Gen VI RFI-Market Research questions.docx

Med/Surg Prime Vendor Generation VI Market Research

Company Name:

Address:

Company POC:

Phone Number:

E-Mail:

Vendor Code (Cage Code):

Directions: Please answer the questions with as much detail as possible. If you cannot support a requirement below, please explain and provide how you can support or accomplish the requirement in a different way.

1. Please identify your Business Size Classification, i.e. small (less than 500 employees) or large.

2. Describe your distribution network to include strategic locations of your distribution centers.

3. Do you have past experience with government contracts? If yes, please provide the contract numbers and identify what the contract entailed.

4. Are there any reasons your company would be unwilling to service small military facilities/clinics?

5. Are you a distributor or a manufacturer or both?

6. Do you have the ability to obtain products for distribution that you do not manufacture?

7. Is your company Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) transaction capable? If so, which EDI transactions do you utilize?

8. Do you provide web-based ordering ability for your customers? If not, what is the usual mechanism for you to receive orders from customers?

9. Do you have Wide Area Work Flow (WAWF) capability and access?

10. DLA Troop Support is interested in the possibility of a 10-year contract for this sixth generation of the Med/Surg Prime Vendor Program. Could your company support a contract of this length?

11. What impact will a contract of this length have on your ability to provide pricing on an APC (Annual Purchase Commitment) tier driven pricing model?

*NOTE: APC in terms of this program references the customer’s previous 12-months of sales. APC is not a commitment to purchase a set amount of products or reach a specific dollar value during the life of the contract.

12. What are your standard delivery time frames for both usage and non-usage items for your commercial customers? (DLA Troop Support defines Non-Usage Items as “items for which a customer does not provide regular demand data and/or demand that is greatly exceeded.”)

13. Are you capable of providing delivery windows? Ie.,11am -1pm, 3pm-5pm, etc. Would you consider this an additive service requiring an increased distribution fee?

14. Does your company have a specific geographic ordering area or restriction?

15. Where are the majority of your customers located?

16. Does your company have the ability to stock items in preparation for emergency occurrences, for example war readiness materiel or national disasters?

17. What capabilities do you have to handle emergency orders? Do you have 24-7 ordering and delivery availability?

18. In the past, the prime vendor would fulfill up to 2 emergency orders for free. How many would you be willing to provide?

19. How long do items with no demand remain in the PV catalog?

20. Do you provide any notification to the customer when items are being deleted? If so, what and how?

21. How are quality assurance issues, to include product recalls, processed in your system and when/how are customers notified?

22. Can you provide all Prime Vendor Order Numbers (PVONs), Global Trade Identification Number (GTIN), manufacturer name and part number, weight and cube information (at the line-item level) for the entire catalog that is available to the DOD? How frequently can you provide this information?

23. Can you provide data to support mapping of National Stock Numbers (NSNs) to multiple Distribution and Pricing Agreements (DAPAs) for the same items?

24. How does your company handle pricing?

25. Would you accept government prices (Distribution and Pricing Agreements)?

26. What special indicators do you use in the cataloging function that requires special management, such as drop shipment, allocation, HAZMAT, etc?

27. Can these special indicators be passed in the cataloging file?

28. How do you process billing?

29. What types of metrics do you provide/use for your commercial customers?

30. DLA Troop Support is interested in your definition of Usage/Core items. How do you define this in a commercial setting?

31. If you utilize a usage/core model in your commercial business, what is the average percentage of a customer’s overall ordering pattern that are usage/core items?

32. If you utilize a usage/core model for another government contract, what is the average percentage of a customer’s overall ordering pattern that are usage/core items?

33. Would you be willing to provide an additional discount if any one customer’s ordering reached 70% usage/core items? If not, what percentage would a customer need to reach that would warrant a discount if any?

34. Describe your business model for usage items?

35. Do you utilize a Business Intelligence (BI) System to manage your inventory at each distribution center (DC) for usage and/or non-items?

36. What parameters do you set within the BI system for the addition and removal of items to/from your inventory and what is this based on?

37. When an item is added or removed to/from a DC inventory via a BI system transaction, is this reviewed by an individual within your company?

38. Are your commercial customers notified that an item will no longer be stocked at a local DC? If so, how is this notification sent?

39. Do you have the capacity to establish and maintain credit accounts and produce reports of such?

40. What percent of fill rate do your commercial customers receive for usage items?

41. How does your company manage and segregate different accounts for your commercial customers?

42. Do you allow multiple ordering points to one facility?

43. Commercially, how many ordering points do you allow for one delivery location and how is your pricing structured for this service?

44. How often do you provide customer service visits to your commercial customers and what would you consider a standard number of visits annually/monthly?

45. Is the number of visits to your commercial customers determined contractually or determined by need (i.e. sales volume, staff experience, number of issues)?

46. If a customer requests more frequent site visits to facilitate better service, could you accommodate?

47. How do you structure your pricing for customer service visits that would exceed what your organization would consider necessary?

48. Could you support a full-time customer service rep/reps at a customer facility?

49. Could you support a full-time customer service representative that would provide customer service to an entire branch of service, ie, the Air Force?

50. Do you supply/sell equipment items to your commercial customers? If so, what types and what is the criteria?

51. Do you provide any automated "return goods" capability for your commercial customers? If so, what are the associated processes and business rules?

52. How do you handle errors in customer orders?

53. DLA’s Med Surg Prime Vendor Program supports deployments. During a deployment, ordering for a certain site will increase. Would your company be able to handle a large bump in orders from a deployment, while continuing support to routine customers? If so, how would your business go about supporting this?

54. Do you have any scenarios similar to this that you support in the commercial world?

55. Is your company RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) capable? If so, which RFID tags are used, i.e. active, passive or both?

56. What type of performance-based incentives, if any, do your commercial customers use?

57. How long does it take you to setup a new account within your internal systems and respond via EDI transaction that it is complete?

58. How long does it take you to alter an existing account with new information and respond via EDI transaction that it is complete?

59. What are your special service election options and how do you communicate those with your commercial customers?

60. Are you able to provide low unit of measure on a per call basis? In addition, do you have the ability to break cases to satisfy an order? What is your organization’s standard definition of Low Unit of Measure (LUM)?

61. Do you provide a “Stockless” program for you commercial customers? If so, what BI systems if any are utilized to accomplish this task? Can a stockless program be utilized for a specific department, ie., the operating room?

62. What medical/surgical products do you distribute/manufacture? In addition, what categories of items do you routinely stock in your distribution centers and provide to your commercial medical facility customers as Medical/Surgical supplies along with their regular deliveries, even if not traditional medical supplies? Please describe categories in detail, to include specific items to illustrate the categories.

63. How long will it take you to catalog and be ready to process/fulfill customer orders for New Item Requests (NIRs)?

64. When product is shipped, do you have the capability to provide tracking information? How could you pass this shipping information to the customer? Would shipping via independent carrier affect this capability?

65. In the Advanced Shipment Notice (EDI 856), can you provide the tracking number, carrier name/code, UID, QA, weight, cube and number of pieces per shipment, per call?

66. What are your capabilities to minimize risk during untimely events (i.e. natural disasters, longshoremen strikes, etc.)?

67. Please see below Gen V regional map. There are no anticipated changes to these regional dividing lines. If you plan on offering as a Primary Prime Vendor, can you act as a Primary PV for multiple regions? If not what are your restrictions?

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