6 year abandoned job..

[mort81]

Start with Why

Sounds like you are building or already have a relationship started with the owner, I would say keep doing that, see if you can with the new engineers as well. I agree with the other comments, you should simply offer a change order due to the time difference and simply be upfront with it that you are not trying to take advantage of anything, but simply business expenses are not they same as they were 6 years ago. I think most business folks can empathize. For the ones that may be trying to make there mark of importance to their company, I think you simply "negotiate" the change order for their ego, and they will feel like they have won as well. Good luck, sending best wishes for you as I understand these are uneasy moments.

 

[arpus4KM]

Too much has changed.

Not only that, but businesses have plenty of cash to throw at different projects and shouldn't be trying to pinch someone who has gotten through 6 years of solid production already.

A rebid is in order due to the time. No question about it.

 

[geniusintraining]

Hey Ronnie,

This is simple... just tell them that the panel and hardware are now obsolete and it needs to be upgraded and give them a new proposal

 

[Ronnie Sullivan]

Well, that was the strangest meeting I've ever been to.
I took all my original cad drawings and contract and we all met in the boardroom.

They had a skewed idea of what was paid for and what they got.
The payments were 50% upfront and 50% on completion of the first phase. (which as I've said, was paid) They presumed (or should I say insisted) that the whole of the second payment was for the future upgrades alone.
Trying to explain that 50% only covered the materials met with... well insults.

The factory electrician was an aggressive sort (lots are I've found) and he had approximated the cost of all the materials to build the panel and had printed pages of prices.
Which he claimed was nowhere near 50%. A quick scan of his list showed he's missed lots of things off it including a Q CPU, the HMI and different brand components.

It was like a trail in there lol.


But the best was to come.
Without going into detail, The upgrades were to automate the product transfer to other machines and automate those too.
They'd had a go at partly doing it themselves. The panel had suddenly sprouted lots of buttons and selector switches. The new layout was nothing like the original plans and they didn't work properly.

There is plenty more but you are getting the picture.

Luckily as I said, the boss is a reasonable man and a chat with him later resulted in options. Basically, a price or hourly rate to put it right.
That's where we are at.

 

[cardosocea]

The factory electrician was an aggressive sort (lots are I've found) and he had approximated the cost of all the materials to build the panel and had printed pages of prices.

Found the culprit of all those changes that don't work and he's feeling self conscious. Make sure you have the acceptance criteria well described and accepted in advance and ideally that this electrician isn't involved in the commissioning as he'll never accept his failure and your completion of the work.

 

[arpus4KM]

Wow, simply amazing.

So someone gets in the hot seat and sees that something was paid for, but it's been mutilated, as is typical, over the years.

Now they they can't figure out how to complete an upgrade, so they want to try to bully you into feeling sorry for them? Or rather, make you feel like you screwed them somehow after all this time...