrastructure gave an enterprise-level overview of the department's upcoming infrastructure needs.

Erik Woloszczuk, Program Analyst for the National Nuclear Security Administration's Office of Infrastructure gave an enterprise-level overview of the department's upcoming infrastructure needs.

 

Twenty-two of the Supply Chain Management center's architecture and engineering services suppliers participated in the event.

Twenty-two of the Supply Chain Management center's architecture and engineering services suppliers participated in the event.

Twenty-two of the Supply Chain Management center's architecture and engineering services suppliers participated in the event.

 

A panel of SCMC partner sites and agreement holders shared their experiences using the SCMC's architecture and engineering services agreements.

A panel of SCMC partner sites and agreement holders shared their experiences using the SCMC's architecture and engineering services agreements.

A panel of SCMC partner sites and agreement holders shared their experiences using the SCMC's architecture and engineering services agreements.

August 2023

 

The Department of Energy's (DOE) demand for infrastructure-related services has dramatically increased as existing buildings and facilities at DOE sites, plants, and labs continue to age over time. However, many locations are having a hard time getting construction-related firms to bid on projects.

 

The SCMC recently hosted a one-day event to bring together current SCMC architecture and engineering (A/E) services agreement holders with supply chain and facilities representatives from 25 SCMC partner sites. More than 130 people attended the SCMC’s Architecture and Engineering Services Supplier Industry Day, held on Aug. 23 at Fiorella’s Event Center in Overland Park, KS. The event featured educational sessions, one-on-one meetings between sites and suppliers, and ample opportunity for networking and relationship building.

 

“The theme of this event is ‘discovery’,” said Scott Bissen, Senior Director of the Supply Chain Management Center. In his opening remarks at Supplier Industry Day, he encouraged attendees to look for new and different ways to partner to solve the construction and infrastructure concerns currently being faced across the DOE enterprise.

 

“I challenge you to break out of your paradigm and meet some new potential suppliers,” he said. “As Department of Energy contractors, we spend taxpayer dollars to fund our mission. And there are people in this room who can help us find better, more efficient ways to use those dollars.”

 

Erik Woloszczuk, Program Analyst for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Infrastructure, gave an enterprise-level overview of the department’s upcoming infrastructure needs.

 

According to Woloszczuk, the NNSA estimates a total of $600 million in infrastructure-related spending in Fiscal Year 2024, all on projects valued under $30 million. “It’s no secret we have a lot of work to do,” he said. His team is focused on streamlining processes and improving relationships between sites and suppliers to ensure mutual success and ultimately deliver the infrastructure that our nation needs.

 

“It’s in venues like this, where we get our contracting folks together with our suppliers, that we are able to have the type of discussions needed to learn where the pain points are and how we can improve things,” said Woloszczuk. “In my office, we’re exploring ways to develop a better balance of risk sharing that helps get suppliers interested in working with us.”

 

Other ongoing NNSA initiatives focus around streamlining the design review process to improve response times, exploring modular construction to minimize site disruptions and mitigate local labor and supply chain issues, and leveraging existing architecture designs across the complex for like and near-like facilities at different sites.

 

The meeting featured an outstanding lineup of panel discussions designed to share best practices for utilizing the SCMC’s A/E services agreements. Robert Leuszler, SCMC Senior Manager of Commodities, and Pamela Diego, SCMC Commodity Manager for professional services, provided an overview of the available agreements and how to use them. The SCMC, a DOE program dedicated to providing supply chain solutions, has awarded shared commodity agreements to 28 architecture and engineering (A/E) service providers, including both large and small/disadvantaged businesses.

 

The audience then participated in a lively discussion on best practices and lessons learned featuring representatives from several sites who have been active, early adopters of the SCMC’s A/E agreements, and the suppliers they’ve worked with. A key theme of the discussion was the amount of time that is saved when using an SCMC agreement.

 

“SCMC agreements are so efficient on the front end,” said Millie MacMillan, a Subcontracts Manager with Sandia National Laboratories. “They easily shave 2-3 months off our normal timeline, which means the work on our site can begin much sooner. Without the SCMC, it can take us six months to a year.”  

 

Kurt Westerman, Senior Vice President of Sargent & Lundy, shared his experience receiving a “cold call” from a site he had never worked with before. “We were able to start work within 2-3 weeks,” thanks to the SCMC agreement they had in place, he said. “It allows the supplier to match the operational tempo of the sites. You hear people at the sites say, “minutes matter” right now, and without these SCMC agreements, we would not be able to match that timing.”

 

The afternoon was reserved for one-on-one meetings between sites and suppliers, which allowed them to talk in greater detail about future needs and business opportunities.