A Case Study of a Best Value Manufacturer

Authors: Dean Kashiwagi, Jake Smithwick, Jacob Kashiwagi, and Kenneth Sullivan

 

This is a case study of a construction product manufacturer’s effort to become a profitable
manufacturer of roofing systems while providing a best value product to the client (best
performance at the lowest cost.) The manufacturer was attempting to become successful with
product performance in an industry where low performance of competing products brought a
perceived high risk of nonperformance from clients. The manufacturer’s efforts included
documentation of performance of the installed product, creating a risk management process,
testing the risk management process and creating a supply chain structure which minimized the risk of both the manufacturer and the client. The key component of a best value manufacturer is the identification of the true buyer of their materials is the owner of the facility which buys their product and not the contractors. This paper documents the transformation, the risk management approach, and the problems encountered in the transformation. This paper shows how the manufacturer documented its product performance, created a performance based contractor system, and utilized a risk management process (the Performance Information Risk Management System or PIRMS).

Keywords: Coatings, Roofing, Waterproofing, Best Value, High Performance, Neogard