ADTS_RFI_QA.pdf

Request for Information

AFLCMC/WNA

Automatic Test Systems (ATS) Division

Robins AFB GA

Advanced Digital Test Station (ADTS)

3 May 2013

Note: The following comments/questions were presented as part of the response from interested parties. The government is providing the following responses in order to clarify/address the comments/questions.

1. Tester location information is unclear. Five locations are specified in paragraph 4.5.1, but

Attachment B, the location table only shows four and TBD. Are the TBD locations all at Robins, AFB? If not, any additional locations need to be identified.

GOV’T RESPONSE: Attachment B of the Performance-based Work Statement (PWS) has been updated to reflect the final locations for all ADTS systems. All “TBDs” have been removed as all systems have an identified location. The updated PWS and Attachment B will be provided with the Request For Proposal (RFP).

2. Where will the GFE ADTS supplied to the contractor come from?

GOV’T RESPONSE: ADTS serial number 04 will be provided as GFE. The government will be responsible for shipping the GFE station to the contractor.

3. There is only one tester, ADTS-18, located at Sheppard AFB, yet the training requirements, Paragraph 4.4.3, are the same for all locations, is this correct?

GOV’T RESPONSE: Training requirements identified in PWS para. 4.4.3 were intended to be contractor-provided training at each of the using locations. This training requirement was in addition to the government-provided training at Sheppard AFB. However, this training requirement has been removed from the PWS. The updated PWS will be provided with the RFP solicitation.

4. Will the contractor be responsible to keep the GFE ADTS calibrated? If so, will the

Government provide a PATEC?

GOV’T RESPONSE: Yes, the contractor will need the ability to perform calibration of the

GFE ADTS. A PATEC and calibration ITA will be provided as GFE. The PWS has been updated to indicate this additional GFE. The updated PWS will be provided with the RFP solicitation.

5. What will the contract line items be?

GOV’T RESPONSE: The Contract Line Item Number (CLIN) structure will be provided with the RFP.

6. Is this procurement FFP?

GOV’T RESPONSE: The CLIN structure will be provided with the RFP.

7. Will billing be allowed at least once a month?

GOV’T RESPONSE: The RFP and subsequent contract will contain information regarding billing arrangements and terms and conditions for the contract.

8. PWS Paragraph 4.4 addresses technical support. Limits need to be placed on the number of off-site and on-site requests made each month/year for each site. There are too many variables and not enough information provided for a contractor to estimate how much technical support and travel will be needed. Besides the number of stations at each site, the following is necessary if the contractor is to predict the level of support that needs to be provided:

Number of operators

Operator experience level

Type of workload (production testing, TPS development, etc)

Workload quantity (units/week, TPSs/month, etc)

GOV’T RESPONSE: The number of on-site technical support visits will be limited and/or quantified in the RFP. The amount of off-site technical support is quantified in the PWS as

Monday through Friday from 0800 – 1700. Essentially, the contractor will need to have technical personnel accessible by phone and/or email during these times to support technical inquiries from the users/customers.

The number of operators of the ADTS varies from location to location and can vary depending on mission requirements. There is no way to provide static quantitative data regarding the number of operators. However, the following information was provided by the users (March 2013):

o OC-ALC - Currently the number of operators is 20 (10 stations, 2 shifts). The graveyard shift was recently shut down. The number of operators was higher with three shifts. If the ADTS is operational, they have a mechanic on the station running an LRU. They could potentially have 35 mechanics running ADTS.

Their mechanics are still using the legacy Intermediate Automatic Test Equipment

(IATE) until they receive more ADTSs. They expect to have a total of 18 test stations after final station location moves.

o Ellsworth AFB - Ellsworth has six stations and 11 operators assigned to work them across two shifts. On day shift there is an operator for each of the six stations. On swing shift they have an operator for 5/6 of the stations. These numbers change quite often based on manning levels but on average they try to have 1 technician per station.

o Dyess AFB - Currently they have 14 technicians assigned to the legacy Digital

Analog Video (DAV) section:

Three 7 Level Technicians

Seven 5 Level Technicians

Four 3 Level Technicians

Operator Experience Level o OC-ALC - B-1 Depot primarily uses WG-2604-(10-12) mechanics to repair

LRUs, skill level required; training and certification of both the test station

(ADTS, IATE, EPCAT, etc...) and the unit under test (UUT). They have a broad range of skill levels using the ADTS, freshest would be 3 years of experience to the oldest up to 20 years (or more) experience.

o Ellsworth AFB - Their technicians are typically fresh out of technical school.

They have little experience operating the station but use the guidance and assistance from higher skill level and more experienced personnel when needed.

o Dyess AFB - 2A0X1S AFSC skill code is required to operate the ADTS.

Normally they have a highly skilled 5 - Level or 7 - Level perform equipment maintenance for anything more than a 30 day inspection.

Type of Workload (34 stations supported) o 31 stations used for production; 2 stations used for TPS maintenance by 556

SMXS; 1 station used for training at Sheppard AFB.

Workload quantity (units/week, TPSs/month, etc) - There are a total of sixty-five (65)

TPSs executed on ADTS. Some of the TPSs are used exclusively at OC-ALC depot for those UUTs that are two level maintenance (2LM) items. The Main Operating Bases

(MOBs) at Ellsworth AFB and Dyess AFB average approximately 40 LRUs per month.

The number of assets tested/repaired on ADTS at OC-ALC could not be determined as they are still using both ADTS and IATE; it is estimated that the usage (number of LRUs) at OC-ALC is higher than at the MOBs.

9. PWS Paragraph 3.2, the condition of the Government Owned Spares is unstated. They need to be in Ready For Issue (RFI) condition to be useful.

GOV’T RESPONSE: The condition of the GFE spares is serviceable condition (condition code

“A”). The over and above (O&A) CLIN will be used to address any assets that are determined to be unserviceable (condition code “F”) upon contractor receipt of the assets at the beginning of the contract.

10. Duties and responsibilities (in PWS) are clear, however, the manpower and spares required, and therefore the overall cost of the effort, is highly dependent on failure history data for the

ADTS equipment. This information will be essential if the Government desires an accurate cost proposal.

GOV’T RESPONSE: Complete failure history data was provided with the RFI. Updated failure history data available at time of RFP will be provided as part of the RFP.

11. There is some lack of clarity regarding how periods of station “down time” that are beyond the contractors control will be addressed in computing the 90% “up time” metric.

GOV’T RESPONSE: The PWS was updated to provide specifics regarding how the availability metric of the system will be calculated. The updated PWS will be provided with the

RFP.

12. Does the list of Government‐Owned Spares in PWS Attachment A define all spares to be kept on hand? If not, can the complete list of required spares be provided?

GOV’T RESPONSE: Attachment A of the PWS identifies all of the spare assets that will be provided as GFE to the contractor for support of the CLS requirement. Attachment A was updated. The updated PWS will be provided with the RFP.

13. Can the OEM part numbers for the required spares be provided?

GOV’T RESPONSE: OEM part numbers will be provided as part of the RFP.

14. Which of the Government‐Owned Spares identified are TRUs (PWS paragraph 4.2)?

GOV’T RESPONSE: A list of TRUs will be provided as part of the RFP. This list will include the Teradyne, Inc. part number as well as the OEM part number.

15. Is an Electronic Data Exchange (EDE) System to request replacement parts, track status of the parts and collect program performance metrics desired?

GOV’T RESPONSE: Implementation and use of an EDE system is not a mandated requirement; however, interested bidders may include it as a proposed method of meeting those portions of the overall CLS requirement. The PWS and associated CDRLs identify the requirements, but it does not specify the method of implementation.

16. Can you elaborate on the parts replacement process? For example, are spares issued upon notification of failure or receipt of failed asset? Repair turnaround time?

GOV’T RESPONSE: Users will contact the contractor-identified POC via phone and/or email to order a part. The contractor will ship the requested part to the user. There is no requirement to wait until receipt of the failed asset before shipping out the serviceable asset. There is no performance metric directly and specifically for turnaround time on assets; however, the availability performance metric is calculated using the Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) which is affected by the turnaround time of assets.