USCG Marine HVAC Service Contract Market Research QUESTIONNAIRE.pdf

USCG Surface Forces Logistics Center Patrol Boat Product Line Marine HVAC Service - Market Research

"THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes; it does not constitute a Request for Proposal (RFP) or a promise to issue an RFP.

Furthermore, those who respond to this RFI should not anticipate feedback with regard to its submission; other than acknowledgment of receipt – IF a request for an acknowledgment is requested by the submitter. This RFI does not commit the Government to contract for any supply or service. DHS is not at this time seeking proposals. Responders are advised that the U.S. Government will not pay any cost incurred in response to this RFI. All costs associated with responding to this RFI will be solely at the interested party’s expense. Not responding to this RFI does not preclude participation in any future RFP.

The information provided in this RFI is subject to change and is not binding on the Government. All submissions become the property of the Federal Government, and will not be returned."

Introduction:

The USCG SFLC Patrol Boat Product Line is conducting market research to engage industry and determine if the capability exists to support on a nationwide basis, the continuous and ongoing need for service and repair of the NOVENCO Marine HVAC Systems installed onboard two classes of USCG Patrol Boats, the WPC-154 Fast Response Cutter and WPB-87 Coastal Patrol Boat fleets. The WPB-87 fleet consists of 73 vessels, and the WPC-154 Fleet is currently at 34 vessels with approx. 6 more per year being produced for the next 5 years resulting in an eventual total of over 60 vessels.

Please see Attachment A - Patrol Boats Homeports 2019, which is a map of Patrol Boat homeport locations that is divided into operational areas called Districts. This map identifies the Patrol Boat homeports by city/town, number of each vessel type stationed there and also identifies other alternate berthing locations Patrol Boats which may utilize for services when away from homeport. Services under this potential future contract would typically be performed at the homeport, however the alternate berthing locations may be used as well. For the purposes of this preliminary market research questionnaire, please use the actual homeport locations only, when evaluating all stated objectives and when answering questions.

Background:

Due to the complexity of these Marine HVAC systems and the technical limitations of the OEM Service manuals, USCG Patrol Boat crews and supporting personnel have routinely experienced system casualties that could not be remedied by active duty personnel utilizing the available technical information. This has resulted in the need to contract emergency HVAC repair services thru multiple vendors across the country, numerous times each year. Along with the need for unplanned casualty response, a recent analysis of historic HVAC system casualties has led to an engineering decision that these HVAC systems would benefit greatly from a planned, fixed periodicity based maintenance action where the systems are groomed by qualified Marine HVAC technician to inspect, check, test, adjust and restore all system functions and parameters to OEM factory standards.

Objectives:

The consolidation of our recurring need for contracted HVAC repair services and the newly developed requirement for planned fixed periodicity vendor performed HVAC system grooms on over 100 Patrol Boats around the country and overseas into one simplified single provider service contract is the overarching objective. The potential future creation of this contract would be expected to provide many benefits to the USCG. First and foremost would be improved reliability and up time of Patrol Boat HVAC systems, as well as an exponential reduction of manpower requirements expended by USCG contracting and procurement personnel along with engineering and support personnel in sourcing, procuring, administrating and coordinating these services in numerous local markets by individual solicitation each and every time.

The purpose of this market research is to determine through industry review and feedback, the feasibility of an affordable and cost effective contract, in-line with the objectives stated.

The USCG is soliciting industry for information regarding capabilities in providing qualified Marine HVAC services to a fleet of vessels comparable in numbers and geographic locations to the WPB-87 and WPC- 154 Patrol Boats described above. We are interested in learning more about how your company delivers marine HVAC services in the United States and around the world and in particular, how your company would address the following objectives, which are understood to be necessary in order to achieve a cost effective and efficient service agreement.

1) Minimizing travel costs, distance of travel and duration of time required for technician to arrive and perform HVAC Service at the multitude of homeport locations is of high priority. Mitigating these costs by minimizing travel distances required for service to the Patrol Boat fleet to the greatest extent possible, will be paramount in making this contract economically feasible.

1a) Describe how your company would leverage its geographic distribution of HVAC technicians and service office locations as compared to our homeport locations (See Attachment A), to minimize as much as possible the need for long distance commercial travel, lodging and daily per diem when service is required at any of our Patrol Boat homeport locations.

1b) Provide your company’s standard technician arrival/response times for both routine and emergency service calls in a typical service agreement?

2) Ease of coordination and speed of delivery of HVAC services, reduction of Coast Guard contract administration labor and overall simplification of managing the logistics elements required to facilitate delivering HVAC services to the numerous Patrol Boat homeport locations around the country is critical.

2a) Describe how the key functional elements of a typical service agreement with your company, serving customers with similar fleet size and geographic distribution, will facilitate meeting or exceeding these desired customer benefits.

3) Predictable, firm fixed pricing for specific services is a highly desired element of a potential service agreement. The USCG would like to arrange fixed costs for specific services/tasks identified below, at as many homeport locations as possible. It is understood that numerous homeport locations will require commercial modes of transportation, lodging and daily per diem. These costs would be billed in addition to the firm fixed price when required, however the goal is to provide firm fixed pricing that is inclusive of costs associated with technicians round trip ground travel for service in as many homeport locations as possible. It is our intention to incorporate the following Four (4) Contract Line Item Numbers (CLIN) each with firm fixed price, into a potential agreement. No materials or parts are to be included in the fixed price and would be quoted separately when required for repairs.

I. CLIN 1: Fixed price for contractor to arrive at Patrol Boat & perform a 1 day (8 hr max) service call to troubleshoot and identify cause of failure and take any corrective actions, make system adjustments that do not require parts, which will restore system functionality. Provide the USCG with a detailed written Condition Found Report (CFR) at completion of troubleshooting, including a detailed parts breakdown with costs and man hour estimate to perform necessary repairs (if system functionality was not restored). This fixed price would be inclusive of costs associated with technicians round trip for travel, in as many locations as possible (with numerous locations assumed to require commercial travel, lodging and per diem which would be billed in addition to the fixed price).

II. CLIN 2: Fixed price hourly labor rate which will be applied to all man hour requirements which contractor submits for repairs in the CFR and receives subsequent govt. approval to perform, above and beyond the 8hr time allotment in CLIN 1.

III. CLIN 3: Fixed price to perform a planned/scheduled HVAC system groom per USCG Specification (in development) onboard the WPB-87 Patrol Boat. This price would also be inclusive of costs associated with technicians round trip for travel, in as many locations as possible (with some number of locations assumed to require commercial travel, lodging and per diem which would be billed in addition to the fixed price).

IV. CLIN 4: Fixed price to perform a planned/scheduled HVAC system groom per USCG Specification (in development) onboard the WPC-154 Patrol Boat. This price would also be inclusive of costs associated with technicians round trip for service, in as many locations as possible (with some number of locations assumed to require commercial travel, lodging and per diem which would be billed in addition to the fixed price).

3a) Based upon the homeport locations identified in Attachment A, would your company be able to offer fixed pricing inclusive of technician round trip travel for services described above in CLIN I thru IV at any of these locations?

3b) If your answer is “Yes” to the above for any locations in Attachment A, can you please identify by District, state or specific location the areas where your company would NOT be able to perform services described without additional travel expenses above and beyond the fixed price?

4) Obtaining the services of a company with the manpower and logistics capacity to support multiple, potentially simultaneous calls for service to the geographically dispersed Patrol Boat Fleet, using highly skilled and qualified HVAC service technicians who are capable of servicing and repairing NOVENCO Marine HVAC systems to OEM standards would be paramount in enabling the USCG to rely upon a single source service provider for the geographically dispersed fleet.

4a) Provide details on the structure of your service network, identifying if your company uses its own employees or a network of service partners (sub-contractors) to provide services in the homeport regions identified on Attachment A.

4b) Describe the qualifications, certifications, licensure and training the Marine HVAC technicians are required to maintain who are either employed by your company or your service network partners.

4c) Explain how your company’s quantity and geographic distribution of technicians and/or service providers would support multiple, potentially simultaneous calls for service to the widely dispersed Patrol Boat Fleet.

Interested parties having the expertise and capabilities are invited to submit detailed information discussing their capabilities as requested above to Jennifer Lucas and Jonathan Probst, at the following email addresses jennifer.b.lucas@uscg.mil & jonathan.p.probst@uscg.mil by 4pm Eastern Standard Time (EST) on 13 July 2020.

Proprietary information, if any, should be minimized and MUST BE CLEARLY MARKED. To aid the USCG, please segregate proprietary information. Please be advised that all submissions become the property of the Federal Government, and will not be returned. Responses to this RFI may be evaluated by Government technical experts drawn from staff within the USCG. The Government may use selected support contractor personnel to assist in the evaluation. These support contractors will be bound by appropriate non-disclosure agreements to protect proprietary and source selection information. This action will be governed under DHS law enforcement sensitive guidelines.

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