Requirements Document

It is written in mandatory language and it is rarely about the headline equipment. The bulk of a requirements document covers controls architecture, safety standards, preferred component brands, documentation deliverables, spare parts, training, acceptance testing and warranty. Each of those is cost, none of them appears on a layout, and a quote built from drawings alone misses all of it.

The preferred-brand clauses deserve particular attention, because they override supplier standards quietly. A customer that mandates a specific controls platform, drive manufacturer or safety component has changed the bill of materials regardless of what the supplier normally fits, and sometimes changed lead times with it. These clauses are usually short, buried, and expensive to discover late.

For quoting, the practical approach is to read the requirements document before the drawings. The drawings tell you what to build; the requirements document tells you what it will cost to build it their way rather than yours. Where the document runs to fifty pages and only a handful of clauses bind the equipment being quoted, finding those clauses is the job, and it is the part that consumes the hours.

Where the unpriced cost usually hides

• Preferred brands: mandated controls, drives or safety components that override supplier standards.
• Documentation: manuals, as-builts, schematics in a specified format. Real hours, rarely estimated.
• Spares: a commissioning spares list, sometimes a two-year holding. Priced as a lump and frequently forgotten.
• Training: operator and maintenance training, specified in days and delivered at the customer's site.
• Acceptance: the runoff and rate-trial regime, including who pays for a repeat.
• Warranty: duration, and critically what event starts it.