Instructions and Evaluation Criteria - Basis for Award.pdf

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A. INSTRUCTIONS:

1. The Contractor shall submit their quotation on letterhead to the email address stated therein by the date and time specified herein. The quotation shall contain, at a minimum, the information detailed below. If the quotation is missing any of the elements listed below, the quotation may be deemed unacceptable and may not be evaluated further.

2. The contractor is required to meet all solicitation requirements, including terms and conditions, and representations and certifications. The contractor must clearly identify any exception to the solicitation terms and conditions and provide complete rationale.

3. The quote must be complete, self-sufficient, and respond directly to the requirements of this solicitation. All quoter’s must be able to provide enough information to demonstrate they can meet or exceed the Charpy Specimen requirements as outlined in the attached Statement of Work (SOW).

4. The Government intends to award a firm fixed price Purchase Order. The award will be made to the contractor whose submission represents the best value to the Government.

The Government may award to other than the lowest priced Contractor or the highest technically rated Contractor. Pricing will be evaluated separately from technical factors and used as a trade-off. The importance of price in the evaluation will increase with the degree of equality among quotations of the non-price factors.

5. The Government intends to evaluate submissions based on the quoter’s technical approach, delivery schedule, past performance, and price. The Government intends to award without exchanges. However, the Government reserves the right to conduct exchanges if determined by the CO to be necessary. Therefore, each initial quotation should contain the Contractor’s best approach from both a price and a technical standpoint. The Government shall not be liable for any costs incurred by the contractor submitting a quote in response to this solicitation.

6. The contractor shall provide a quotation which includes the following three (3) non-price factors and price:

a) Factor 1 - Technical Approach

b) Factor 2 – Delivery Schedule

c) Factor 3 - Past Performance

d) Factor 4 – Price

7. Contractors shall clearly demonstrate their approach to meet the technical requirement as outlined in this Request for Quotation (RFQ).

8. The Government intends to evaluate the quotations and issue a purchase order based on the initial quotation received. Therefore, the initial quotation should contain the quoter’s best terms from a price and technical standpoint. The Government reserves the right to request a revised quotation from or negotiate final purchase order terms with the quoter if later determined by the Contracting Officer to be necessary.

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B. EVALUATION CRITERIA AND BASIS FOR AWARD:

1. All quotes will be evaluated by the Contracting Officer (CO) and the Contracting

Officer’s Representative (COR). The quotes will be evaluated to determine whether the contractor’s technical approach, delivery schedule, and past performance have adequately and completely considered, defined, and satisfied the requirements specified in the RFQ.

The quotes will be evaluated to determine the extent to which the requirement has been addressed.

2. The Government will award a firm fixed price purchase order resulting from this RFQ to the responsible contractor whose quotation conforming to the solicitation is determined most advantageous and represents the best value to the Government, price and other factors considered.

3. The following factors three (3) non-price factors and price shall be used to evaluate quotes:

a) Factor 1: Technical Approach (Pre-Qualification)

b) Factor 2: Delivery Schedule

c) Factor 3: Past Performance

d) Factor 4: Price

4. Evaluation Factor Importance: In this selection, non-priced Factors 1 (Technical Approach), 2 (Delivery Schedule), and 3 (Past Performance) are of equal importance to each other. When combined, the non-priced Factors are significantly more important than Factor 4 (Price).

5. The Government intends on selecting the contractor’s quotation package that represents the best value regarding the evaluation factors mentioned above. As a best value, the award may be made to other than the lowest price contractor or other than the highest technically rated contractor.

6. A written notice of award or acceptance of a quotation mailed or otherwise furnished to the successful Quoter within the time for acceptance specified in the quotation, shall result in a binding contract without further action by either party. Before the quotation’s specified expiration time, the Government may accept a quotation (or part of a quotation), whether there are negotiations after its receipt, unless a written notice of withdrawal is received before award.

7. By submission of its quotation, the contractor is required to meet all solicitation requirements, such as terms and conditions, representations and certifications, and technical requirements, in addition to those identified as evaluation factors and sub-factors. Failure to meet a requirement may result in a quotation ineligible for award.

Contractors must clearly identify any exception to the solicitation terms and conditions and provide complete accompanying rationale. The evaluation process shall proceed with Evaluation Factors:

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FACTOR 1: TECHNICAL APPROACH (Pre-Qualification)

(1) Submittal Requirement: The Contractor’s quotation shall clearly and unambiguously describe a technical approach for the proposed Charpy specimens to successfully fulfill the specification requirements, technical approach, delivery schedule, and all requirements as applicable per the Statement of Work.

(a) The technical approach shall not exceed 3 single-sided pages/6 total pages using no smaller than 11-point font.

(b) The Contractor shall be pre-qualified by NIST through a Machining

Qualification Program; Contractors shall be on the Qualified Manufacturer’s List (QML), maintained by the NIST Charpy coordinator; and the Contractor shall have delivered at least one successful Charpy Production lot to NIST.

Proof of prequalification is required, and all offerors shall provide a QML Certification Letter with their quotation.

(2) Basis of Evaluation: Evaluation of this factor is a subjective evaluation of the Offeror’s understanding of the solicitation requirements (clauses, provisions and the SOW) and demonstrated ability to meet contract requirements and SOW based on the offeror’s proposed technical approach. A technical quotation that demonstrates a thorough understanding of all solicitation and project requirements will be rated higher than a quotation that does not clearly detail approach, does not adequately address all aspects of the solicitation and project, and/or does not demonstrate the offeror’s technical capability to perform the work. Additionally, a technical quotation which is primarily a copy and paste version of the SOW and solicitation requirements will be deemed unacceptable and not given further consideration for award. THE LACK OF PREQUALIFICATION PROOF WILL DEEM THE

QUOTATION UNACCEPTABLE AND WILL NOT BE GIVEN FURTHER

CONSIDERATION FOR AWARD.

FACTOR 2: DELIVERY SCHEDULE

(1) Submittal Requirement: The contractor shall submit document(s) that clearly and unambiguously confirms delivery of all items by required delivery dates; or propose alternate delivery dates per the Statement of Work and in this RFQ.

(2) Basis of Evaluation: This factor will be evaluated to determine whether the offeror understands the delivery requirements and whether the offeror is capable of meeting the required schedule/delivery per the request for quotation. The Government will assess an earlier schedule/delivery as more favorable and added value to the Government.

(3) Due to the urgency of this requirement to maintain Charpy SRM inventories, the delivery schedule has been condensed and requires a quicker delivery than the current IDIQ schedule and that of past requirements. The Government will evaluate the offeror’s delivery schedule and their ability to meet the requirement. If the 15 days for the pilot lot and 30 days for the production lot schedule cannot be satisfied, the

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Government will evaluate schedules based on length of time required to complete delivery.

FACTOR 3: PAST PERFORMANCE

(1) Submittal Requirements: The contractor shall submit a completed Past Performance Questionnaire (Attachment C -PPQ) or Contract Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) Evaluation Report for three companies/organizations/ clients which the contractor has provided recent and similar items for. If there is not a completed CPARS evaluation report, then Contractors shall submit a completed Attachment C-PPQ.

(a) If a contractor has no relevant past performance, it should include a statement to that effect in its quotation.

(b) A failure to submit past performance or affirmatively state that a contractor does not have any past performance will result in the contractor being considered non-compliant.

(2) Basis of Evaluation: Past performance will be reviewed by the Government using the Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS) or the Past Performance Questionnaire. Please provide points of contact.

(a) This factor will be rated as Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory or Neutral.

Subcontractor past performance may be used in place of contractor rating.

a. SATISFACTORY – the contractor has at least one recent and relevant project in CPARS with an overall rating of satisfactory or better or have a satisfactory response from at least one point of contact in Factor two (2).

b. UNSATISFACTORY – the contractor has at least one recent and relevant project in CPARS with an overall rating of less than satisfactory or have a less than satisfactory response from at least one point of contact in Factor two (2).

c. NEUTRAL - In accordance with FAR 15.305(2)(iv) in the case of a contractor without a record of relevant past performance or for whom information on past performance is unavailable, the contractor may not be evaluated favorably or unfavorably on past performance. If a contractor does not have a record of relevant past performance or if information on an contractor’s past performance is not available in CPARS, the contractor will receive a Neutral rating of “Neutral” – which will be assessed as Satisfactory overall.

FACTOR 4: PRICE

(1) Submittal Requirement: The Contractor shall complete and submit one price quotation. Price quotations shall include the below identified information:

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(a) A pricing sheet to explain the cost breakout in terms of major categories of the quotation, i.e. one (1) Lot of 1900 each of Low- Energy Charpy SRM- LL-185, one (1) Lot of 1900 each of Low- Energy Charpy SRM- LL-186, one (1) Lot of 1900 each of Low- Energy Charpy SRM- LL-187 and one (1) Lot of 1900 each of High- Energy Charpy SRM-HH-189 associated that are deemed necessary for determining price fair and reasonable.

(b) The quotation shall provide a total firm fixed price. The Government intends to award a firm fixed price purchase order, the breakdown is to assist with determining the price fair and reasonable.

(2) Basis of Evaluation: Price will be evaluated based on the total price. The Government has requested, and shall evaluate, each Contractor’s detailed cost breakdown to determine the reasonableness and completeness of the price quotation. One or more of the following techniques will be used to ensure a fair and reasonable price:

(a) Comparison of proposed prices/costs received in response to the solicitation.

(b) Comparison of proposed prices/costs with the Independent Government Cost Estimate.

(c) Comparison of proposed prices/costs with available historical information.

(d) A price/cost that is found to be either unreasonably high or unrealistically low in relation to the proposed work may be indicative of an inherent lack of understanding of the solicitation requirements and may result in the overall quotation being considered unacceptable.

(e) A price realism analysis will not be conducted; price will be evaluated for reasonableness.

7. The Government reserves the right to eliminate from consideration for award, any or all quoters at any time prior to award of the purchase order.

8. The Government intends to evaluate quotations and award a purchase order without discussions with Contractors. The Government reserves the right to conduct clarifications if the Contracting Officer (CO) later determines them to be necessary.

9. Inquiries regarding the subject RFQ shall be submitted electronically to angela.hitt@nist.gov not later than Thursday, November 4, 2021 by 09:00 AM MST.

10. Quotations regarding the subject RFQ shall be submitted electronically to the CO, Angela Hitt, at angela.hitt@nist.gov not later than the date specified within the RFQ posting.

11. The Government shall not be liable for any costs incurred by the quoter submitting a quotation in response to this RFQ.