Story of a Building Seminar, November 2017 (West Bridgewater, MA)
Building Your School from the Inside Out: Best Practices in School Furniture Planning, Selection and Procurement
Cost Saving Strategies from Product Vendors and Manufacturers
Next, the audience learned from a representative of Red Thread, a school furniture vendor and two manufacturers’ representatives, KI and Virco ,about why a more simplified bid process (State Contract, MHEC Contract etc.) or more simplified bid specifications (formal M.G.L. c.30B process) yield more competitive pricing. They also shared tips on cost saving strategies.
Key Takeaways
- If you find a manufacturer that has chairs and desks that meet your requirements, look at other furniture in that manufacturer’s same line (mobile storage units, teacher lecterns, breakout space furniture etc.) to maximize discounting. If you are purchasing from the MA State Contract, and you are in the upper tiers of over the highest tier, as for a better price. Many factories would gladly offer lower prices to secure the business.
- Don’t limit yourself to only suggestions from your consultant, many interior design professionals offer multiple options but some consultants may continually work with one manufacturer. Do your own research and make sure you are getting a range of options by visiting other schools, visiting local showrooms, independently reaching out to vendors, manufacturers.
- Request samples of each product that you like. For example, once you have decided on the furniture you want, request a mockup classroom. Manufacturers will deliver at modest rates.
- Know your budget. In the early stages of furniture planning this can seem like a daunting task. Here are a couple ways to get an idea of pricing:
- If you are working with a consultant, ask for a price of a typical classroom, cafeteria, media lab, breakout space etc. This is a good jumping off point.
- Vendors and manufacturers offer design services as part of the MA State Contract (or other “collective” contracts) and may have typical layouts that they can price for budget purposes.
We heard from the Inspector General at the Story of a Building program about the value of combining purchases to save money. Increasing the volume of a purchase may lower the unit cost of the item being purchased. Imagine combining your large classroom furniture order with another school’s large classroom furniture order for the same product line. This jumbo order incentivizes the manufacturer of the product line to sharpen its’ pencil for a potential price discount. That result would work to further stretch the FF&E budgets of the participating schools.
A “Look Book” concept for cost saving was shared by Jacqueline McGuire from KI Manufacturing. That is, a classroom outfitted with one manufacturer’s products. Here, a manufacturer offers furniture layouts of its own product lines for several classroom configurations priced in ranges of good, better and best. If you like the style and quality of a particular furniture manufacturer, using this strategy is often a way to afford top quality product lines. This is also an easy starting point for considering a collaborative purchase of furniture with another school district(s). We heard from this panel that increasing the volume of a furniture order may reduce the unit price of items; and combining orders of two or more school districts (collaboration) is one method to increase volume.
If you are using a formal bid process, it is important to create a simple, straight forward bid specification. Your specification should pinpoint functionality or other non-negotiable requirements (ANSI/BIFMA Tested, GreenGuard indoor air quality, USA-made, warranty) that you expect from the product specified. This will garner competitive responses from products of the same quality and, not, responses from just any “like” product. If a bid specification is too general, expect bid submittals from products that do not constitute the same quality/function level as the item you have specified.
If using “or equal” language in your specification, determine and write out in the specification what your criteria is for judging an item as “equal” to the item named in your specification. Determine upfront which product line items would qualify as equal to the one specified. (If a chair is 30% less in cost than the chair you have specified, it is most likely not “equal” to the one specified.) Panelists advised to be sure not to allow use of the bid process as the sole way to true-up the FF&E budget. Otherwise, all your hard work to determine preferences will be jeopardized.
The Story of a Building packet of materials included a PowerPoint presentation from the Office of the Inspector General on certain M.G.L. c.30B bidding information. The information included: the Proper Use of Proprietary Specifications, Communication with Vendors, the Rule for Award and tips for other sound bidding practices. The presentation, “Office of Inspector General Bidding Tips” is included below.
Collective contracts that you may buy from without using a formal bid process often authorize school furniture vendors to provide related services. For example, MA State contract, OFF 38 Category 9 vendor services include interior design (space planning), warehousing and installation. The Panel members indicated that these considerations may be important when determining to whom to do business.
