Market_Research_RFI_4_Downward_Pricing.pdf

MARKET RESEARCH

GEODSS – SOLICITATION NO: FA2517-13-R-8001

RFI #4 – Downward Pricing

In accordance with FAR 52.215-3, Request for Information or Solicitation for Planning Purposes, this is a request for information and not a request for proposals.

The following questions are for market research purposes only to assist the United States Air

Force (USAF) in development of the acquisition strategy for the new contract. Your responses will not be shared with anyone outside the USAF.

The Department of Defense is committed to continuous improvement and is working on new initiatives to achieve affordable programs, control costs and incentivize innovation. The goal of these initiatives is to successfully accomplish the mission within the constraints of a declining defense budget. To achieve these goals it will be essential to partner with industry and realize savings from contractor controlled costs and innovations.

For the next GEODSS contract, the USAF is exploring a Firm-Fixed-Price (FFP) contract type.

In conjunction with this approach, a prerequisite for contract award would be a decrease in contract price in each successive option year of the contract.

The government is contemplating structuring the contract so that labor is under a FFP CLIN and all supplies, material, equipment and parts will purchased through a Cost Reimbursable (CR)

CLIN. Downward pricing would be achieved by reducing the value of the CR CLIN each year as the contractor achieves cost reduction through, for instance, taking advantage of quantity discounts, performing excellent preventive maintenance to prolong equipment life, identifying other efficiencies, etc. The downward pricing from the CR CLIN would be in conjunction with and meant to complement downward pricing in the FFP CLIN.

1. Is this approach feasible?

2. Could downward pricing be achieved using this approach?

3. What drawbacks or problems do your foresee by using this approach?

4. Could enough savings in the CR CLIN be realized to more than offset any labor increases that may exist in the FFP CLIN?

5. How would you achieve downward pricing on the FFP labor CLIN?

6. Do you have any other specific ideas on how your company could achieve downward pricing for this effort?

Please provide responses to all questions by 26 November 2013 to: Contracting Officer Austin

Frindt at austin.frindt@us.af.mil and Contract Specialist Amy Hallam at amy.hallam.1@us.af.mil.

mailto:austin.frindt@us.af.mil mailto:amy.hallam.1@us.af.mil