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June 2021 / 37 HOW TO WORK WITH EQUIPMENT VENDORS — PART I Project engineers are often asked to select vendors and work with them to install new equipment. These projects can have a long-lasting impact on the success of the company and the engineer's career. This two-part article describes how to success- fully work with an equipment supplier. Part I of this article provides suggestions, along with dos and don'ts, to help make choos- ing and working with a vendor successful. Part II, which will appear in the July issue of PBE, explains the necessary project services that go along with building your system and describes how to choose a vendor. Todd Smith, K-State Bulk Solids Innovation Center equipment differently than they will if you're trying to maximize throughput. Your goals should be realistic. One experienced project engineer told me, "You have to decide between speed, low cost, or high quality. Choose any one or two because we can't do all three in the same project." Accordingly, like most engineering work, the project decisions will be a set of compromises — you have to choose which parameters are critical and which ones can be compromised. Establish and understand the project constraints. Is there a realistic budget and timeline? Don't forget other factors such as material quality specifications, environmental regulation compliance or permitting requirements, noise level limits, and personnel safety. Alternately, you may have physical plant restrictions, such as head-height or floor-space limits, or you may need to squeeze new equipment through doorways or between other equipment. Regarding project timing, you may be locked into a specific shutdown time or seasonal slowdown. You need to understand and list all of these constraints, then share the information with your vendor. Detailed spec or loose spec? You'll need to decide whether to dictate all the project details in a specification (spec) or leave much of it up to the vendor. You always need to provide basic informa- tion, so consider all the points listed in the sidebar titled "List of information your vendor will need." But how much information you dictate beyond that will have a large impact on the rest of the project and its cost. Detailed specs are good if you know exactly what you want and you want all vendors to bid it the same way. Dictating details will be easier if you're experi- enced, you understand how the process will operate, and you know what type of equipment you want. Specs are also important if the process is complicated and the F inding an equipment vendor for your powder and bulk solids application isn't as simple as finding a car salesperson to help you purchase a new car. Material handling and processing systems are complex and can be even more so depending on the material involved. There are a number of factors to con- sider when selecting an equipment vendor, including your project's goals, your material's properties, the ven- dor's proven experience, and other project services you may need. This article will address these factors and provide a number of guidelines to help you purchase equipment from the best supplier. Why is this important? Making a capital equipment purchase is a big invest- ment and commitment. In addition to the up-front cost, the decision can affect the company's performance for many years to come and impact product quality, sys- tem reliability, and operating costs. Furthermore, it'll directly affect your quality of life: a system that per- forms well will make you look good and let you move on to other projects. In contrast, equipment or a system that performs poorly will keep you involved until it performs better. Working with poorly operating equip- ment makes everyone unhappy, so it's worth your while to invest effort up front to avoid issues. Before you begin talking to vendors When starting any project, you should first clarify the goals. Why are you doing this project? What do you want to achieve? Are you making old equipment more reliable or expanding your capacity? Other possible goals include improving product quality, lowering energy or operating costs, or reducing emis- sions. For the best results, share this information with your vendor — if your goal is to improve flexibility with quick material changeovers, they'll design the