Attachment A - FOPR.pdf

Fair Opportunity Proposal Request (FOPR), Attachment A

FOPR# ATSA-0002-FO-1

Instructions to Offerors/Basis of Award

1. Proposal Submission.

A. This is a competitive selection conducted in accordance with (IAW) Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Part 16.505(b)(1). Orders placed under FAR 16.505 IDIQ contracts are not source selections and are not subject to FAR 15.3 procedures. Accordingly, issuance of an order under this Fair Opportunity Proposal Request (FOPR), should an award be made, shall follow the ordering procedures outlined in FAR 16.505, as supplemented.

B. The proposal submitted in response to this FOPR must be in compliance with the terms and conditions of the Automatic Test Systems Acquisition-I (ATSA) multiple award Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite- Quantity (IDIQ) contract, requirements as stated in the FOPR and attachments and the Versatile Diagnostic Automatic Test Station (VDATS) Engineering Services Performance Work Statement (PWS). All claimed capabilities to meet the requirements shall be realistic and are subject to verification by the Government.

Non-conformance with these instructions may result in rejection of the proposal, an unfavorable proposal evaluation, or being deemed ineligible for award.

C. Offerors shall clearly identify any exception to the terms and conditions and shall provide complete supporting rationale. The Government reserves the right to determine any such exceptions are unacceptable. Any exception determined unacceptable by the Government may result in the Offeror’s proposal being determined unacceptable and ineligible for award. This information shall be provided in the format and content of the table below within the Offerors proposal cover letter. If no exceptions are taken, include a statement stating so within the proposal cover letter.

FOPR Exceptions

FOPR

Document

Page/ Paragraph

Requirement/ Portion Rationale

PWS, ITO,

Evaluation Factor, etc.

Applicable Page and Paragraph Numbers

Identify the requirement or portion to which exception is taken

Describe why the requirement can/will not be met

D. The proposal shall be clear, concise, and shall include sufficient detail for effective evaluation and for substantiating the validity of stated claims. The proposal should not simply rephrase or restate the Government's requirements but, rather, shall provide convincing rationale to address how the Offeror intends to meet these requirements. Offerors shall assume that the Government has no prior knowledge of their facilities or experience and will base its evaluation on the information presented in the Offeror's proposal.

E. Discrepancies. If an Offeror believes the requirements in these instructions contain an error, omission, or are otherwise unsound, the Offeror shall immediately notify the Contracting Officer (CO) in writing with supporting rationale as well as the remedies the Offeror is asking the CO to consider as related to the omission or error.

F. Use of Non-Government Advisors. Offerors are advised that technical and cost/price data submitted to the Government in response to this FOPR may be released to non-Government advisors for proposal review and analysis. All non-Government advisors have signed non-disclosure statements. The non-Government advisors’ support will be provided by HX5.

Table 2 – Non-Government Advisors Company Name Company POC POC Information HX5 Richard Hennig richard.hennig.2.ctr@us.af.mil, Phone: 478-222-1712

Offerors shall complete paragraph (2) below, or provide written objection to disclosure as indicated in paragraph (1) below, if the Offeror objects to disclosure of a portion of the proposal, the consent in (2) should be provided for the remainder of the proposal. Include either paragraph (1) or (2) below, completed as applicable, within the proposal cover letter.

(1) Any objection to disclosure:

(i) Shall be provided in writing to the Contracting Officer within ten (10) days of FOPR issuance; and

(ii) Shall include a detailed statement of the basis for the objection. The detailed statement shall identify the specific portions of the proposal the Offeror objects to disclosure to non- Government advisors.

(2) I understand technical and cost/price data submitted to the Government in response to this FOPR may be released to non-Government advisors. I consent to release of any (unless objection is provided in (1) above) proprietary, confidential, or privileged commercial or financial data provided by the firm(s) named below in response to this solicitation, to non-Government advisors for review and analysis:

Firm:

Name (individual authorized to commit firm):

Title:

Date of Execution:

Signature: ___________________________________________

G. The period of performance (PoP) for the contract/order will include one (1) 12-month basic period with two (2) 12-month options. A breakdown of the CLIN Structure can be found below:

CLINs CONTRACT

TYPE

DESCRIPTION U/I QUANTITY

0001-2001 FFP Engineering Services LO 1 0002-2002 FFP Data (ELINs) A001-C001 FFP DMSMS Life Cycle Management EA 4 A002-C002 FFP PESHE Plan EA 1 A003-C003 FFP Accident/Incident Report* EA *As required A004-C004 FFP Quality Program Plan EA 1 mailto:richard.hennig.2.ctr@us.af.mil

Instructions to Offerors/Basis of Award

H. Proposal Submission. Each Offeror shall submit proposals electronically via email in a format readable by Microsoft (MS) Office 2016 or Adobe Acrobat X Pro, as applicable, to the CO, Andrea Livingston, andrea.livingston.1@us.af.mil, and the Contract Specialist, Hailey Allen, hailey.allen@us.af.mil via DoDSAFE.

The Offeror shall submit proposals for consideration no later than 4:00pm (Eastern Time), 13 July 2026.

Only one (1) proposal shall be submitted per company in response to this requirement. Proposals received after the date/time specified will not be evaluated. Note: The total size of any email provided to the CO shall not exceed 20MB.

Proposal packages must be submitted via DoDSAFE at https://safe.apps.mil. In order to submit the proposal package, the offeror shall send an email to both the Contracting Officer (Andrea Livingston, andrea.livingston.1@us.af.mil) and Contract Specialist (Hailey Allen, hailey.allen@us.af.mil) identified above and request a DoDSAFE drop-off link. Once the Contracting Officer and/or Contract Specialist receive the request, a drop-off link will be sent to the offeror to upload and send the proposal submittal. It must be noted that the proposal submittal, and not the request for a drop-off link, must be received by the Contracting Officer and/or Contract Specialist by the proposal due date and time. Should the DoDSAFE proposal be received after the proposal due date and time, the proposal will be considered late and will not be evaluated.

I. Offerors submitting a proposal in response to this FOPR shall submit a Technical Volume, and a Price Volume. Text shall be single-spaced, on an 8 ½ x 11 letter size with a minimum one-inch margin all around.

Font shall be no less than Times New Roman 10 pt. Pages shall be numbered consecutively within each volume. The page limits prescribed are maximum page limits for each volume. When both sides of a sheet display printed material, it shall be counted as two (2) pages. Cover pages, tables of contents, cross-reference matrix, tabs, and glossaries shall not be counted against prescribed page limits. Pages submitted in excess of these limits will not be read or considered in the Government’s evaluation of the proposal. All proposal information shall be submitted in either MS Word or PDF format except for Pricing information (Volume II). Pricing information shall be submitted in MS Excel format (Pricing Worksheet, Attachment C). Each volume shall be submitted as a separately labeled electronic file. Or, the volumes, including the Cover Letter, shall be separated by tabs in a three-ring, loose leaf binder and provided in electronic format as well. Offerors must ensure that Pricing information is only included in Volume II. Do NOT include any Pricing information in Volume I. Submit your proposal electronically in accordance with the table below.

All electronic submissions shall reference the complete FOPR number (ATSA-0002-FO-1) in the subject line.

Table 3 – Proposal Volume Page Limits

VOLUME REFERENCE TITLE

MAXIMUM

NUMBER OF

PAGES

I Cover Letter 3

Factor 1 Technical Approach 20 Subfactor 1.1 Obsolescence Plan

II Factor 2 Price No page limit mailto:andrea.livingston.1@us.af.mil mailto:hailey.allen@us.af.mil https://safe.apps.mil/ mailto:andrea.livingston.1@us.af.mil mailto:hailey.allen@us.af.mil

(1) Volume I:

Cover Letter shall include the following:

• Offeror’s contact information including phone number,

• Small business status/categories,

• Company name and primary and alternate points of contact with email/phone and stating who all are authorized to contractually obligate the company,

• CAGE Code,

• Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) number,

• A statement that the company understands the specified requirements and will meet the performance standards and requirements therein,

• A statement that the company does or does not take exception to any of the requirements of this order,

• Acknowledges use of non-Government advisors IAW paragraph F, and,

• If proposing a teaming arrangement, specific information about what each vendor on the team will accomplish should the offeror become the awardee.

• A statement of proposal acceptance period of at least 90 days.

Factor I: Technical Approach

The Technical Proposal should be specific and complete. Legibility, clarity, and coherence are very important. Your responses will be evaluated against the Technical subfactors defined in Subfactor 1.1. Provide as specifically as possible the actual methodology you would use for accomplishing/satisfying the subfactors. Address your technical solution for meeting or exceeding the government’s minimum performance or capability requirements of each technical subfactor.

All the requirements specified in the solicitation are mandatory. By your proposal submission, you are representing that your firm will fulfil all the requirements specified in the solicitation. It is not necessary or desirable for you to tell us so in your proposal. Do not merely reiterate the objectives or reformulate the requirements specified in the solicitation.

a. Subfactor 1.1 Obsolescence Plan

i. Provide a detailed narrative explaining the Offeror's approach and methodology for actively monitoring a Government-provided list of VDATS system components for Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages (DMSMS) and obsolescence. This must include the processes, tools, or databases the Offeror will utilize to track the health of these specific items and forecast End-of-Life (EOL) statuses.

ii. Provide a detailed narrative explaining the Offeror's engineering and logistics process for finding a suitable replacement for any identified obsolete or soon-to-be obsolete items. The narrative must detail how the Offeror will conduct the necessary research, identify potential form/fit/function replacements, and present these recommended solutions and mitigation strategies to the Government for review and approval.

(1) The offeror shall submit pricing information to support the completeness and reasonableness of their proposed prices for all CLINs. The pricing information submitted should fully support the PWS requirements for each major functional element specified in the PWS. A breakdown should be provided which shows the skill mix, labor categories, labor rates and position descriptions. Information shall be segregated by the performance periods, individual performance locations, and the total price for each CLIN as specified in the solicitation.

Information shall also show the consolidated total price for performance.

2. Basis of Award:

A. Award will be made in accordance with the basic contract ordering procedures, the procedures specified in the FOPR and on the basis of the lowest priced proposal meeting the acceptability standards for non-price factors. An order may be awarded to the contractor who is deemed responsible IAW FAR 9.1, as supplemented, whose proposal conforms to the FOPR’s requirements (to include all stated terms, conditions, representations, certifications, and all other information required by the FOPR instructions) and is judged, based on the evaluation factors and subfactors, to represent the technically acceptable proposal with the lowest complete and reasonable price.

B. First, the Government will rank the proposals from lowest price to highest price, in order to establish an Initial Total Evaluated Price (I-TEP). The I-TEP will be calculated as the sum of the contractor’s prices submitted for the base period, all option periods and all optional CLINs, including the 6-month Option to Extend Services (FAR 52.217-8). Next, the Government will evaluate the technical volumes on an acceptable or unacceptable basis, starting with the proposal with the lowest I-TEP. Any subfactor evaluated as “Unacceptable” will render the entire proposal unacceptable and, therefore not awardable. If the proposal with the lowest I-TEP is determined technically acceptable, the Government will evaluate the contractor’s price, to include all options, for price completeness and reasonableness, as described above. If the lowest priced proposal is technically acceptable and the TEP is complete and reasonable, this contractor’s proposal represents the best value to the Government and award will be made to that contractor. If the lowest priced proposal is not technically acceptable, the Government will consider the correction potential and may enter into interchanges with that contractor. If after interchanges with that contractor, their proposal is technically acceptable and remains the lowest priced (with the TEP complete and reasonable), the order will be placed with that contractor. If the Government deems the proposal not easily correctable, or if at any time it becomes other than the lowest priced proposal, the next lowest priced proposal will be evaluated for technical acceptability, followed by an analysis of their TEP to verify reasonableness and completeness.

Interchanges will take place as necessary or deemed appropriate by the Government. The evaluation process will continue until reaching a technically acceptable proposal with a TEP that is reasonable and complete, or until all proposals are evaluated.

C. The Government intends to make award based on the initial proposal submissions without conducting interchanges. Therefore, each offer should contain the Offeror’s best terms from a price and technical standpoint. However, the Government reserves the right to hold interchanges if, during the evaluation, it is determined to be in the best interest of the Government. Interchanges are fluid interaction(s) between the Contracting Officer (CO) and the contractors that may address any aspect of the proposal and may or may not be documented in real time. However, the Government reserves the right to conduct interchanges using Interchange Notices (IN). Offeror responses to INs will be considered in making the order selection decision. Interchanges may be conducted with one, some or all offerors as the Government is not required to conduct interchanges with any or all contractors responding to this FOPR.

3. Evaluation Factors

A. Responses to this FOPR will be evaluated against the following factors and subfactors:

Factor 1: Technical Subfactor 1.1: Obsolescence Plan Factor 2: Price

FACTOR 1: Technical.

The offeror’s proposal shall, at a minimum, address the subfactor, as they apply to the Versatile Diagnostic Automatic Test Station (VDATS) Engineering Services Performance Work Statement (PWS). The technical proposal should demonstrate the contractor’s ability to fulfil the technical requirements.

Sub-Factor 1.1 – Obsolescence Plan – Submittal Requirements:

This technical factor is met when the Offeror provides a detailed narrative, along with supporting documentation that illustrates their understanding of, and ability to execute, a proactive Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages (DMSMS) and obsolescence management program based on a Government-provided list of VDATS items.

IAW PWS paragraph 4.3, the Contractor shall provide a plan detailing:

- Initial Phase-In and Setup: How the Offeror plans to initiate the monitoring process upon contract award (acknowledging there is no incumbent contractor for knowledge transfer), including the process for ingesting the Government-provided list of items into their tracking systems or databases.

- Continuous Monitoring Cadence: The Offeror's specific schedule and methodology for continuous monitoring (e.g., daily, weekly, or monthly checks) and what specific actions are encompassed within that monitoring cycle to ensure timely identification of DMSMS issues.

- Resolution and Recommendation Process: The detailed engineering and logistics steps taken once a potential obsolete part is identified. This must detail how the Offeror conducts research to find potential form/fit/function replacements and how they formulate and present these recommended solutions to the Government for review and approval.

The following ratings will be utilized:

TABLE A – Technical Ratings

Rating Description

Acceptable Proposal meets the requirements of the FOPR.

Unacceptable Proposal does not meet the requirements of the FOPR.

(2) Volume II:

A. FACTOR 2: Price

The Government will evaluate the Price proposal for (1) completeness, (2) reasonableness (3) unbalanced pricing and (4) Total Evaluated Price (TEP). Offerors whose price is determined to be unreasonable will not be considered for award. Proposals that are determined to be incomplete may be ineligible for award.

Additionally, an offer may be rejected if the CO determines unbalanced pricing poses an unsatisfactory risk to the Government. Evaluation of options shall not obligate the Government to exercise such options

(1) Completeness. The Government will review the pricing submissions for completeness and compliance with Price instructions of the solicitation. If not complete and in compliance, the Offeror’s proposal may be ineligible for award. Submission of an incomplete Price Matrix will cause the offeror’s proposal to be non-compliant with the terms and conditions of the FOPR and may render the proposal ineligible for award.

The proposal will be reviewed to determine the extent to which all the price elements have been addressed. The Offeror’s proposed price and other information will be evaluated to ensure continuity and traceability of prices to the technical volume and between the initial proposal and any revisions thereto. The review will determine the adequacy of the Offeror’s proposal in addressing and fulfilling the FOPR requirements.

(2) Reasonableness. The Offeror’s Price proposal will be evaluated using one or more of the techniques defined in FAR 15.404 in order to determine if it is reasonable. For a price to be reasonable, it must represent a price to the Government that a prudent person would pay in the conduct of competitive business. Normally, price reasonableness is established through price analysis techniques as described in FAR 15.404. For additional information see legacy FAR 31.201-3.

(3) Unbalanced Pricing. The Government will conduct an analysis for unbalanced pricing in accordance with FAR 15.404-1(g). Unbalanced pricing exists when, despite a satisfactory TEP, a proposed line item is significantly overstated or understated as indicated by the application of price analysis techniques. Unbalanced pricing may increase performance risk and could result in payment of unreasonably high prices. An offer may be rejected if the Contracting Officer determines that the lack of balance poses an unsatisfactory risk to the Government. The burden of proof for demonstrating balance pricing rests with the Offeror.

(4) Total Evaluated Price. The TEP will be calculated as the sum of the Offeror’s proposed prices for the CLINs extended prices including the base period and all options CLINs. Evaluation of option CLINs shall not obligate the Government to exercise such option CLINs.

(5) Pre-Award Survey. The Government may conduct a pre-award survey (PAS) as part of this fair opportunity selection. Results of the PAS (if conducted) will be evaluated to determine each offeror’s capability to meet the requirements of the solicitation.

B. Past Performance. Although past performance may not be used as an evaluation factor, the proposals submitted by the contractor to meet Technical subfactor 1.1 and information obtained from other sources available to the Government such as the Past Performance Information Retrieval System (PPIRS) will be used as part of the responsibility determination made IAW FAR 9.104-1. The

Government reserves the right to obtain information relative to present and past performance on its own.

C. Ombudsman. In accordance with DAFFARS 5352.201-9101, Ombudsman (JUL 2023), an Ombudsman has been appointed to hear and facilitate the resolution of concerns from Offerors, potential Offerors, and others for this acquisition. If resolution cannot be made by the CO, concerned parties may contact the following agency: Nicole R. Furlough, at 478-222-1088, or via email, Nicole.Furlough@us.af.mil.