A position paper for a Central Procurement Organization for the nuclear power industry

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% reduction in total procurement, engineering qualification, warehousing, and distribution cost. Three (3) areas define a CPO success criteria: (1) Lean, credible, and cost-effective issues discussed include facility cost, operational cost, staff expertise, product priorities, warehousing, and distribution; (2) Common technical, commercial, and quality requirement issues discussed include current industry practices and proposed future methodologies, and (3) Financial survivability issues which are the most critical since the CPO must exist during changing internal and external utility environments. Areas discussed are financial return criteria, liabilities, and survivability in the competitive marketplace. Alternative implementation of CPO structures, consisting of utility groups, a single utility, and/or partnering with commercial firms, are discussed considering the current industry environment.