What is technical bid evaluation?
Technical bid evaluation is the buyer's structured check of whether each offer meets the technical requirements of a tender. In engineered-equipment purchasing, the buyer is usually an EPC contractor or an owner-operator, and the documents are a material requisition, a project specification, owner standards, datasheets and any addenda.
A published EPC procedure describes the evaluator's job well: check each vendor quote against the correct requisition issue and its reference documents, review the technical details, the vendor's QA/QC manual and its deviations and exclusions, then produce clarification requests, a list of unacceptable deviations and a technical bid comparison sheet (Red Bag CM-PE-510).
For the manufacturer, the most important input to TBE is your own technical deviation list. It tells the evaluator where to look.
Who will evaluate the technical bids?
| Role | What they do in TBE |
|---|---|
| Evaluator (discipline engineer) | Reviews the technical part of each quotation, prepares clarification requests, lists unacceptable deviations, updates the technical bid comparison and decides technical acceptability. |
| Lead specialist engineer | Responsible for the technical evaluation of vendor quotations in the discipline. |
| Discipline specialists | Evaluate their own item types, for example mechanical, electrical, control systems or vessels. |
| Project buyer | Issues the clarification requests to vendors, asks for revised bids where deviations are unacceptable and chairs pre-award meetings. |
| Project manager | Has overall responsibility for the technical and commercial evaluation and for vendor selection. |
These roles are taken from the published Red Bag procedure (CM-PE-510); titles vary by company. On public and state-owned tenders, a formal technical evaluation committee often scores the bids instead.
What are the three main stages of bid evaluation?
| Stage | Question it answers | What the manufacturer controls |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Responsiveness check | Is the bid complete, on time and on the right forms? | Every mandatory document, signed forms, priced and unpriced copies that match. |
| 2. Technical evaluation (TBE) | Does the offer meet the specification, and are the deviations acceptable? | A clear deviation list, cited clauses, datasheets and qualification evidence. |
| 3. Commercial evaluation | Which technically acceptable bid gives the best value? | Price, cost of withdrawal for each deviation, delivery and terms. |
This three-stage split is a simplification; each buyer's procedure sets its own steps. In the Red Bag procedure, for example, purchasing preselects quotations on a commercial basis while the technical evaluation runs as a separate process. The order still matters, because some owners stop at stage 1 or 2. OGDCL, a Pakistani operator, uses a 70-point technical pass mark and rules a bid non-responsive if it scores zero in any key sub-category, even when the total clears 70; a missing API 6D certificate or manufacturer authorisation letter is a typical reason (OGDCL clarification; OGDCL evaluation report).
How to do technical bid evaluation?
From the evaluator's side, a TBE usually follows these steps. Knowing them tells you how your offer will be read.
- Confirm which requisition issue and which revisions of the reference documents apply.
- Build the evaluation sheet: one row per key requirement, one column per bidder. A practitioner on Eng-Tips describes taking the key data out of the datasheet and listing it in the first column (Eng-Tips).
- Fill each bidder's column from its datasheet, deviation list and supporting documents.
- Mark each cell as acceptable, needs clarification or unacceptable.
- Send clarification requests or technical queries to bidders, and record the answers.
- Issue the technical bid comparison with a recommendation: which bids are technically acceptable, and with which deviations.
A free TBE matrix template gives you the same layout an evaluator uses, so you can check your own offer the way it will be checked.
What are examples of evaluation criteria?
| Criterion | What the evaluator checks | Evidence they expect from you |
|---|---|---|
| Design standard | Product standard and edition named in the spec | Datasheet entry and certificate, for example an API 6D licence |
| Pressure and temperature rating | Class, design pressure and temperature range | Datasheet values in the spec's units |
| Materials | Body, trim, bolting, seals and sour-service requirements | Material list with grades |
| Testing | Shell, seat, fire and fugitive-emission tests | Test procedure or type-test report, such as ISO 15848-1 |
| Certificates and inspection | Certificate type, inspection and test plan, witness points | EN 10204 certificate type, draft ITP |
| Documentation | Vendor data requirements list (VDRL) items and their timing | Document list with submission dates |
| Quality system | QA/QC manual and certifications the spec asks for | Current certificates |
| Approved vendor status | Vendor and manufacturing location on the client's approved vendor list | Approval reference for the product line and works |
| Performance (pumps) | NPSH margin, performance curves, guaranteed vibration within API limits | Curves, NPSH data and test records |
| Scope and exclusions | Spares, accessories, site services | Clear "Not offered" rows in the deviation list |
Every buyer has its own checklist; this table is a starting point. The approved-vendor, performance, testing and painting checks follow a practitioner guide to vendor offer review (What Is Piping).
How manufacturers pass TBE
- Declare every deviation, with the clause, in the tender's own form. Owners such as BHEL reserve the right to accept or reject each deviation and ignore those that appear only in the priced copy (BHEL corrigendum).
- State offered values in the same units and terms as the requirement, so the evaluator can compare without converting.
- Give a technical justification and a cost of withdrawal for every deviation, so it can be accepted or priced without a clarification round.
- Send every mandatory certificate and authorisation letter. A missing one can make the whole bid non-responsive.
- Check the revision of every document you cite, especially after addenda.
- Answer technical queries quickly and update the deviation list, not just the email thread.
The work is slow on both sides. In one vendor case study, a large EPC spent 15 to 20 minutes per datasheet review just extracting the data, across roughly 150 vendor RFPs that included valve datasheets; the vendor reports manual effort down 80% with AI (Botminds). Clause-by-clause review against specs and standards takes longer than extraction alone.
TBE templates and tools
Free TBE templates are scarce; most published examples are tender evaluation reports and government forms. Some engineering firms publish scored matrices, such as Vajra's valve vendor scoring matrix with 25 criteria and a total weight of 112 points (Vajra).
Several software vendors now sell TBE automation to EPCs. Pathnovo, for example, says it delivers a TBE-ready table in 24 hours for a typical 5 to 10 vendor evaluation, against 1 to 3 weeks for manual review; that is the vendor's own claim (Pathnovo). For an honest overview, see AI tools for datasheet-vs-specification deviation lists.
OdysseyGPT works on the manufacturer's side of the same problem: it checks each customer requirement against your own datasheets, gives it a status with a quote from the source page, sheet or cell, and exports an editable compliance matrix and deviations & clarifications list. Your bid engineers, proposal engineers or project managers decide every open item before the offer goes out. See OdysseyGPT for manufacturing.