The tender spec that names a model nobody makes any more

A large share of the schedules that reach this desk name at least one model that has been superseded. That is not carelessness; it is how procurement documents work. A BOQ that cleared audit once gets copied into the next tender, and the next, and the part codes in it age quietly while the document stays authoritative.

The failure mode is specific. The bidder quotes what the schedule asks for, the supplier cannot ship it because the manufacturer has moved to a successor, and the substitution then has to be justified after bid opening rather than before. That is a weak position to argue from even when the successor is plainly better.

The fix is dull and it works: resolve every line to a currently orderable code before the bid goes in, and where a line has been superseded, put the successor next to it in writing with the manufacturer's own migration note attached. A deviation you declared is a technical point. A deviation the evaluator discovers is a problem.

We do this line by line for schedules sent to the desk, and the Tender Watchtower has the rest of the readiness list.