Western companies, especially European companies, when developing drawings for large engineering projects, have a tendency to complete an 80-90% drawing, with various "Hold" areas where technical issues are still open for one reason or another.
These drawings are then passed on to their Western suppliers who begin the manufacturing process and await updates that cover these "Hold" areas.
This does not work with Russian suppliers. Russian suppliers want all technical questions answered before they commit to work and will not begin until everything is worked through and signed by both parties.
Part of this stems from the unwanted risk of loosing money on having to redo work. The majority, however, arises from legal concerns. If a tragic incident occurs from such unorthodox work methods, Russian prosecutors will go after everyone from the CEO to the line engineer of the manufacturer. Thus such risks are considered unacceptable at personal levels.
Often what happens in such a "relationship" is that the Russian manufacturer will raise the issues verbally, and be told not to worry about it, its for later. They will not start work. Then they will begin to write letters to the client and his engineering department. In the case of an Italian company I worked for, the project manager laughed in their faces that he just threw their stupid letters out and they would get the answers when it damn well suited him. I, as the procurement project manager had to repeatedly explain to him and the Italian engineers that realize it or not, they are not doing any work till they get the answers and our due dates are quickly slipping out.
Such cultural misunderstandings or especially on the part of western Europeans, absolute refusal to consider cultural and legal differences and frameworks led us to long delays, sour relations and stiff fines.
Food for thought.
These drawings are then passed on to their Western suppliers who begin the manufacturing process and await updates that cover these "Hold" areas.
This does not work with Russian suppliers. Russian suppliers want all technical questions answered before they commit to work and will not begin until everything is worked through and signed by both parties.
Part of this stems from the unwanted risk of loosing money on having to redo work. The majority, however, arises from legal concerns. If a tragic incident occurs from such unorthodox work methods, Russian prosecutors will go after everyone from the CEO to the line engineer of the manufacturer. Thus such risks are considered unacceptable at personal levels.
Often what happens in such a "relationship" is that the Russian manufacturer will raise the issues verbally, and be told not to worry about it, its for later. They will not start work. Then they will begin to write letters to the client and his engineering department. In the case of an Italian company I worked for, the project manager laughed in their faces that he just threw their stupid letters out and they would get the answers when it damn well suited him. I, as the procurement project manager had to repeatedly explain to him and the Italian engineers that realize it or not, they are not doing any work till they get the answers and our due dates are quickly slipping out.
Such cultural misunderstandings or especially on the part of western Europeans, absolute refusal to consider cultural and legal differences and frameworks led us to long delays, sour relations and stiff fines.
Food for thought.
