A -- DLA APPAREL RESEARCH NETWORK PROGRAM PHASE II (ARN II)

Notice Date

May 22, 2001

Contracting Office

Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Attn: DSCP-PBA, Bldg. 36-2, 700 Robbins Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19111-5092

ZIP Code

19111-5092

Solicitation Number

BAA-01-0005

Response Due

July 23, 2001

Point of Contact

Brian Dudek (215)737-5872, e-mail: bdudek@dscp.dla.mil

Description

The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is soliciting proposals to make significant improvements in all segments (retail, wholesale and manufacturing) of its military clothing supply chain by developing and applying innovative methods and advanced technologies. Proposed research and development efforts should result in significant improvements to the existing state of practice. Technical oversight of the projects selected for funding under this BAA will be performed by DLA. The goals of this ARN-II is to continue and to build on existing efforts of the ARN in its end-to end recruit clothing supply chain and identify and expand advanced capabilities for all DLA/DSCP managed military clothing items. Subject to availability of funds, a total Government investment approximately $20 million ($3 million per year) is planned during Fiscal Years 02-08 for funding multiple efforts selected from this BAA. GENERAL INFORMATION: Offerors must submit a full proposal in an electronic IBM-compatible format, using the Microsoft Office family of software. Proposals must refer to BAA # 01-0005 and be submitted via e-mail and one (1) mailed-in copy with signature(s) to the Contracting POC at the top of this BAA to be considered. This BAA is effective for sixty days from the date of issuance, and proposals may be submitted at any time during this effective period. No additional information is available, nor will a formal RFP or other solicitation regarding this announcement will be issued. Requests for the same will be disregarded. The Government reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals received. This is an unrestricted acquisition. The sole purpose of the proposal is to evaluate the offeror's qualification as an ARN partner. All responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit a proposal to be considered by DLA. Industry, educational institutions, small businesses, small disadvantaged business concerns, and historically black colleges and universities and minority institutions are encouraged to join others in submitting proposals; however, no portion of this BAA will be set aside due to the impracticality of reserving discrete areas of research in Military apparel research manufacturing technology. Large Business concerns are required to submit a Small Business/Small Disadvantaged Business Subcontracting Plan. For purposes of this acquisition, the size standard for this type of service is 500 employees, the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)is 541710 (Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences). The Government has established cost targets providing up to $25,000 per year to each ARN Partner for participating/coordinating in the process of the overall ARN technical strategy, management and reporting progress. When required, and at the Governments sole option, a delivery order or modification may be awarded against an ARN contract and funded to have the Partner execute a Short Term Project (STP) with emphasis on implementation of results. Award of STPs is entirely at the Government's discretion. These awards may be for project plans included in the original proposals or for projects developed through the ARN process. The Government anticipates awarding cost, cost plus fixed-fee or cost-share type contracts as a result of this BAA. All correspondence and questions on this solicitation, including request for information on how to submit a proposal to this BAA, should be directed to the Contracting POC at the top of the BAA; e-mail or fax is preferred. Proposals may NOT be submitted by fax or e-mail without signed hard copy; any so sent will be disregarded. A Pre-Proposal Conference (PPC) has been scheduled on June 14, 2001 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM EST at the Crystal City Marriott, Crystal City, VA. Directions and/or additional information may be requested through the Contracting Officer. This acquisition will also provide for a PPC "Question and Answer" period effective from the date of issuance of this BAA through June 7, 2001 at 5:00 PM EST. Submission of all questions shall be forwarded to the Contracting Officer. The Government will review all questions, and responses will be provided to all offerors at the PPC and via amendment to subject BAA. Offerors are cautioned that questions submitted after the June 7, 2001 time period may not necessarily provide adequate time for appropriate Government review for the PPC timeframe. Therefore, offerors are encouraged to provide timely submittal of all questions. AREAS OF INTEREST: Offerors are encouraged to develop project plans involving the military clothing supply chain. The ARN-II vision is Customer Driven Uniform Manufacture and encompasses technology integrations of retail, wholesale, manufacturing, and management of all aspects of the DLA procured military clothing items. Proposed work should result in the delivery of implementations that have continuing value. Proposals by consortia are discouraged. DLA intends to be its own systems integrator. Areas of interest include but are not limited to technologies that enable DLA/DSCP in procuring quality and cost effective clothing items, capturing and forecasting accurate consumption data, balanced flow inventory replenishment throughout the military supply chain, total asset visibility, integration of the defense apparel manufacturers and regional distribution centers. The ARN-II will consist of a group of individual contractor organizations participating in the program, each of which is a Partner. Each ARN Partner brings a specific technical expertise. The network of organizations includes, but is not limited to software developers, industry, distributors, apparel manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, and universities. The existing Apparel Research Network (ARN) Program has begun major initiatives in developing decision support software for inventory management and supply replenishment and total asset visibilities. Additional information about ARN is available at http://arn.iitri.org Under the ARN-II, DLA is seeking to continue, enhance and expand these existing initiatives. Although DLA sees special merit in these areas, offerors are free to innovate and are not limited to proposing exactly these areas. Equal consideration will be given to all approaches that enable improved military clothing supply chain in terms of significant reduction of lead-time and inventory level with improved quality and costs. The proposal should express effort in support of one or more related technical concepts or ideas. Disjointed efforts should not be included into a single proposal. EVALUATION CRITERIA: Proposals will not be evaluated against each other since they are not submitted in accordance with a common work statement. For evaluation purposes, a proposal is the two-volume document described in PROPOSAL FORMAT. Other supporting or background materials submitted with the proposals will be considered for the reviewer's convenience only and not considered as part of the proposal. Evaluation of proposals will be accomplished through a detailed review of each proposal using the following criteria, which are listed in descending order of relative importance: (1) Potential contribution and relevance to DLA's mission (2) Overall scientific and technical merit (3) Offeror's capabilities, related experience and past performance in similar implementations (4) Proposed cost and cost realism including the extent (total or proportion) of cost share: costs will be viewed not only in relation to the prospective value of the proposal, but also to the availability and level of Government funding for the ARN program. PROPOSAL FORMAT: All proposals must be in the format given below. Non-conforming proposals may be rejected without review. A. VOLUME I -- TECHNICAL AND MANAGEMENT PROPOSAL: Volume I shall not exceed 30 pages. This volume shall include the following sections, each starting on a new page with each page being 8 " by 11", one sided, with a minimum type of 12 pitch: (1) Section I -- Administration: (a) Cover page, including: (1) BAA number; (2) Technical Topic; (3) Proposal Title; (4) Technical Point of Contact, including: name, telephone number, FAX number, e-mail address, and mailing address; (5) Administrative Point of Contact, including: name, telephone number, FAX number, e-mail address, and mailing address; (6) Contractor's business type selected among the following categories: Large Business, Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB), Other Small Business, HBCU, MI, Other Educational, or Other Nonprofit; (7) Duration and cost (including, as appropriate, Government cost and cost share) of the effort. (b) Official Transmittal Letter (2) Section II -- Executive Summary: An Executive Summary of the offeror's entire proposal is required. This summary will not be evaluated but will be used to gain an understanding of the overall proposal contents. It should identify and highlight significant features, summarize innovative claims and unique contribution(s) of the proposal, and include the salient points of the proposed work as well as an introduction to the associated technical and management issues. The information contained in this section should be limited two pages. (3) Section III -- Detailed Proposal Information: This section provides the detailed discussion of the proposed work necessary to enable an in-depth review of the technical and managerial issues. (a) Statement of Work (SOW) written in plain English outlining the scope of the effort and citing specific tasks to be performed and specific contractor performance requirements. (b) Detailed technical approach, rationale and strategy for accomplishing technical goals in support of innovative claims and deliverables. This section should also describe the offeror's previous direct relevant experience including the number of years. (c) Deliverables associated with the proposed research. Clear description of the results, products, and transferable technology should be provided. Include all proprietary claims to results, prototypes, or systems supporting and/or necessary for the use of the research, results, and/or prototypes. If there are no proprietary claims, this should be stated. (d) Schedule and milestones for each task in the proposed efforts. (e) Description of the facilities that would be used for the proposed effort. (f) List of key personnel along with the amount of effort to be expended by each person during the project period. (g) A brief resume that describes each key individual's specific experience and qualifications for performing the work called for by this BAA. (4) Section IV -- Program Plan: This section should provide a detailed program plan that displays all major tasks, in the form of a PERT, GANTT Chart, or other appropriate format, their schedule and dependency relations. A one-page cost summary will be included in the program plan. (5) Section V -- Additional Information: This section shall contain a bibliography of relevant technical papers and research, published and unpublished, which document the technical ideas upon which the proposal is based. B. VOLUME II -- COST PROPOSAL: No page limits apply to Volume II. Offerors are not required to submit certified cost or pricing data. Offerors must submit cost or pricing information only to the extent necessary to provide the government the ability to determine the reasonableness and realism of the cost and/or price. The offeror's format for submitting such information is acceptable; however, offerors are encouraged to use a Standard Form (SF) 1448, Proposal Cover Sheet (cost or pricing data not required). Copies of the SF 1448 may be obtained from the Contracting POC at the top of this BAA. Cost proposals should be organized to include two sections in the following order: total project cost, and, if applicable, cash cost sharing. (1) Section I -- Total Project Cost: This section will include total project cost by month. The offeror will also give a detailed breakdown of the total project costs by each task appearing in the proposed SOW. The total cost of each major cost element and the make-up of those costs should be presented in the offeror's proposal. Sufficient information should be provided in supporting documents to evaluate the reasonableness and realism of these proposed costs, including salaries, overhead, material purchases, fair market rental value of lease items and the method used for making such evaluations. (2) Section II -- Cash Cost Sharing: Proposals should contain the sources of cash cost sharing and amounts and the methodology used to derive their values. Proposals should contain sufficient information regarding the sources of cost share so that the government may make determination regarding availability, timeliness, and control of resources.

Record

Loren Data Corp. 20010524/ASOL004.HTM (W-142 SN50M850)