Global supply and manufacturing sourcing
Offshore supply saves money on the invoice and spends some of it on risk. Both are real. The question is the balance on this product, on this job.
The problem
Direct sourcing of manufactured building product looks straightforward until something arrives that does not comply. Then the cost is not the price difference. It is a shipment that cannot be installed, a programme that has no float left, and a supplier in another jurisdiction with no practical exposure to an Australian claim.
Non-conforming building product has been a live issue in Australian construction for years. Australian standards, National Construction Code compliance and certification requirements are not optional and are not automatically satisfied by a supplier's own documentation.
How this works
Supplier identification and assessment, specification written so that compliance is a contractual obligation rather than an assumption, inspection at the point of manufacture rather than on arrival, and logistics planned against the construction programme rather than against the shipping schedule.
The most useful output is sometimes the recommendation not to source a particular item offshore. Where the compliance risk or the programme exposure outweighs the saving, that is the advice.
A note on fit
This service line sits differently from the rest of the practice. The buyer is often a manufacturer or a supplier rather than a contractor, and the work is procurement rather than contract administration. It is listed here because the underlying judgement is the same: knowing what goes wrong, and pricing that before committing.
What you get
- Supplier identification, assessment and qualification
- Technical specification written to Australian standards and NCC requirements
- Pre-shipment inspection and quality assurance regime
- Supply agreement and Incoterms review
- Landed cost analysis including compliance, certification and contingency
- Logistics planning aligned to the construction programme
Call when
- You are considering direct offshore supply and have not costed the compliance risk.
- A shipment has arrived and you are not certain it conforms.
- You want a landed cost you can actually rely on before committing.