Performance Work Statement.pdf

PERFORMANCE WORK STATEMENT

A.1 Type of Contract/Duration The contract will be a Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) type of contract against which firm fixed price BPA will be issued to one vendor. The Blanket Purchase Agreement will consist of a period of performance of (5) five-year ordering periods from the BPA award date. Option periods will not be used.

A.2 Contract Coverage

The purpose of this Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA), type contract is to provide the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) with the ability to support uniform requirements as follows:

Provide full service Uniform support to all FMCSA field employees, including manufacturing/procurement, inventory control, security control, distribution, online ordering mechanisms and acceptance of payments.

Provide management services to ensure a successful program that supports the FMCSA in a cost effective and efficient manner.

A.3 Contract Objective

The overall objective of this action is to award one BPA contract against which BPA calls can be placed to satisfy all uniform requirements in accordance with the performance work statement and specifications.

SECTION C

C.1 Introduction

The mission of Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) is to promote safe commercial motor vehicle operations through education, regulation, enforcement, and innovative research and technology to reduce truck and bus crashes resulting in fewer injuries and fatalities.

The mission is accomplished through shared responsibilities with our State partners and Stakeholders for a safe and secure transportation environment. In support of FMCSA’s mission, the Office of Field Operations has a requirement for uniform items for employees working in Field locations. All requirements for uniform allowances and ordering policies and procedures are governed by the FMCSA Uniform Policy. The Government contemplates award of a Firm Fixed Price per unit Blanket Purchase Agreement, as a result of this solicitation. This Blanket Purchase Agreement shall provide full service support and a variety of uniform items to support FMCSA Field personnel.

C.2 Personnel, Materials & Supplies

The Contractor shall provide all personnel, materials and supplies, except as otherwise specified necessary to perform the work and furnish the items as specified in the Performance Work Statement and Specifications.

C.3 Statement of Objectives

A. Manufacturing or Acquiring Uniform Items

Objective #1: Manufacture or acquire all items for the FMCSA Uniform Program. Assure quality control in the manufacturing process.

The contractor shall be capable of manufacturing program items and/or acquiring program items from other manufacturers. The contractor shall demonstrate full operating capability within 30 days of the contract award or sooner. The contractor shall determine which sources to use based on the best value combination of a fair and reasonable price, superior quality, and timely delivery. The contractor shall demonstrate expertise as a manufacturer and/or experience in sourcing product from other manufacturers.

The contractor shall submit a Quality Assurance Plan. The plan shall demonstrate the contractor’s process to maintain consistent quality control procedures for manufactured products and/or acquired products. The contractor will show expertise in providing products that meet quality standards based upon contract specifications. The contractor’s quality control and quality assurance procedures should result in over 99% of all items shipped being defect free. The contractor shall define a performance metric to measure the frequency of defective products delivered to FMCSA Field personnel.

The contractor’s Quality Assurance Plan shall include conformance with consumer product safety commission and/or other Federal Government standards or guidelines for known carcinogens, irritants, and allergens that are used in or by-products of the manufacturing process.

B. Supply Chain Management

Objective #2: Provide inventory control and management, warehousing and tracking of inventory to ensure secure storage and timely delivery. The contractor should have an established distribution process and a quality control/quality assurance program.

Objective #3: Provide shipping, handling and delivery of all goods by traceable means directly to FMCSA Field personnel at their duty location.

Objective #4: Effectively manage/balance inventory with customer demand.

The contractor must demonstrate experience and expertise in forecasting the sales demand for each item in the uniform program. This forecast should become the basis for an inventory plan for each product. The inventory plan addresses such issues as where the item is sourced, size and frequency of ordering inventory, and the amount of safety level inventory maintained “in stock”. The contractor must have the financial capacity to maintain the appropriate levels of inventory to meet target delivery time requirements. The contractor must have security plans, processes and procedures in place to minimize losses due to pilferage or theft throughout the entire supply chain. Losses of items with emblems or patches, the emblems or patches themselves must be reported to FMCSA in the monthly reports.

Distribution centers (DC) with sufficient square footage and performance capacity must be currently in operation. The distribution center must incorporate modern processes to ensure a fair and reasonable cost and designated production lead-time delivery of orders. The DC must be organized to fulfill relatively small, individual FMCSA Field personnel orders. The DC must have quality control/quality assurance processes that identify both defective products and order processing errors. Finally, the DC should have garment alteration capabilities that include emblem attachment, pant hemming and screen printing.

C. Order Management

Objective #5: Establish and coordinate the entire ordering process beginning with the placement of each order through the distribution cycle.

Objective #6: Provide a secure, automated web-based ordering process/ e-commerce solution, including an on-line ordering process that allows FMCSA Field personnel to create and utilize a unique user identification and password to place orders.

Objective #7: Establish procedures for the management of new hire orders, annual government allowance orders, returns, backorders, and other special orders with ability to view more detailed levels such as FMCSA Field personnel names, offices tied to backordered items, and replenishment or stock procurement status.

Objective #8: Provide employees with a secure web site inclusive of a web based catalog, pricing, ordering, and item availability.

Objective #9: The e-commerce solution shall provide individual uniform accounts with annual government allowance initial posting, balance information, order tracking, size and ordering history, on-line ordering, and final/annual allowance accounts closeout. Employees shall also be able to use personal funds for on-line website ordering via the web-based catalog. The funds must be segregated from regular government allowance funds, but an order may combine personal funds with a government allowance funded order if needed to fully pay for the order.

State sales taxes will only apply to the personal funded portion of an order.

FMCSA Field personnel must be able to submit orders to the contractor directly through a web site. On-line order forms must contain enough detail to ensure FMCSA Field personnel can select proper sized garments based on descriptions and instructions provided by the vendor. The contractor shall have a proven, automated order management computer system that has the following capabilities. The system must be large enough to handle a minimum of 800 individual FMCSA Field personnel accounts and an estimation of 200 authorized ship-to addresses. The system must be able to accommodate either employee allowances (specified dollar amount) or employee allotments (specified number of garments). Master files shall be maintained for each employee that include job classifications, uniform items approved for that employee, shipping information, allowance balances, and order and size histories.

The web based solution will have the following capabilities:

1. On-line ordering

2. Real time tracking of government allowance balances

3. Product information including photos, descriptions, size scales, care instructions, and warranty information

4. Order tracking through links with FedEx, UPS, or other shipper web sites. All individual

FMCSA Field personnel orders must be shipped and tracked separately by traceable means.

5. A reference section for order and size histories

6. Automated email confirmations of order receipt and order shipments

7. Use of personal funds in combination with allowance dollars to pay for orders, while effectively segregating these funds for auditing purposes.

8. Security provided through unique account numbers and passwords. Security for sensitive information such as credit card numbers which are transmitted across the internet.

9. Orders are to be shipped only to any of the approximate 200 authorized duty locations for each FMCSA Field employee. These locations will be provided to the successful offeror after contract award.

D. Customer Service

Objective #10: The contractor shall maintain a customer service / help desk during normal business hours of 8:00am to 5:00pm EST, Monday - Friday on normal business days.

Objective #11: Effectively assure customer satisfaction in the product lines.

Objective #12: Provide efficient and courteous customer service, including receiving and resolving complaints. Customer assistance shall include fitting instructions, back order issues, late deliveries, problems regarding allowance account balance information and resolution of other problems that arise.

The contractor shall maintain a customer service call center that can process returns, assist with fittings, and is empowered to resolve customer problems. Customers must be able to contact customer service representatives (CSRs) via toll free phone numbers and/or email.

The customer service call center shall operate during normal business hours, 8:00am to 5:00pm EST on normal business days, Monday – Friday.

The contractor shall ensure customer satisfaction with products and services through the following efforts. CSRs will be provided tools and training to resolve customer problems. They will elevate problems to the appropriate person within the contractor’s organization to achieve resolution of more complex issues. The contractor will define a performance metric to measure customer satisfaction. A report on returned items, complaints and comments (to include resolution) will be required quarterly.

The contractor shall provide a fitting plan to ensure that uniforms fit and that there is a process for refitting and ensuring that ill fitting uniforms are corrected or replaced. Fitting assistance should be provided by the contractor to FMCSA Field personnel through these efforts. CSRs should be trained to answer FMCSA Field personnel questions. Individual FMCSA Field personnel size histories shall be maintained on the web site. Also, size scales and garment dimension charts for each product shall be available on the web site. A prepaid return address label and return instructions shall be provided in every shipment to facilitate returns when garments do not fit. FMCSA Field personnel may return items as often as needed until they receive a proper fitting garment.

Returns may be made subject to the product warranty. Every shipment will contain return instructions and a pre-paid address label to facilitate returns. A dedicated staff at the distribution center will process returns in a timely manner and will quality inspect all garments before returning them to inventory. Credits resulting from returned items will quickly be issued to FMCSA program or employee accounts to reflect the revised allowance balances. The contractor shall have a process to assign reasons for the returns. A report will be provided showing the returns by reason quarterly. Returns of defective/unusable items must culminate in the documented destruction of all FMCSA emblems and patches. Destruction must be accomplished so as to render the emblems and patches unable to be reassembled, and may include shredding, burning, or cutting into multiple pieces.

E. Change Management

Objective #13: Provide professional services for designing new uniform items and redesigning existing uniforms.

****PLEASE NOTE: Design and patch specifications are subject to change, but shall not exceed the current number.

F. First Article Test Samples

The Government reserves the right to request First Article Test Samples of any uniform item under the contract for evaluation and approval for full production. All first article samples will be required to be submitted to the Government no later than 30 days after award for approval. After First Article approval, item(s) must be available to be ready for delivery within 30 days after approval.

G. Program Management

Objective #14: Provide standard procedures for invoicing, refunds, credits, exchanges, deliveries, lost deliveries, billing processes, compliance with quality assurance reviews, maintaining employee privacy and customer service.

Objective #15: Effectively manage warranties and product returns in accordance with policies for most favored commercial accounts.

Objective #16: Simplify reporting processes for scheduled and on-demand reports to support program management.

Objective #17: Serve as a consultant to FMCSA regarding standard industry practices including fabrics, alternative products, manufacturing advances, and process improvements.

The contractor/awardee will provide the following elements as their Program Management Plan:

1. The product warranty policy will be defined.

2. Objectively measured performance metrics will be defined.

3. A security plan will be established which both ensures the security of the uniform components and defines plans to mitigate risks inherent to the operation of the program.

The risk mitigation plan shall address such issues as loss of facilities, loss of key personnel, and non-performance by subcontractors.

4. Standard reporting will be defined and a schedule listed. The ability to provide “on-demand” specialized reporting will also be defined.

5. A financial plan will be established to ensure financial capability to carry adequate inventory to meet the required performance metrics and accounts receivables.

H. Reports and Performance Metrics

FMCSA is seeking to award a Blanket Purchase Agreement to a contractor where that partner serves as a supplier and service provider rather than simply a supplier of uniforms. This contractor should be an expert program manager and integrator focused on customer satisfaction as measured by the following performance metrics:

1. Individual Order Shipping Times: This standard measures the time that the contractor takes to ship an individual order to a specific FMCSA Field employee (customer). Acceptable performance is considered to be within 10 business days.

2. Report Delivery: This standard measures the time that the contractor takes to deliver an individual report to the FMCSA Program Management personnel. Acceptable performance is considered to be within 10 business days after the end of the report period.

3. Orders Shipped Complete: This standard measures the number of orders free from backorder. Backorder is defined as an order for a specific product that, at the time it is originally received is unavailable for immediate shipping. Acceptable performance is considered to be greater than 80%.

4. Backorder Shipping: This standard measures the time that the contractor takes to ship an individual order to a specific FMCSA Field employee (customer) if the original order is placed on backorder. Acceptable performance is considered to be within 20 business days.

5. Order Accuracy: This standard measures whether the product shipped in an individual order is the product ordered by the FMCSA Field employee (customer). A correct item is defined as the exact match of the ordered items to the shipped items by name, and/or part number, size and description. Acceptable performance is considered to be performance that is accurate greater than 99% of the time.

6. Defect Rate: This standard measures whether the product shipped in an individual order is free from defect. A defect is defined as an obvious or non-obvious deficiency, imperfection, fault or flaw in the material, workmanship or character of the product in such a way that the product as delivered could not be used for the particular purpose for which it is designed.

Acceptable performance is considered to be performance that is free from defects greater than 99% of the time.

7. Emblem Accountability: This standard measures the accountability, losses, and destruction of FMCSA emblems and patches. These items are controlled by FMCSA and must be controlled throughout the vendor’s supply chain. The report shall include numbers of FMCSA emblems and patches produced, the number used in inventory, the number lost, and the number destroyed.

Documentation of witnessed destruction must be maintained by the vendor and is subject to government inspection/review. Acceptable performance is 100% accountability with zero losses.

The above performance metrics will be reported electronically to FMCSA on a quarterly basis within 10 business days after the end of the quarter. Additionally, the contractor shall provide quarterly reports on the following data within 10 business days after the end of the month: sales reports by item, inventory status report, funds remaining/remaining allowances report, reason return report, and performance metrics report. The format of these reports is subject to approval and modification by the Government. These reports must be given with enough meaningful detail to permit the Government to validate invoices. This list of reports is not all inclusive, as individual ad hoc and both recurring and non-recurring reports are expected to be required over the course of the Blanket Purchase Agreement to facilitate management of the program.

****PLEASE NOTE: Design and patch specifications are subject to change, but shall not exceed the current number.

I. Order Submission

FMCSA orders will be submitted to the awardee in one of the following ways:

(1). Blanket Purchase Agreement Calls are placed with the contractor which contain funding for orders for specified quantities of uniform items or specified dollar values to be added to FMCSA Field personnel’s accounts for their individual selections of items they desire to buy.

(2) Allowance dollars, as specified by the FMCSA uniform program office, may be placed on each FMCSA Field employee’s account in the contractor’s information system. This amount will be visible and tracked on the FMCSA web site provided by the contractor. Under this scenario, each FMCSA Field employee may choose to purchase any combination of uniform items for which they are approved to wear. Orders must be submitted through the web site.

(3) Separate special allowances can be created to direct funds to specific purchases. These allowances will not appear on the web site.

(4) To supplement remaining FMCSA funds, for example each FMCSA Field employee is permitted to utilize a personal credit card to complete funding for purchase. For example, the FMCSA Field employee account has $50.00 remaining and the total purchase price of item is $75.00, the FMCSA Field employee may use their personal credit card for the remaining $25.00.

J. Allotments

FMCSA may assign an allotment of uniforms for each FMCSA Field employee. The contractor will create an order in their information system for each FMCSA Field employee who is to receive the allotment. The contractor will provide FMCSA with an estimated schedule of delivery to complete shipment of the allotment orders based on the contractor’s anticipated production schedule. Under this scenario, an allowance balance will not appear on the web site, but the allotment order will be visible for tracking.

K. Transition

In order to complete a successful transition to the FMCSA Uniforms Blanket Purchase Agreement, the Contractor will be given a sixty (60) day transition period to assume all responsibilities from the incumbent Contractor. The Contractor shall submit a Contract Transition Plan, which includes both transition-in and transition-out activities. The Contractor shall submit their Draft Contract Transition Plan within 5 business days after contract award.

Within five (5) business days of the Contractor’s submission, the Government will provide comments on the draft Contract Transition Plan. The Contractor shall submit a Final Contract Transition Plan (Deliverable) that incorporates the Government's comments and requested revisions within five (5) business days of receipt of Government comments.

• Transition-In: Contractor shall describe their comprehensive transition approach to assume responsibility of all requirements in this SOW and to be fully staffed and operational by the conclusion of the transition period. The transition approach must align with the ability to seamlessly meet the FMCSA Field support needs.

• Transition-Out: At the conclusion of any performance period, including option periods or extensions, the Government may choose to discontinue the services provided under this SOW and award to another Contractor. The Contractor will be given a sixty (60) day transition period to transfer all responsibilities to incoming Contractor. The Contractor in place shall be required to perform transition-out activities.

Table: Blanket Purchase Agreement Data Requirements List

Description Frequency Emblem and patch losses Quarterly and annual rollups

Returned items, complaints and comments

Quarterly and annual rollups

Returned items by reason Quarterly and annual rollups

Individual Order Shipping Times Quarterly and annual rollups

Report Delivery Quarterly

Orders Shipped Complete Quarterly and annual rollups

Backorder shipping Quarterly and annual rollups

Order Accuracy Quarterly and annual rollups

Defect Rate Quarterly and annual rollups

Emblem Accountability Quarterly and annual rollups

Sales by item Quarterly and annual rollups

Inventory Status Quarterly

Funds remaining/ remaining allowances Monthly

Reason Return Quarterly and annual rollups

Performance metrics Quarterly and annual rollups

Ad hoc recurring To be determined

Ad hoc non-recurring To be determined

Customer Service Quarterly

(End of Section C)

SECTION D – PACKING, PACKAGING, AND MARKING

D.1 Packaging, Packing, and Marking

The Contractor shall be responsible for the preservation and packaging of all items to be delivered under the terms of this Blanket Purchase Agreement in such a manner that adequate protection is provided against deterioration of physical damage during shipping and handling which is attributable to improper packaging.

MARKING OF REPORTS

All reports delivered by the Contractor to the Government under this BPA shall be accompanied by a transmittal letter and shall prominently show on the cover of the report:

(1) Name and business address of the Contractor

(2) Contract Number

(3) Blanket Purchase Agreement number

(4) Recipient: To be provided to the Contractor under separate cover after contract award.

Multiple FMCSA Field employee orders, all with the same destination may be shipped in the same shipping container, as long as there is secondary individual packaging inside the shipping container to segregate each individual’s order. No garments are permitted to utilize pins.

(End of Section D)

SECTION F - DELIVERY

F.1 Delivery Requirements All materials ordered under this Blanket Purchase Agreement shall be shipped in accordance with F.O.B. Origin, Freight Collect Instructions as designated in each specific Order.

F.2 Order Tracking: For all orders, order tracking through links with the carrier used is required, i.e. FedEx, UPS, or other shipper web sites.