How poor data can cost Electrical Wholesalers dearly
As demand for more detailed product information grows, wholesalers are faced with the challenge of managing this additional information. Richard Appleton, Product Manager of AMTECH Group’s LUCKINSlive.com online information centre, suggests that a central data source serving the entire industry is the way forward.
This article was first published in the February 2011 issue of Electrical Wholesaler magazine.
In the current challenging and highly competitive economic conditions, electrical wholesalers are potentially faced with a double challenge. On the one hand you need to ensure you deliver value for money to your contractor customers, possibly at reduced margins. On the other hand, you need to maintain your own profitability and ensure you are in a strong position to take advantage of economic recovery.
In this scenario, every activity within the business needs to be fine-tuned to maximum efficiency – from the ways that orders are processed through to stock management. Yet there is currently considerable waste in some areas of many wholesaling businesses – not least in the waste that arises from dealing with poor data throughout the supply chain.
This isn’t a new problem, of course. And it’s true to say that the core data of product descriptions and trade prices is now more extensive and easier to share efficiently between contractors and wholesalers than ever before. However, there is increasing demand for additional product data – over and above prices and descriptions – that can be difficult and time-consuming to access. So, as an industry, we now need to look at ways of managing this additional data and making it easily accessible.
Specification writing for health specific building specifications
Ian Elmer, Technical Services Manager, AMTECH Group presented a paper at the IHEEM Conference in 2009 entitled: Health-Specific Building Services Specifications Utilising New Technology – The Way Forward.
The Department of Health Estates and Facilities division produces guidance for NHS organisations and individuals with an interest in land, property, equipment and facilities. This information can be used to support the effective management and utilisation of healthcare facilities and equipment and procurement of new buildings.
Historically The Model Engineering Specification (MES) was used to define standards for building services for NHS projects. The basic concept of the Model Engineering Specification was the provision of a set of documents which could be used to specify particular engineering applications found in NHS properties. The documents were intended to be quoted in contract documents in the same way that British and European standards are quoted. However, the MES document has not been revised periodically over the years and is not currently archived as a working document:
Although it is clear that the specific healthcare-based engineering elements covered in the old MES documents need reviewing and updating, it is not the intention to reproduce the Model Engineering Specification in its previous hard-copy format. The Department of Health favour an ‘electronic’ approach to providing the new healthcare specific building services data. Once completed, the new data will be available in two formats, either:
Provide the healthcare specific clauses as an ‘add-on’ facility to an existing specification writing software application to ensure that healthcare projects produced are healthcare compatible and compliant, or
Provide an electronic ‘reference only’ version of the healthcare information, which NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts in England could view as a separate entity.
Ians paper takes this proposal and discusses an electronic solution using ‘off the shelf’ software packages.
The slides of his presentation can be viewed here (click below)
What drives a green specification
Ian Elmer, Technical Services Manager of AMTECH Group chaired the CIBSE Green Specification Event in London in 2010.
Ian also gave a very interesting talk on – “What drives a green specification”. If you did not manage to attend the event you can download Ian’s presentation here.
Amendment 1 Diary (June)
This is the second post of a series looking at the first amendment to the 17th Edition wiring regulations. This was also published in the June issue of the Electrical Times magazine
CENELEC (Committee European Normalisation Electro-technique) is responsible for the European standardization in the area of electrical engineering. Any changes to these standards that affect Great Britain must be reflected in our regulations. These changes are usually in the form of Harmonized Documents (HD). The requirements of BS 7671 are founded on the requirements of a set of documents identified as HD 60364.
The joint committee for low voltage installations is identified as JPEL/64 (Joint committee for Power Electrical.) The 64 denotes the International Electro-Technical Commissions committee for low voltages designation Read More…
Amendment 1 Diary (May)
This is the first post of a series looking at the first amendment to the 17th Edition wiring regulations. This was also published in the May issue if the Electrical Times magazine in the form of a diary to help readers keep up to date with the changes made to the 17th Edition regulations by the Amendment.
George Murphy of AMTECH Power Software sets the scene for the anticipated changes.
In July of this year the first amendment to 17th Edition Wiring Regulations, BS 7671, is due to be published. Over the next few months we will be looking at what this means for electrical designers and installers. In this first instalment, we will summarise the key points that you need to be aware of.
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