Facilitating relationships.
Building trust.
Service for professional procurement.
Be better informed, make better decisions.
FPAL - Supporting the European
oil & gas industry
www.achilles.com
The supplier management community
supporting the European oil & gas
industry.
Operators and Contractors view their supply chain as an integral extension of their organisations,
and strive for a transparent and efficient collaboration with best in class suppliers. The Achilles FPAL
community helps to create business opportunities for suppliers in a collaborative, neutral environment
whilst ensuring compliance to industry standards and reducing risks across the supply chain for buying
organisations.
Achilles FPAL identifies, evaluates and pre-qualifies suppliers on
behalf of major buyers in oil & gas.
How can Achilles FPAL help your company?
Achilles FPAL publishes and monitors the accuracy of information
Established in 1996 by the UK oil & gas industry, FPAL was formed
provided in a supplier’s record in areas such as products and
following an industry initiative known as CRINE (Cost Reduction in
services, financial performance and HSE policy.
the New Era) which recommended the need for improved supply
chain efficiencies and development of a centralised system which
provides standardised information and reduce procurement costs
by 30%.
The Achilles FPAL community now serves the procurement needs
of the wider European oil & gas market, whilst maintaining firm
roots within North Sea operations with an industry based Steering
The Achilles FPAL Quality Checking process evaluates supplier
profiles and ensures that they include current and valid information
for buyers which saves time, resource and cost for all parties
involved.
Achilles FPAL offers buyers industry-specific supplier information
which is subject to assessment and site audit. This improves
Committee of Operators, Contractors and suppliers working in
industry performance and reduces risk within the supply chain.
collaboration to promote a fair and transparent supply chain.
Benefits:
As Achilles FPAL expands throughout Europe, Operators in the
• Sharing of information, audit and assessment costs
Netherlands have formed the Dutch Purchaser User Group (DPUG)
• An open and transparent supply chain
and developed an effective and collaborative approach towards
• Reduced administration of repetitive and duplicate
the use of Achilles FPAL within their own supply chains and this is
pre-qualification exercises
shared by a Common Policy Statement.
• Time, resource, and cost saving during the procurement cycle
• An ethical way to do business
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How do Suppliers participate?
Provision and update of registration information is the suppliers’
All suppliers are required to complete the basic registration
responsibility. Registration information which has not been updated
questionnaire but they can opt to participate more fully in Achilles
within a 15 month period will be highlighted on Achilles FPAL and
FPAL by engaging in Advanced Registration, Performance
“red flagged” as out-of-date.
Feedback and the Verify Assessment.
Suppliers also have access to services to evaluate their own
Basic Registration
performance and buyers have similar scoring mechanisms
Basic registration invites suppliers working in the oil & gas industry
to create an Achilles FPAL profile which is accessible to the
industry’s buyers through completion of an Online Registration
available to evaluate their supply chain. As part of this performance
evaluation, benchmarking facilities are available for all members of
the oil & gas community to assess performance against their peers.
Questionnaire.
Information provided by suppliers identifies their product and
service offering which is presented via a coding system and is
subject to the Achilles FPAL Quality Checking Process. A product
and service coding structure exists on Achilles FPAL to provide
a common directory assisting suppliers to effectively register on
the community and to allow buyers to conduct a system search.
In addition to the basic product codes search, Achilles FPAL
incorporates extensive search criteria using audit scores and
company specific information which enables buyers to identify
suppliers that match their exact requirements.
No. Buyers: Over 90
No. of Verify Buyers: Over 50
No. of Verify Suppliers: Over 600
No. Suppliers: Over 3,000
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Advanced Registration
How does it work?
Advanced Registration is an in-depth assessment of a suppliers’
• Suppliers complete the online Advanced Registration
capabilities, achieved by completion of an online and “desktop”
assessment that is tailored to a standard pre-qualification
submission and accepted by Achilles FPAL buyers.
Once completed, Advanced Registration negates the need for
repetitive and generic pre-qualification activity within the oil & gas
industry. The assessment is carried out across a maximum of 11 business
elements with the results recorded as an Advanced Registration
capability profile.
There is no pass, fail or overall single score as a result of the
assessment. The results of the scoring evaluation, together with the
supplier’s detailed answers and documented supporting evidence
are made available to all buyers to accelerate the decision making
process.
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questionnaire
• Achilles FPAL evaluates the submission and prepares an
Advanced Registration capability profile
• Profile is supported by a benchmark facility to help suppliers
understand their scores
• Results of the evaluation are available for supplier approval prior to
the data release, providing suppliers with the option to suppress
or display the results in full
• Assessments are published on Achilles FPAL for all buyers to
review. Advanced Registration is valid for two years, but should
be updated on a regular basis to reflect a supplier’s change in
circumstances
FPAL Verify
Buyer Benefits:
FPAL Verify is a supplier assessment that involves a two day visit to
• Provides reassurance to buyers that suppliers have been vetted
a nominated suppliers’ premises to audit Quality, Health & Safety,
Environment, Competence & Training practices.
The Health, Safety and Environmental sections of the Verify audit
are assessed in line with recognised industry standards, namely;
OGP & NORSOK. Verify operates largely on a nominations process where buyers
identify suppliers working in high risk environments and request that
an independent assessment of their capabilities is carried out by the
Achilles FPAL Assessment Services Team to help manage contract
risk.
In nominating suppliers to participate in Verify, buyers carry the
associated cost of the audit through an industry collaboration
independently and to recognised industry standards
• Reduces costs, resource and the administration of multiple
company specific audits
• Published Verify reports facilitate better decision-making and
accelerate the procurement process
• The scope of the Verify assessment is carefully aligned to meet oil
& gas industry standards and Achilles FPAL assessors are highly
experienced and independent
• Verify enables buyers to draw conclusions between audit results
and identify Suppliers who exceed expectations rather than
merely meet a minimum and certified standard
known as the Cross Industry Schedule (CIS). Verify is strictly
Supplier Benefits:
governed by the Verify Steering Committee that has both Achilles
• Reduces the burden of repetitive audits by replacing them with
FPAL buyers and supplier representation, and this ensures that
a single shared audit which is valid on a supplier profile for up to
there is a consistent approach to the audit.
two years
Conclusions from the audit and an individual supplier improvement
plan are shared on Achilles FPAL for all buyers that participate in the
• Demonstrates the commitment of suppliers to continually raise
standards through a documented Improvement Plan
Verify scheme.
• Reports and Improvement Plans enhance the quality of
FPAL Verify is not of relevance to all FPAL registered suppliers.
information displayed in a supplier’s record
The Verify assessment is more applicable to suppliers operating
in high risk environments and so for certain ‘high risk’ codes such
• In most cases, the assessment is free of charge to the supplier
as drilling, subsea and decommissioning, Verify has been made
mandatory.
FPAL Verify is specific to the needs of the oil & gas industry and
contributes towards raising industry standards whilst reducing
supply chain risk.
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Performance Feedback
Supplier benefits:
Performance Feedback is an industry standard tool used by buyers
• Performance Feedback provides an industry standard tool to
and suppliers to participate in a performance assessment during or
following a contract.
monitor customer satisfaction as requested by ISO:9001
• Profiles and benchmarking information can be used to carry
There are two main types of Performance Feedback reports:
out a gap analysis and identify areas for improved business
Supplier Performance and Buyer Performance.
performance
Supplier performance is scored on up to 15 elements, including
project management, documentation, planning and delivery, with
the quantified results summarised as an overall profile graph.
Performance Feedback in practice:
• Performance Feedback reporting is completed manually through
paper reports or an online submission facility
• Both buyers and suppliers should agree on the level of
performance achieved and use the guidance notes
• Reports are submitted to Achilles FPAL for data input once signed
and agreed by both parties
• Feedback is aggregated and displayed as a performance profile
graph
• Feedback is valid for a maximum of 5 years to allow suppliers to
build comprehensive scores
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• Graphs can be used for marketing purposes to promote high and
consistent positive feedback
Buyer benefits:
• Provides an objective track record of supplier performance
• Performance Feedback scores can be used as search criteria to
filter supplier profiles and develop tender shortlists
• Reverse feedback from suppliers encourages more cost-effective
procurement
How to join the Achilles FPAL community
NOTiCE
Visit www.achilles.com/FPAL and click on Join as a Buyer to
With thousands of opportunities published every year, NOTiCE
contact one of our Account Management team members or Join as
enables suppliers to be informed of relevant contract opportunities
a Supplier to start the application process to join the Achilles FPAL
in the UK and Europe as published in the Official Journal of the
community.
European Union (OJEU). NOTiCE gives you access to a database
in which you can search thousands of opportunities and gain
market intelligence on contracts relevant to your business that have
been awarded in the past or are currently open. The functionality
is available for the system to search for pre-defined contract types
that you have selected. Also, based on the product codes from
your questionnaire, NOTiCE will then send an email each day
to up to 10 recipients within your company, detailing the latest
opportunities across multiple industry sectors.
Supplier application process
Process
Suppliers
Application
Apply to join via the Achilles
Community website and
make annual subscription
payment
Data Submission
Complete online
questionnaire
Search
Buyers
Data validation of
questionnaire
Validation
Publish
Achilles
Successful
Registration.
Validation complete.
Supplier information
published
Access supplier data.
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First Point Assessment Limited
Unit 7, Burnbank Business Centre, Souterhead Road, Altens Industrial Estate, Aberdeen, AB12 3LF | T: +44 (0)1224 337500 | F: +44 (0)1224 3375544 | E: [email protected] | www.achilles.com
Achilles Information
Tauro Kantorencentrum, Europalaan 16, Unit 3.14, 2408 BG Alphen aan den Rijn, The Netherlands | T: +31 (0)172 769 080
F-S-807 03 13 R(5)