Contractor Operated Civil Engineer Supply Store (COCESS)

The Government is currently researching answers to questions submitted regarding Exhibit A in the solicitation.  The deadline for questions regardling only Exhibit A is expected to be extended based on the amount of time the Government takes to research the questions.  Continue to monitor www.fbo.gov for updates.

NOTICE: The attachments to this posting contain the official solicitation and associated attachments. 

CONTRACTOR OPERATED CIVIL ENGINEER SUPPLY STORE: Requirement consists of providing a "one stop shop" Contractor Operated Civil Engineer Supply Store (COCESS) at Seymour Johnson AFB NC. The contractor shall acquire, issue, deliver, and store a variety of material, equipment, parts, tools, and supplies for construction, and facility maintenance and repair, and lawn and garden equipment repair for use by authorized government personnel. The contractor shall provide a simplified method for authorized personnel to purchase quality material, tools, and equipment used for work orders, construction, recurring maintenance and repair, lawn and garden equipment repair and self-help type work. The store shall be located on the installation and provide easy access for authorized individuals and contain a wide variety of commercial and industrial products (i.e., items found in commercial stores like Lowes, Home Depot or other local lumber and hardware stores). The store shall provide a customer service center with access to a user friendly, state-of-the-art ordering and purchasing system for non-stocked items. The web-based/on-line ordering system shall be a fully automated ordering and purchasing system of the contractor's own choice and shall be capable of fully meeting and supporting all requirements of the statement of work including a "shopping cart" feature similar to commercial online shopping sites. The store shall stock high use/consumable items for immediate purchase. Performance will commence on or about 1 Mar 13. The contract will include an anticipated base period from 1 Mar 13 - 30 Sep 13, and possibly four (4) subsequent pre-priced 12 month option periods. The resultant contract will be a firm-fixed price indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract. THE PROPOSED SOLICITATION IS UNRESTRICTED WITH NO SET-ASIDE FOR SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS. The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) for this acquisition is 332510. The award will be made to the lowest priced technically acceptable (LPTA) offeror with an acceptable past performance assessment in accordance with FAR 15.101-2. Technical and past performance, when combined, are equally important when compared to price. Recent, relevant, past and present performance is defined as performance of the same or similar type of work within the last three years. The solicitation has now been posted via Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOps) website. To ensure you receive notification of changes to the solicitation you must register on that site. A site visit will not be held. Any prospective contractor must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) in order to be eligible for award (https://www.sam.gov/portal/public/SAM).  Registration requires applicants to have a DUNS number. Registration may take up to 3 weeks to process. Recommend registering immediately in order to be eligible for timely award. Effective 01 Jan 2005, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) requires the use on Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA) in Federal solicitations as part of the proposal submission process. All prospective contractors submitting an offer in response to subject solicitation must go the http://www.bpn.gov to add/update its ORCA record.

Interested parties please provide the following:
1. Review and Comment on Draft Solicitation
2. Review and Comment of Solicitation CLINS/Bid Schedule
3. Review and Comment of Alternate CLINS/Bid Schedule
4. Respond, citing references when possible, to Government Proposed Questions

Note that we may not respond to questions as we are developing our acquisition, however, please feel free to ask them as it provides us insight to concerns to be addressed. Your participation is critical to enhancing this acquisition and we sincerely thank you for your time.

Industry Feedback

NOTE: The below was a previous request for information.  The official solicitation has now been posted. 

In an attempt to better develop our solicitation we are providing a draft and the following questions to partner with industry on developing the best acquisition possible for the United States Air Force. Ultimately it is the USAF's determination how the final solicitation will be structured, which may or may not include input from the responses of industry. At this time we do not intend to answer questions, however, asking questions is not prohibited as we will use them to understand your concerns.

1. Please review entire solicitation, including the Statement of Work, and provide feedback for suggestions and improvement or identify confusing language. Please provide Document Title, Page Number, and if possible, paragraph number to assist in our identifying and understanding your reference.

2. Request review of CLINS/Bid Schedule on draft solicitation and compare to the Alternate bid schedule and provide merits/disadvantages of each?

3. CLIN X002 in the Alternate Bid Schedule, if we make this firm fixed priced for general operation of the COCESS store on Seymour-Johnson, removing risk from a contractor, would this substantially lower the pricing of the products (mark-ups) purchased under CLIN 0001?

4. The SOW para 1.5.1.20 requires "the ability to provide the government the actual price paid by the contractor backed up by the actual vendor invoices." Would there be any additional cost associated with providing this data? If so, what?

4a. How would you structure the CLINS to alleviate the need for this information and rely on comparison to other industry providers?

4b. Is this a normal Commercial Practice?

5. Draft evaluation factors are included; please provide feedback and constructive rationale for making any changes?

6. Is any information missing that would be beneficial to providing a bid, removing risk and/or assist in the Government receiving a lower price?

7. Once the solicitation is released, how many days would you need to provide a proposal?

8. If you're a large business, what area's and what percentage of the contract is it feasible to subcontract to Small Business?

Interested parties please provide the following:
1. Review and Comment on Draft Solicitation
2. Review and Comment of Solicitation CLINS/Bid Schedule
3. Review and Comment of Alternate CLINS/Bid Schedule
4. Respond, citing references when possible, to Government Proposed Questions

Note that we may not respond to questions as we are developing our acquisition, however, please feel free to ask them as it provides us insight to concerns to be addressed. Your participation is critical to enhancing this acquisition and we sincerely thank you for your time.

Industry Feedback

This is a request for information. This is not a solicitation. No proposals are requested or will be accepted based on this posting.

In an attempt to better develop our solicitation we are providing a draft and the following questions to partner with industry on developing the best acquisition possible for the United States Air Force. Ultimately it is the USAF's determination how the final solicitation will be structured, which may or may not include input from the responses of industry. At this time we do not intend to answer questions, however, asking questions is not prohibited as we will use them to understand your concerns.

1. Please review entire solicitation, including the Statement of Work, and provide feedback for suggestions and improvement or identify confusing language. Please provide Document Title, Page Number, and if possible, paragraph number to assist in our identifying and understanding your reference.

2. Request review of CLINS/Bid Schedule on draft solicitation and compare to the Alternate bid schedule and provide merits/disadvantages of each?

3. CLIN X002 in the Alternate Bid Schedule, if we make this firm fixed priced for general operation of the COCESS store on Seymour-Johnson, removing risk from a contractor, would this substantially lower the pricing of the products (mark-ups) purchased under CLIN 0001?

4. The SOW para 1.5.1.20 requires "the ability to provide the government the actual price paid by the contractor backed up by the actual vendor invoices." Would there be any additional cost associated with providing this data? If so, what?

4a. How would you structure the CLINS to alleviate the need for this information and rely on comparison to other industry providers?

4b. Is this a normal Commercial Practice?

5. Draft evaluation factors are included; please provide feedback and constructive rationale for making any changes?

6. Is any information missing that would be beneficial to providing a bid, removing risk and/or assist in the Government receiving a lower price?

7. Once the solicitation is released, how many days would you need to provide a proposal?

8. If you're a large business, what area's and what percentage of the contract is it feasible to subcontract to Small Business?

Question:
Why did the Contracting Officer decide to post this requirement as an Unrestricted Acquisition?

Answer:
This acquisition has several issues that drove the decision to not set this aside for small business. The biggest factor was the applicability of the Non-Manufacturer Rule. The Contracting Officer, in coordination with Air Combat Command Contracting and the Small Business Administration made the determination that this requirement should be solicited under NAICS 332510, which is a manufacturing NAICS code. The Non-manufacturer Rule states a firm that receives a supply contract under a small business set aside they MUST be either a manufacturer of a small business product or must agree to supply the product of a domestic small manufacturer or processor if not the manufacturer themselves. Since this contract encompasses such a vast variety of supplies, it is not feasible for a single small business to manufacture or provide items manufactured by other small businesses to meet all of the requirements under this acquisition. Therefore, the decision was made to post this requirement as an Unrestricted acquisition.

CONTRACTOR OPERATED CIVIL ENGINEER SUPPLY STORE: Requirement consists of providing a "one stop shop" Contractor Operated Civil Engineer Supply Store (COCESS) at Seymour Johnson AFB NC. The contractor shall acquire, issue, deliver, and store a variety of material, equipment, parts, tools, and supplies for construction, and facility maintenance and repair, and lawn and garden equipment repair for use by authorized government personnel. The contractor shall provide a simplified method for authorized personnel to purchase quality material, tools, and equipment used for work orders, construction, recurring maintenance and repair, lawn and garden equipment repair and self-help type work. The store shall be located on the installation and provide easy access for authorized individuals and contain a wide variety of commercial and industrial products (i.e., items found in commercial stores like Lowes, Home Depot or other local lumber and hardware stores). The store shall provide a customer service center with access to a user friendly, state-of-the-art ordering and purchasing system for non-stocked items. The web-based/on-line ordering system shall be a fully automated ordering and purchasing system of the contractor's own choice and shall be capable of fully meeting and supporting all requirements of the statement of work including a "shopping cart" feature similar to commercial online shopping sites. The store shall stock high use/consumable items for immediate purchase. Store management and personnel shall provide quality customer service and training to customers on the use of hand tools and small power tools. Performance will commence on or about 1 Oct 2012. The contract will include an anticipated base period from 1 Oct 12 - 30 Sep 13, and possibly four (4) subsequent pre-priced 12 month option periods. The resultant contract will be a firm-fixed price indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contract. THE PROPOSED SOLICITATION IS UNRESTRICTED WITH NO SET-ASIDE FOR SMALL BUSINESS CONCERNS. The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) for this acquisition is 332510. The award will be made to the lowest priced technically acceptable (LPTA) offeror with an acceptable past performance assessment in accordance with FAR 15.101-2. Technical and past performance, when combined, are equally important when compared to price. Recent, relevant, past and present performance is defined as performance of the same or similar type of work within the last three years. It is anticipated that the solicitation will be issued electronically on or about 20 Jun 12 via Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOps) website. To ensure you receive notification of changes to the solicitation you must register on that site. A site visit will not be held. Any prospective contractor must be registered in the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) in order to be eligible for award. Registration requires applicants to have a DUNS number. Registration may take up to 3 weeks to process. Recommend registering immediately in order to be eligible for timely award. Effective 01 Jan 2005, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) requires the use on Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA) in Federal solicitations as part of the proposal submission process. All prospective contractors submitting an offer in response to subject solicitation must go the http://www.bpn.gov to add/update its ORCA record.