BASF helps its customers to be more successful through intelligent system solutions and high-quality products. Through new technologies customers can tap into additional market opportunities. The product range to make this possible is extremely broad from chemicals, industrial gases to cosmetic products and catalytic converters. A common theme for all products is a well controlled and high quality production processes.
In turn, BASF needs suppliers that understand the need for process control and has developed a sourcing strategy to ensure this in temporary power and temperature control rental. The 2010 sourcing exercise resulted in Energyst winning the status of strategic partner for the main BASF productions sites in Ludwigshafen, Germany and Antwerp, Belgium. Ludwigshafen is the biggest BASF site worldwide and the corporate headquarters.
How do they source?
There was an intensive tender process which started in September 2009 when prospective suppliers were invited to BASF in Antwerp to present their respective companies. The criteria of BASF were carefully chosen and weighted on three aspects: Technical performance, commercial and quality of service level.
Energyst was well known to BASF as the existing supplier at Antwerp since 2005. Though winning the Ludwigshafen site would dramatically increase the scale of supply .
The bid process
At each site BASF made a detailed demand analysis for temporary energy units based on past experience. Of critical importance though for chemical processes is the offer for temperature control that Energyst provides with its equipment.
As a Caterpillar group company, Energyst has a fleet of Caterpillar generators with some of the latest and best engine technology in the world. Confidence in this part of the offer may naturally have been high.
There was a lot of joint work done to ensure that Energyst could provide exactly the right chilling equipment, which for BASF meant some much lower temperatures and higher efficiencies than usual. There needed to be a specific investment in water-cooled chillers that Energyst was happy to make.
The Energyst team was led by Frank de Koning the regional general manager, who realised the work required “a bid process at this level requires a lot of work and cannot be done half-heartedly but I knew that with the team we have in Energyst I would never lack support. With the quality and spirit of the people of Energyst we can build a long lasting and sustainable cooperation.”
The Result
A successful, serious, long partnership is never concluded in five minutes and it was seven months after the first meetings that BASF put ink on paper. This means that BASF and Energyst have signed a three-year contract with a possible extension of another two years for the supply of temporary energy and cooling units.
Where are we now?
Within days the first 100kW heatpump was delivered to Ludwigshafen and the Energyst engineers got to work. The final details of the new energy efficient water cooled chillers were agreed between Energyst and and its supplier.
Frank de Koning has seen this follow-up on sales before. “It’s inspiring to see how willing my operations team is to get on with the job once we’ve signed a contract. It is now that we can show the real added value of Energyst, bringing a contract to life and making it work.”
What does this mean for other potential customers?
Frank de Koning feels Energyst has gained from the experience, “Energyst is committed to differentiating itself from the competition with a solutions approach. Perhaps BASF has been the most demanding customer to date enabling us to increase our skills. Skills which we can apply to other complex process industries.”