Representatives of Robinson Steel Company and SpaceGuard Products worked together to collectively supply wire mesh caging to the Marine Coatings and Corrosion Facility within the Naval Surface Warfare Center in Philadelphia. Three new caged areas were required to be built starting with some existing cage material on site.
The customer required materials to be sold on SpaceGuard’s GSA Schedule, GS-07F-9907H to ensure the most competitive price available using pre-negotiated terms with US General Services Administration.
To comply, SpaceGuard and Robinson Steel developed a comprehensive design that incorporated all standard sized (and therefore stocked) materials allowing the bid to qualify for GSA pricing, absent of any open market items.
Robinson Steel’s proximity to the customer allowed for field verification which ended up saving both parties. There were several building columns and a plate on the floor that would have been impacted by the initial design. SpaceGuard’s engineers revised the drawings to account for these issues before RSC submitted the bid.
“The SpaceGuard team offers the best solution for my customer’s needs and always provides us with layouts we can use with our quotes,” commented Zielger when asked about working with SpaceGuard, “this makes the sale a little easier and allows the customer to see these solutions in a professional drawing.”
It was also determined during that same site visit that delivery via truckload would have caused several problems because. The material was instead delivered to Robinson Steel’s local warehouse, broken down, and hand delivered to the site by its installers.
“There is nothing quite as important as having a local presence on these jobs as there so often are details that aren’t captured on prints or written requests. And in some cases, (like the NSWC project), having local warehousing space can make the difference between a good and rocky start to an installation,” commented Eddie, President of SpaceGuard Products.
Once field verified and revisions completed, the order was processed through the Federal procurement system with shipments and invoicing tracked through the Wide Area Work Flow (WAWF) information system.
Materials were successfully delivered and installed by Robinson Steel’s installation team, and SpaceGuard promptly processed payment for installation plus distributor commissions.
In the three months since this first successful installation, Robinson Steel and SpaceGuard have been called back out to quote three other projects in various facilities within the NSWC Philadelphia.