PURCHASING A context of financial tension in many markets The context of 2021 was marked by major financial tensions. Increases in the prices of raw materials affected many purchasing segments, particularly the materials needed for the restoration of the New Grand Palais, with BT indices rising by 36% in certain cases. The highly constrained supply of wood required a review of schedules for the scenography contracts in order to speed up decision-making and firm up orders as quickly as possible to avoid shortages.

Pursuing public policy objectives The Rmn Grand Palais pursued the public policy objectives already under way, including: 

− Integrating social clauses In 2021, 183,000 so-called social inclusion hours were recorded for the works at the Grand Palais. To contribute to the establishment's social performance, an agreement was signed on 17 September 2021 with the Association Ensemble Paris Emploi Compétences (EPEC), which assists the Rmn Grand Palais in drafting social clauses in its contracts, analysing and scoring the social commitment proposal, and monitoring the commitments made by the companies on site.

− Integrating environmental objectives, with performance targets exceeded: environmental clauses are integrated into contracts for the transport of works of art, scenography, printing and all contracts for the manufacture of exclusive products. In addition, the works contracts awarded as part of the New Grand Palais project all incorporate an environmental component.

− A SMB component to facilitate access to our contracts with a road map implemented, which can be summarised as follows: easy to understand, help with the decision to apply, quick to complete the documents. Special attention is paid to the financial clauses, in order to make the wording compatible with contractors cash flow constraints. Finally, response times remain a point of vigilance, so that candidates have sufficient time to formulate a response and do not suffer delays due to the internal implementation of a project.

Supporting the development of new types of projects The year 2021 saw several unusual production projects, requiring efficient purchasing actions in line with the challenges. This was the case for Napoleon at the Grande Halle de la Villette, where the management of this unusual project confirmed the establishment's new organisational capacities through the integration of suppliers specialising in events, the implementation of eco-design elements (patented reusable picture rails), and the ability to manage the air-conditioning of a building with an extreme configuration, without any operating incidents noted and in compliance with the budgetary target set for the contract. Meanwhile, the Arts of Islam project made it possible to successfully organise a complex, multi-site (18 cities, including one on the island of La Réunion), multi-trade museographic installation contract that was carried out simultaneously.

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