Consolidated_Q A_Draft_RFP.pdf

FA7000-15-R-0002

Draft RFP Questions and Responses

The following are questions, comments and responses in response to Draft RFP FA7000-15-R- 0002.

1. QUESTION: Attachment 6d - TO 0004 KC-135 Teardown Storage: This task order as written will give an unfair competitive advantage to the incumbent in that they would not need to price shipping and warehouse set-up since they are already providing this service. Suggest the fee for storage and TDMS tracking pricing be required but the transport component of the TO be deleted

- or the entire TO be deleted from this RFP. This will reduce the potential for an offeror to file a pre-proposal protest on the grounds of unfair competitive advantage as was the case in the last recompetition. The shipping component of this TO could be assigned to the current prime contractor either as a new TO under the current contract or as a task under the existing requirement for contract phase-out.

RESPONSE: Offerors will still be required to include all costs/prices associated with performance of TO 0004. The evaluation criteria in Section M will be revised to eliminate the alleged unfair competitive advantage as a result of transportation/shipping and warehouse setup costs.

2. QUESTION: Attachment 6b - TO 0002 C/KC-135 Teardown Analysis Program (Vertical Stabilizer): 2.1 Sub-Task 1: Transportation on page 6 requires transport of vertical stabilizer structures from Ste. Genevieve to the contractor's site. This appears to be a duplicate effort with respect to the transportation requirement in TO 4. Please clarify.

RESPONSE: The transportation requirements under TO 0002 and TO 0004 are not duplicate efforts. It is expected the item under TO 0002 will be shipped shortly after IDIQ contract award.

The items under TO 0004 will not be shipped until the period of performance on the current storage task order ends on 29 February 2016.

3. QUESTION: Attachments 6b, c, d - TOs 0002, 0003, 0004: As was provided for Attachment 6a T-38 ASIP can NTE hours be provided for the other 3 TOs?

RESPONSE: No. NTE hours specified in the T-38 ASIP Work Statement are for FFP Level-of- Effort requirements.

4. QUESTION: Attachments 3a, b, c, d Task Order Pricing Schedules require travel and material/ODC estimates. Since these are cost-reimbursable items will the Government consider deleting these estimates from TEP calculations, providing plug estimates, or deleting the requirement altogether?

RESPONSE: All proposed cost-reimbursables will be included in the TEP.

5. QUESTION: Section L - 5.3 Recent and Relevant Contracts: Can individual task orders count as contract citations or only the basic IDIQ contract?

RESPONSE: Yes, individual task orders can count as contract citations for past performance.

6. QUESTION: Draft Solicitation Section B, Attachment 3 Pricing Schedules: Section B indicates an ordering period of 5 years while the Pricing Schedules allow for 8 years. Please clarify this apparent discrepancy. Additionally, the PoP seems to indicate these years as base periods vs. a base year + option years. Is this correct?

RESPONSE: This is not a discrepancy. The IDIQ ordering period, five years, does not have option periods, but does have five separate contract years. The eight-year pricing schedule is correct. It is anticipated that a task order could be issued up to the final day of the five-year ordering period and the task order may have a three-year period of performance taking the period of performance into years six through eight. Therefore, offerors will need to price labor rates beyond the five-year ordering period.

7. QUESTION: Draft Past Performance Questionnaire (Attachment 12)

Section 1, Question L, says: “Description of product, service or research provided to include which similar/same tasks (1-9) from the four likely awardable task orders was performed on this contract. (use additional sheets, if necessary):”

Would it be possible to provide a list of the 9 subtasks, with brief explanatory descriptions, in the body of the Questionnaire itself?

RESPONSE: It is anticipated that the offeror will complete this section, not the past performance questionnaire respondent. Adding the 9 subtasks would make the questionnaire excessively long.

8. QUESTION: The ordering period for CLINs 0001 – 0006 is May 2015 to May 2020, however, all pricing tables in section J attachment 3 requires pricing for eight years. Please provide clarification.

RESPONSE: The eight-year pricing schedule is correct. It is anticipated that a task order could be issued up to the final day of the five-year ordering period and the task order may have up to a three-year period of performance taking the period of performance into years six through eight.

Therefore, offerors will need to price labor rates beyond the five-year ordering period.

9. QUESTION: We are unable to find any government guidance or requirements specifically for item (4) Overall Technical Approach, and item (5) Technical Risk Matrix in Section L, Attachment 8, paragraph 4.2.2. Can this guidance be provided in the final RFP Section L?

RESPONSE: Items (4) Overall Technical Approach and (5) Technical Risk Matrix will be removed from Section L. These two sections are not required.

10. QUESTION: Why is the government not offering Small Business Outreach Sessions and/or an Industry Day? This program consists of complex research, development, science, engineering, and large scale laboratories and equipment. An Industry Day forum for information exchange with industry will increase Small Business competition, improve the quality of proposals from prospective bidders, reduce potential protests, and provide the appearance of a fair, level, and transparent competition. Please refer to FAR 15.201, “Exchanges With Industry Before Receipt of Proposals” and the “DOD Vendor Communication Plan”.

RESPONSE: The Government will be holding a preproposal conference instead of an industry day to provide the opportunity for industry to ask questions regarding the requirement and the proposal process. The 10th Contracting Squadron has already used many of the optional techniques referenced in FAR 15.201(c) to promote industry participation.

11. QUESTION: Consider adding the following labor categories: "Aircraft Maintenance Technician," "Warehouse Manager," "Warehouse Associate," "Stock Manager," Instructor", and "Subject Matter Expert".

RESPONSE: All anticipated contractor labor categories can be made to fit within one of the Government defined labor categories. The fully burdened labor rate the offeror proposes for each category is a maximum. The contractor can have multiple labor categories, with differing labor rates, under one Government defined category.

12. QUESTION: TO 0004: What is the expected volume of parts flowing in and out of the warehouse?

RESPONSE: Volume of flow out of the warehouse is expected to be low. Parts will be retrieved and shipped from the warehouse on future task orders. During the current contract, KC-135 parts have flowed out of the warehouse less than five times, although this is not necessarily an indicator of the future. Refer to task order 0004 Work Statement paragraph 2.2.2 regarding asset retrieval.

13. QUESTION: TO 0004: In regard to paragraph 2.1, Sub-Task 1: Transportation, can prospective bidders visit the government storage facility to better determine logistics and transportation requirements for material and equipment handling, transportation, and shipping?

If not, can the government specify anticipated handling, transportation, and shipping requirements i.e. size/type of forklift, size/type of transport, special shipping/transport needs including wide load, escort, permits, etc.?

RESPONSE: A site visit will not be permitted. Refer to TO 0004, paragraph 1.2 for estimates of the number and size of crates containing teardown analysis program subjects grouped by Teardown Section (TS) and number and size of pallets containing residual structure lots.

Shipment is per FAR clauses 52.247-34, 52.247-62, and 52.247-68 in the RFP. The full text of these clauses can be read at https://farsite.hill.af.mil.

14. QUESTION: TO 0004: In regard to paragraph 2.2.1 Asset Protection, what is the physical security standard for storage? What level of perimeter security measures are required? Are intruder alarms required? Is a CCTV system to monitor people and vehicles required? What type of locking devices and control systems are required? What type of fire protection/suppression system is required?

https://farsite.hill.af.mil/

RESPONSE: Refer to task order 0004 Work Statement, paragraph 2.2.1.

15. QUESTION: TO 0004: In regard to paragraph 2.2.2 Asset Retrieval, what are the expected retrieval parameters, i.e. normal business days/hours? 24 hours/7 days per week?

RESPONSE: The Government does not require and is not defining business hours and days for the offeror. The offeror must meet the asset retrieval requirements of the referenced paragraph.

16. QUESTION: TO 0002: In order for the evaluators to assess each proposal on a level field, it may be beneficial to identify the number of parts, amount of surface area, and number of NDI indications that require documentation.

RESPONSE: The precise number of parts, amount of surface area, and number of NDI indications will not be known until the analysis required by TO 0002 is performed. Analysis of the TO 0002 subject structure has not been performed by CAStLE to date. All NDI indications found during the execution of TO 0002 will require documentation as specified in the Work Statement. The TO 0002 text, accompanied by the referenced figures which contain detailed subject structure diagrams and photographs permit estimation.

17. QUESTION: In the SOW 1.5.2 it is stated that profit, fee, G&A, or overhead cannot be charged on travel or material cost. This is not compliant with our DCAA approved accounting system. Please advise.

RESPONSE: Work Statement paragraph 1.5.2. will be revised. Profit/fee is not permitted on any cost reimbursable item. Burden/indirect (G&A) is permitted on Materials and Other Direct Costs (ODCs), but not on travel. See “Section B – Supplies or Services and Prices” and the extended description for CLINs 0003 and 0004 for the correct description of what is excluded on cost reimbursables.

18. QUESTION: Basic Work Statement paragraph 2.2.6.1 (On-Site Presence Required) states that “. . . four full-time equivalent (FTE) technicians, one for each major lab area (Area of Responsibility, or AOR) have been the minimum desired staffing for operating the laboratory.”

Are these AOR technicians included in any of the Task Orders under this solicitation? If so, which Task Order(s) do we price the AOR technicians?

RESPONSE: AOR technicians are not included in task orders 0001 – 0004. The Government will issue separate task orders at a future date to fulfill this requirement, subject to availability of funds.

19. QUESTION: Sub-Tasks 2, 3, and 4 of the Task Order 0001 Work Statement restrict the Offeror to propose not-to-exceed labor hours. How did the Government derive these very specific labor hours? Why were these restrictions placed specifically on Task Order 0001 proposals?

RESPONSE: The referenced subtasks are FFP Level-of-Effort (LOE). FFP LOE requires the Government engineer to estimate a number of hours based on significant experience and provide the contractor with a not-to- exceed (NTE) amount.

20. QUESTION: Task Order 0001, paragraph 4.1 (Travel) lists several events that may require Contractor travel. So that we can properly bid these costs, would the Government please provide the number of site visits, technical interchange meetings, service trips, conferences, and program reviews required by the Government? Also, please define a “service trip.”

RESPONSE: See referenced paragraph. “The offeror will propose travel appropriate to the scope of the WS for any site visits, a kick-off meeting, technical interchange meetings, service trips, conferences, and program reviews.”

21. QUESTION: Regarding the description of Task Order 0002 in Section L.4.2.5:

a. Is there a Sub-task 1?

b. Is Sub-task 2 the Qualification Plan

c. Is Sub-task 3 the Process Plan?

d. Is the description of “how your facilities will support the timely execution of each Protocol…” a separate Sub-task? If so, what is its’ Sub-task number?

RESPONSE:

a. Yes, it is included in the task order 0002 WS, but is not being evaluated as part of award.

b. Yes, reference task order 0002 WS paragraph 2.2.1.

c. No, reference task order 0002 WS paragraph 2.2.2

d. No, it is part of subtask 3. The use of the term “facilities” was an error and will be revised to “processes and equipment” which comes from task order 0002 work statement paragraph 2.3., last sentence.

22. QUESTION: Paragraph 2.1 of the Task Order 0002 Work Statement states that “The Contractor shall transport the subject KC-135 vertical stabilizer structure from government storage in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri to the contractor’s site.” It is our understanding that the Ste.

Genevieve site is the current incumbent Contractor’s location. As such, the incumbent Contractor would not need to propose transportation costs to relocate the KC-135 vertical stabilizer and possibly have a lower, and more attractive, Task Order cost proposal than other Offerors. To alleviate this advantage of the incumbent Contractor, request the Government either eliminate the Task Order transportation cost requirement or the Government provide a plug number that each Offeror submits as the transportation cost.

RESPONSE: Offerors will still be required to include all costs/prices associated with performance of TO 0002. The evaluation criteria in Section M will be revised to eliminate the alleged unfair competitive advantage as a result of transportation/shipping and warehouse setup costs.

23. QUESTION: Regarding the description of Task Order 0004 in Section L.4.2.5:

Is there a Sub-task 1?

RESPONSE: Yes, it is included in task order 0004 Work Statement paragraph 2.1, but it is not being evaluated as part of the award decision.

24. QUESTION: Paragraph 2.1 of the Task Order 0004 Work Statement states that “The Contractor shall transport the KC-135 teardown program assets from government storage in Ste.

Genevieve, Missouri to the contractor’s storage site.” It is our understanding that the Ste.

Genevieve site is the current incumbent Contractor’s location. As such, the incumbent Contractor would not need to propose transportation costs to relocate the KC-135 teardown program assets and possibly have a lower, and more attractive, Task Order cost proposal than other Offerors. To alleviate this advantage of the incumbent Contractor, request the Government either eliminate the Task Order transportation cost requirement or the Government provide a plug number that each Offeror submits as the transportation cost.

RESPONSE: Offerors will still be required to include all costs/prices associated with performance of TO 0004. The evaluation criteria in Section M will be revised to eliminate the alleged unfair competitive advantage as a result of transportation/shipping and warehouse setup costs.

25. QUESTION: Paragraph 2.2.1 of the Task Order 0004 Work Statement states that “Residual structure and crated parts shall be stored in a clean and dry facility that protects the assets from mechanical, environmental, and atmospheric damage.” Would the Government please provide specific definitions for “clean and dry?”

RESPONSE: Refer back to paragraph 2.2.1 in task order 0004 work statement. “Storage shall be of a level appropriate for the type of items requiring storage.”

26. QUESTION: Section L, paragraph 2.2.1.1 (Page Size and Format) states that large tables, charts graphs, diagrams and schematics may be presented on 11 by 17 paper. Does the aforementioned information on 11 by 17 paper count against the page count? If so, is the 11 by 17 paper counted as one page or two pages?

RESPONSE: Refer to paragraph 2.2.1 of section L: “Each page shall be counted except the following: cover pages, table of contents, tabs, Solicitation Cross Reference Matrix, organizational charts, graphs, charts, photographs, pictures, tables and glossaries.” Refer to paragraph 2.2.1.1 (b) of section L: “Legible tables, charts, graphs and figures shall be used wherever practical to depict organizations, systems and layout, implementation schedules, plans, etc. These displays shall be uncomplicated, legible, and shall not exceed 11 by 17 inches in size.

Foldout pages shall fold entirely within the volume. Foldout pages may only be used for large tables, charts, graphs, diagrams and schematics not for pages of text.” Foldouts used for the purposes described in these two paragraphs are not counted as pages.

27. QUESTION: In reference to Section L.2.2.3 (Cross-Referencing), is the Solicitation Cross Reference Matrix in Volume II to include all proposal volumes (Volumes I through V) or only Volume II?

RESPONSE: Section L paragraph 2.2.3 will be revised. The Cross Reference Matrix will not be required. Instead, offerors will be required to insert in the text any reference to a separate document or volume as appropriate.

28. QUESTION: In Section L, paragraph 4.2.2 (Volume Organization), there are neither Section L instructions for the Technical Risk Matrix nor page limitations, if any. Would the Government please provide?

RESPONSE: Items (4) Overall Technical Approach and (5) Technical Risk Matrix will be removed from Section L. These two items are not required.

29. QUESTION: In Section L, paragraph 4.2.2 (Volume Organization), there are no Section L instructions for the Overall Technical Approach. Would the Government please provide?

RESPONSE: Items (4) Overall Technical Approach and (5) Technical Risk Matrix will be removed from Section L. These two items are not required.

30. QUESTION: In Section L, paragraph 4.2.4 (Subfactor Two: Staffing), the instructions state “. . . state the rationale to fulfill the requirements of an on-site contractor presence as required in paragraph 2.2.6.1 of the basic WS.” WS paragraph 2.2.6.1 seems to already present specific rationale for on-site contractor presence. Would the Government please be more specific in explaining this requirement?

RESPONSE: The reference to basic WS paragraph 2.2.6.1 will be removed from section L paragraph 4.2.4 and the measure of merit located in Section M paragraph M002b.(4)(i)(a)(3) on page 6 will be removed.

31. QUESTION: Section L, paragraph 5.4 (Questionnaires and Evidence of Transmittal of Questionnaires) states that each Offeror is to “provide evidence of transmission to each reference.” What form of evidence does the Government require and from whom should the evidence originate, Contractor or Government evaluator?

RESPONSE: It is intended that the offeror provide evidence of transmittal of the past performance questionnaire to their intended recipient. This section will be revised to further clarify evidence of transmission.

32. QUESTION: Section L, paragraph 6.2.1 states “The Offeror shall provide fully burdened, composite labor rates for each title and time period in the Labor Rate Pricing Schedule.” Would the Government please define “composite labor rate?”

RESPONSE: The term “composite” will be removed. It is intended to read “fully burdened labor rates”.

33. QUESTION: Section L, paragraph 7.1.2 (Section B - Supplies or Services and Costs/Prices) asks for the same price schedules (Attachments 3, 3a, 3b, 3c, and 3d) required in Volume IV –

Cost/Price. Does the Government require the same price schedules in Volume V – Contract Documentation?

RESPONSE: Paragraph 7.1.2 in Section L will be revised. Section L paragraph 6.2 Volume Organization Section 2 provides instructions for submission of Attachments 3 – 3d.

34. QUESTION: Section L, paragraph 7.1.3 (Section F - Deliveries or Performance) asks for the proposed delivery schedule and periods of performance for Task Orders 0001, 0002, 0003, and 0004. How is this data different from that to be submitted in Volume II – Technical/Technical Risk Volume? Are duplicate Task Order proposed delivery schedules and periods of performance to be included in Volume V – Contract Documentation?

RESPONSE: Duplication of period of performance in Section V is not required. This paragraph will be removed or revised.

35. QUESTION: Regarding Section L.7.4, is the Offeror required to include each Section J attachment in Volume V – Contract Documentation? Requiring a copy of all Section J attachments in Volume V would add 854 pages to each copy of the Volume. Is this the Government’s intention?

RESPONSE: No, not all attachments need to be returned with the offeror’s proposal. This will be clarified.

36. QUESTION: Regarding the Past Performance Questionnaire, is the Contractor required to complete Section 1, Items A through L? If not, request the Item L requirement be reworded so the evaluator merely describes the contract’s products, services and research provided. Request removal of the requirement to equate the past contract to the 9 subtasks contained across the 4 Task Orders. This latter requirement places undue burden on the Government evaluator to read and study each of the 4 Task Orders of the current solicitation.

RESPONSE: The offeror is required to complete items A-L. The past performance questionnaire will be revised to make this clear.