SOW Cattleback Tags.doc

Solicitation AG-6395-S-10-0055

Cattle Backtags

STATEMENT OF WORK

JUST IN TIME CATTLE BACK TAGS

SPECIFICATIONS:

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), Veterinary Service (VS), Riverdale, MD, intends to acquire cattle backtags which meet the specifications stated below. The animal backtag program is a program mandated by Congress that APHIS oversees and manages. It is a program designed to aid the USDA in the monitoring and management of animals from farm or ranch to feedlot and slaughter house. This oversight of animal movement is intended to inhibit the spread, and eventually eliminate, various animal diseases which threaten American agriculture. The ability of users of these tags to expeditiously order and receive animal backtags is critical.

The tags that we require are oval in shape. Bidders shall provide two sample pads of fifty (50) printed, cattle backtags for evaluation. The sample will be tested by the Government. Bids with samples which do not meet the specification below will be rejected.

Bidders shall have a minimum production capacity of 300,000 cattle backtags per day.

MATERIAL

The cattle backtags shall be made of a waterproof paper stock. The tags shall be white or yellow on the printed side. The tags shall be oval in shape as shown in the attachment in Section J.

The tags shall be of sufficient wet strength and size, an additive shall be added so that the tag will not curl when placed in humidity chamber at 83 degrees Fahrenheit and 83 percent relative humidity for 24 hours. The bidder shall sign a certification statement indicating that the tag will not curl under those conditions.

The tag shall withstand adverse weather conditions (extreme temperature, rain, snow and high humidity) for at least 10 days without degradation.

PRINTING

The tags shall be printed on one Side 1 only. All printing shall be with permanent, black ink and modified Gothic Type Style (see attachment). Ink shall not offset or smear when tags are padded together or when tags are wet. Each tag on the reverse side (Side 2), shall be printed in another color to show the placement of the tag on the cow. A (wallpaper( pattern of a cow shall be printed on the reverse side.

Tags shall have a total of eight characters. At the option of the ordering activity, tags shall have either three or four large digits, serially numbered.

Item 1. Tags with three large digits shall have a prefix consisting of two numbers and two letters followed by one number, which shall be serially numbered with the large digit numbers.

Item 2. Tags with four large digits shall have a prefix printed consisting of two numbers and two letters.

Character and numeral printing sizes shall be:

The prefix digits remain constant or change alphabetically with every 10,000 tags. The prefix numbers consist of the following:

The first two characters are numeric and designate the state code

The next two characters are alpha and designate either livestock market code or state roll over code

The next characters may be either a small numeric or large size number and designates the first serial character in the numeric series (0001‑9999)

Prefix numbers and letters shall be in boldface Gothic Type Style and be 1/4 inch high. The large 3 or 4 digit numbers shall be 1 1/4 inches high and a minimum of 1/4 inch wide boldface. There shall be at least 3/16 inch space between each number. The number "1" shall be vertical with no protrusion to the left.

State color designations shall be:

YELLOW TAGS

Alaska

New Jersey

Arizona

North Dakota

Arkansas

Oklahoma

California

Oregon

Colorado

Pennsylvania

Indiana

Puerto Rico

Iowa

South Dakota

Louisiana

Tennessee

Michigan

Texas

Minnesota

Virginia

Montana

West Virginia

Wisconsin

WHITE TAGS

Alabama

Nebraska

Connecticut

New Hampshire

Delaware

New Mexico

Florida

New York

Georgia

Nevada

Hawaii

North Carolina

Idaho

Ohio

Illinois

Rhode Island

Kansas

South Carolina

Kentucky

Utah

Maine

Vermont

Maryland

Washington

Massachusetts Wyoming

Mississippi

Missouri

BAR CODES

There shall be two bar codes 1 13/16 to 2 inches long and 7/16 inch high. The bar codes shall be clearly distinguishable from the large numbers with at least 1/8 inch clearance. The bar codes shall be 39 and have a density of 6 characters per inch. The bar coding shall meet the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standards grade of "B" or better.

Numeric values are assigned to each Code 39 character:

0 ‑ 0

F ‑ 15

U ‑ 30

1 ‑ 1

G ‑ 16

V ‑ 31

2 ‑ 2

H ‑ 17

W ‑ 32

3 ‑ 3

I ‑ 18

X ‑ 33

4 ‑ 4

J ‑ 19

Y ‑ 34

5 ‑ 5

K ‑ 20

Z ‑ 35

6 ‑ 6

L ‑ 21

" ‑ 36

7 ‑ 7

M ‑ 22

' ‑ 37

8 ‑ 8

N ‑ 23 Space ‑ 38

9 ‑ 9

O ‑ 24

$ ‑ 39

A ‑ 10

P ‑ 25

/ ‑ 40

B ‑ 11

Q ‑ 26

+ ‑ 41

C ‑ 12

R ‑ 27

% ‑ 42

D ‑ 13

S ‑ 28

E ‑ 14

T ‑ 29

The Check digit is the modulus 43 sum of all the character values in a given message and is printed as the last data character. The output of the bar code reader will not indicate or record the check digit which in our example is (T(. For example the sum of the values of the following data would be:

Data: 12345ABCDE/Sum of Value=1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 10 + 11 + 12 + 13 + 14 + 40 + 115 115/43 = 2 remainder 29

The check digit is the character corresponding to the value of the remainder, which in this example is 29 or "T". The data above with its check digit reads: 12345ABCDE/T.

BINDING/PACKAGING

The tags shall be in pads of 50 with adhesive bound on one edge. A gauze strip at least one inch wide and extending the depth of the pad shall be part of the binding. The tags in each pad must be in numerical sequence.

Orders will indicate the sequence of numbers and letters required. Delivery orders may be placed for less than a complete series of 10,000 tags. Since some locations use two identical tags on each animal, delivery orders may require a duplicate number sequence.

OVAL TAGS

The tags shall be oval in shape 3 inches high by 3 3/4 inches wide. The long dimension of the tag shall be parallel to the grain of the paper. The large 3 or 4 digit numbers shall be positioned in the middle of the tag. A solid black bar, 1/8 inch high shall be 1/8 inch below the large numbers. The production date shall be 1/16 inch high and located below the bottom bar code. On the left end of the tag the legend "State‑Federal" shall be printed. On the right end of the tag the legend "Do Not Remove" shall be printed. The legend printing shall be 1/8 inch high.

The prefix shall be printed in the upper arc.

Example:

820KO

820K

Bar Code

Bar Code

Production Code Production Code

ORDERING PROCEDURES

The Area Offices will order back tags directly from the manufacturer. The method to be employed is frequently referred to as "Just In Time". Using this method little or no stock of back tags are maintained in a central warehouse. Production is initiated to fill an order at the time the order is placed with the Contractor, the tags are produced and delivered in a rapid manner. The contractor shall provide on line ordering capability for as many as 65 users, at least 5 simultaneously 20 hours a day 5 days a week, excepting Federal holidays. The contractor shall check for pending orders by 9:00 am and 1:30 pm daily Monday through Friday.

JUST IN TIME DELIVERY

The contractor shall be responsible for shipping backtags to as many as 1200 different markets across the United States within 48 hours after receipt of an order. Emergency orders must be shipped within 24 hours after receipt of an order using Next Day Air or Airport to Airport delivery depending upon instructions received at the time the order is placed. If an emergency order exceeds 5,000 tags the contractor can split the order by shipping the first 5,000 within 24 hours with the remaining amount to be shipped within 48 hours. The number of emergency orders will vary from year to year. The contractor shall be responsible for all shipping costs incurred.

SEQUENCE OF TAGS

The contractor shall be responsible for maintaining a tracking system to record the alpha and numerical sequence of tags designated for each state. The tracking system must record each order by sequence (beginning and ending), date ordered, date shipped, ship to address and requesting location if different from the ship to address. The contractor shall be responsible for tracking and allocating the next available alpha and numerical sequence to be printed and shipped to each market.

SHIP TO ADDRESSES

Address files or organization codes will be a 6 digit number, beginning with an alpha Z and 5 numeric digits in most cases. This number and associated address will be provided by the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR). The contractor must have the capacity to maintain 3,000 individual address files. The COR will provide any new stock number to the contractor.

MISTAKES IN SHIPPING

The Contractor will arrange for Call Pick Up for tags shipped in error. The order will be treated as an emergency requiring Next Day Air or Airport to Airport (next available flight). The emergency production and transportation cost for tags shipped in error will be the contractors responsibility.

HISTORICAL DATA

The Contractor, upon request, will be provided a report of the prior two years activity concerning cattle backtag shipments from the National Logistics Supply Center located in Kansas City, MO. This data will include information on the quantity, date shipped and the shipping vendor used.

REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

The contractor shall be responsible for transaction reports detailing shipments on a regular basis. The reports are to include the number of shipments processed, the sequence (beginning and ending) of the tags manufactured and shipped, the date ordered, the date shipped, the ship to address and the requesting location if different from the ship to address. The reports are to be provided as follows:

o USDA, VS Area Offices

3 times weekly

COR

weekly

CO and COR monthly annually ad hoc as needed

QUALITY CONTROL‑ORDERING

The quality and appropriateness of the ordering process will be determined through the use of government supplied data and test scenarios. These test scenarios will test the ability of a user to access the system remotely to place an order, inquire as to the status of an order, and to retrieve other information related to past order placement in the system. Factors that will be evaluated include, but are not limited to, ease‑of‑use, look‑and‑feel of the interface and responsiveness of the system to user commands or queries. These test scenarios will be performed by government personnel. System failures or inadequacies will be documented and the contractor, at the government’s discretion, shall be provided a mutually agreeable amount of time to remedy these inadequacies. Additional evaluation factors include use of APHIS standard software (e.g. ORACLE) and proposed hardware platforms (i.e. Windows NT Intel based server, IBM RISC Based technology (e.g., RS6000 with AIX)). These test scenarios will be performed by government personnel. System failures or inadequacies will be documented and the contractor, at the government’s discretion, shall be provided a mutually agreeable amount of time to remedy these inadequacies. If the contractor proposed to provide an automated system the contractor shall migrate all legacy data to the new system prior to government acceptance and full implementation of the automated system. The contractor shall be provide training and/or instructions on the use of the ordering system. The contractor shall provide all documentation necessary for users to access the system.

INVOICING

The contractor shall submit invoices and supporting documentation on a weekly basis to the COR.

PRODUCTION CAPACITY

The offeror shall state maximum daily production capacity: _______________. The minimum acceptance capacity is 300,000 tags per day.

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