American Wire Group Inc. (AWG; www.buyawg.com) has created the AWG Best Alternative to Negotiated Agreements (BANA) Consortium, a service for electric utilities that reduces costs associated with the wire and cable spend category inventory management.

In joint partnership with utilities, the program will manage the wire and cable spend through strategic sourcing of wire and cable products, Web-based technologies and recycling of materials. BANA is offered on a membership basis. There is no membership fee, but utilities must qualify to join.

BANA offers several benefits. One benefit is lowering the initial purchase cost by combining the requirements of several utilities and making a single “master buy.” A second benefit is reducing the utility's investment in inventory by working from the consigned master inventory. Each member only needs to bring into stock material to meet immediate needs. A third benefit is the opportunity for utilities to standardize on cable where it makes sense.

“We understand utilities,” said AWG Vice President Michael Dorfman. “We see that the industry segment needs real solutions to help contain copper and aluminum price volatility and to help develop contingencies around possible shortages of supply in a volatile market.”

Each member is aware of the other participants. They can view the inventory and their individual cost for each item (they do not have access to each other's financial information). AWG will meet with each member on a frequent basis to discuss issues and actively seek ways to lower cost and drive out waste.