The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority

An audience of 450 representatives braved inclement weather on Monday 21st November to attend a Nuclear Supply chain conference where they heard key messages from across the NDA estate.

This first estate-wide national event was the direct result of supply chain feedback, said NDA's Head of Supply Chain Optimisation Ron Gorham. "We've been hearing consistent messages that our suppliers were looking for an authoritative event where real announcements were made by senior leaders from across our industry, and that's precisely what they got."

Presentations were given on: the National Programme by the NDA's Delivery Director Mark Lesinski, which aims to deliver national solutions to national problems, and the Collaborative Procurement Programme by Magnox's Commercial Director Peter Walkden, which currently covers some 60 different activities totalling some £2.2 billion. A key aspect was a range of new initiatives across the NDA estate aimed at increasing support for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), announced by Sellafield's Commercial Director Keith Case.

The initiatives include:

• A single estate-wide portal which Tier 2 contractors will be encouraged to use to advertise their work alongside that of the SLCs.
• A simplified generic Pre-Qualification Questionnaire which should be capable of being maintained by the Supply Chain to avoid the costly activity of responding to numerous requests for similar information.

NDA's Commercial Director Sean Balmer then announced the simplification and standardisation of NDA's own contract flow-down conditions which will be formally released from January 2012.

The morning session also heard from NDA's Business Planning Director John Clarke and the CEO Tony Fountain, who each highlighted the importance of the supply chain to NDA's mission.  Via videolink, Lord Marland, the DECC Minister responsible for the NDA, also set the wider HMG challenge.

Two case studies were presented by supply chain companies: Costain with their Tier 3 partner Harry Peers Steelwork and Interserve with their Tier 3 partner Cara Construction.  All outlined the challenges and benefits of working in the NDA estate.

The afternoon session was dominated by a Meet the Buyer event where 25 Tier 2s met representatives from the SME community to share opportunities and increase transparency. Supply chain professionals from across the NDA estate also shared their procurement plans and took the audience through the systems and processes used to advertise and award contracts.