SOLICITATION NOTICE
99 -- Airman Knowledge Training Handbooks Revision & Modification
- Notice Date
- 12/17/2003
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- Contracting Office
- FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, AMQ-310 Aeronautical Center (AMQ)
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- DTFAAC-04-R-94041
- Response Due
- 1/7/2004
- Archive Date
- 2/6/2004
- Point of Contact
- Brent Foreman, (405)954-7894
- E-Mail Address
-
Email your questions to Brent.D.Foreman@faa.gov
(Brent.D.Foreman@faa.gov)
- Description
- Market Survey Federal Aviation Administration Airman Testing Standards, AFS-630 Development and Revision of Airman Knowledge Training Handbooks QUALIFIED VENDORS LIST NOTE: If you are getting notice of this requirement any place other than www.asu.faa.gov/Contracting Opportunities you may not have the complete document. You MUST download information from the www.asu.faa.gov/ to have all information. General Information: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) intends to issue a Qualified Vendors List (QVL) for FAA Development and Revision of Airman Knowledge Training Handbooks. A QVL is a list of service or product providers who have had their products or services examined, or evaluated and who have satisfied all applicable qualification requirements. QVLs are intended as a mechanism to establish a pool of qualified vendors, any of which the FAA would be satisfied with the products delivered or services performed. Pre-screening vendors allows only those most qualified contractors to perform a particular service or provide a particular product during a specific period. The information contained herein is the Market Survey that will start the process of determining possible sources for this requirement, and will be used to down select to a manageable number of only the top vendors as determined by the evaluation criteria listed below. It will be followed by the issuance of a formal request for proposal with full QVL qualifications requirements to only those potential offerors that are determined to be the top 6 found to be acceptable after a general review of information and data provided during the market survey phase of the procurement. This requirement is open to large and small businesses and is not set-aside for Small, or Socially and Economically Disadvantages Businesses (SEDBs), but if two or more SEDBs are found technically acceptable, the final QVL make up will have approximately 25 percent SEDB participation. The FAA expects to have the QVL in place by February 1, 2004, the initial QVL period will be 5 years. The task under the QVL will be awarded based upon competition among the list holders using completion scope type tasks. Tasks may be issued on a best value basis or price competitive basis depending on the requirement. On price-based requirements, the QVL Contractors will bid the requirement firm-fixed-price completion format. For tasks processed using best value procedures, an evaluation process for each task will be used to determine the best value; technical excellence, delivery, and price will be evaluated to determine the best value. Quality and delivery are critical to the FAA and poor performance on technical issues (having to return deliverables back to the vendor for reworking), late delivery of products, failure to provide level of support and service to meet milestones is justification for removing the vendor from the QVL. Information that will be Reviewed Please provide information and documentation for review by the FAA that demonstrates that your firm has accomplished any or all of the following factors and sub-factors, and provide the plans, resumes, or other information requested. The information will be used to make a down select for the source list to be used for issuance of the formal request for proposal for the Qualified Vendors List (QVL) that will be established for this requirement. Please note that the final make-up of the QVL will be approximately 25 percent Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Businesses (SEDBs) only if two or more SEDB firms are found to be technically acceptable. If only one SEDB is found acceptable, the QVL will be limited to only the top rated firms no matter what their size. Large businesses will be required to have and submit with their proposal a subcontracting plan that has a goal of at least 25 percent usage of small, woman owned, SEDBs. The FAA will be looking at all of the factors below in determining the down select to a reasonable number of potential sources. Offerors that do not address, or just request copies of the solicitation will be determined unacceptable and will not be considered as a possible source. Down select for the QVL will be to the top 3 technically acceptable evaluated proposals. Offerors must provide proof of SEDB status or small business status. General Information: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is responsible for developing and revising the airman???s aeronautical handbooks. These aeronautical handbooks are to provide the necessary information for an applicant to successfully pass the appropriate knowledge and practical tests. These tests are required for an applicant to obtain an airman certificate. Several of these publications require updating and revision. The average number of pages per handbook will generally increase by approximately 25 percent due to new subject matter material and enhanced graphics. The aeronautical handbooks will be developed or revised in accordance with the current FAA technical requirements, with publishing to be accomplished by the Government Printing Office (GPO). The services required under this market survey are sources that not only can provide the update, revision, and formatting developed in an approved format (CD-ROM) and files (software program) acceptable to the FAA and the GPO standards for printing but also have the aviation/flying background and experience to understand what it is that the text is describing, and the skills and ability to proof read the revised documents for both context and content. In this requirement, it is these vendors with aviation background that the FAA is looking for along with the technical skills necessary to develop and produce these aeronautical handbooks. All items developed for the FAA under this requirement shall not be copyrighted. The contractor shall obtain releases from the copyright owner for unrestricted use and modification by the FAA, all photos, original works, and artwork incorporated into the handbooks. Items developed for the FAA under this task cannot be used without expressed written consent from the FAA, AFS-630. These aeronautical handbooks are for both entry and advanced level airmen. The handbooks are to be developed to provide the specific subject areas needed to support the required training and testing for airman certification. The contents of the handbook will be written to the ninth grade education level except for required technical terms. The graphics will be not less than four-color high resolution. The handbooks will be developed in increments (stages) with the FAA representative reviewing and editing each increment. The contractor shall be responsible for quality control of the documents being produced and shall be responsible for the proofing of the written text prior to submission to the FAA for review. Any contract issued in response to this requirement will contain quality incentives based on the contractor???s ability to produce documents for review that contain no grammatical errors or misspelled words, incorrect labeling or errors, or formatting errors of charts, photos, and illustrations. The time for completing a handbook is anticipated not to exceed 12 months from start to completion for a contractor, or 24 months for a larger handbook (e.g. 500 or more pages). Handbooks developed and revised may be published in both hard copy print and web-based formats and platforms. Technical Requirements. The Government shall furnish specifications for the publication to include style, reading level, specific emphasis topics, and other requirements for the finished product. FAA-H-8083-13, Glider Flying Handbook, establishes the basic specifications or requirements pertaining to general format and layout of the handbooks. The Glider Flying Handbook may be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402-9325, or from http://bookstore.gpo.gov. This handbook is also available for download from the Flight Standards Service Web site at http://av-info.faa.gov. The Government shall furnish a copy of the current handbook material for development or revision, as appropriate, and an agreeable outline of changes or modifications required. Since the contents of the document are highly technical, it is essential that appropriately experienced personnel are available for the development of the document???s contents. Information that will be Reviewed Please provide information and documentation for review by the FAA that demonstrates that your firm has both the printing/publishing technical abilities, experience, and aviation/flight skills and experience and staffing, with performance history that will demonstrate your firm???s ability to provide the services required. The information will be used to make a down select for the source list to be used for issuance of the formal request for proposal. For the printing/publishing automation portion of this requirement, vendors must provide information that demonstrates their expertise in automated systems and of essential and state of the art knowledge regarding text and graphics scanning onto CD-ROM media. Vendor must provide examples of projects complete that demonstrates their capability of automated page formatting for document publication. Contractor's proposal will identify which software programs they plan to use for development or revision of these handbooks if they are not planning to use the latest version of Adobe PageMaker for text and Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop for graphics. FAA's preference is for the latest versions of Adobe PageMaker, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop, as this software is currently owned by the FAA. The programs and developed material must be functional using Windows compatible equipment. Resumes for the aviation/flight technical writers and technical and experience levels of the subject matter experts (SME???s) must be submitted with the contract proposal. This expertise must include recent experience and understanding of the knowledge requirements to operate safely in the National Airspace System as an airman, have a working knowledge of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR's) as they relate to airman certification requirements, have recent airman operational experience in the airspace system, and have recent experience in teaching and testing procedures for airman certification. The FAA is looking for firms with a minimum of 5 years experience in printing/publications of technical aviation programs and automation systems. All data provided should be in 3-ring binder, tabs as to specific Factor being addressed and no more than 100 pages, 8" X 11" one side copy. Common items for each volume are: (1) Margins. No smaller than one (1) inch around the perimeter of each sheet of paper. (2) Page Printing. Printing may be on one side only. If printing is on both sides of the paper it will be counted as two (2) pages. (3) Single or double spacing (Offeror's option) (4) Font: Times New Roman, no smaller than 12 point. (4) Volume/Page. A footer identifying the volume number, page number, and total number of pages should be put on the bottom of each page. (5) All volumes should be marked ???Procurement Sensitive.??? (6) All volumes should be bound in three-ring, loose-leaf binders. For Factor 1 is more slightly more important than Factor 2, evaluation will be based on experience and specific aviation experience with each. Factor 1 Past Performance and Experience Factor 1a--Printing/Publication--Vendors proposal shall provide a minimum of 3 and no more than 5 examples of technical handbooks, technical publications, and identify the format, media, and audience of technical examples of projects of similar printing/publication complexity that you have completed within the last 5 years, samples that are applicable to aviation/flying subjects will receive higher evaluations. For each example please provide information and documentation for review by the FAA that demonstrates that your firm has the printing/publishing technical abilities, experience, skills, experience and staffing necessary to fully demonstrate that your company has the printing/publication capabilities to provide the services required. Please provide a current point of contact and phone number for the company/agency for each of your examples. For the printing/publishing automation portion of this requirement, vendors must provide information that demonstrates expertise in automated systems and knowledge of essential and state of the art knowledge regarding text and graphics scanning onto CD-ROM media. Vendor must provide examples of projects complete that demonstrates their capability of automated page formatting for document publication. Contractor's proposal will identify which software programs they plan to use for development or revision of these handbooks if they are not planning to use the latest version of Adobe PageMaker for text and Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop for graphics. FAA's preference is for the latest versions of Adobe PageMaker, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop, as this software is currently owned by the FAA. The programs and developed material must be functional using Windows compatible equipment. Factor 1b--Aviation experience and past performance--Vendors proposal shall provide a minimum of 3 examples, no more than 5, that clearly demonstrate their capabilities in the development of technical handbooks, publications, with the subject being aviation/flight skills. Document the personnel and provide resumes showing their experience and number and type of staffing that will be providing support for the FAA's requirement. Documentation of past performance history shall clearly demonstrate your firm???s ability to provide the services required. This information will be used to make a down select for the source list to be used for issuance of the formal request for proposal. Resumes for the aviation/flight technical writers and technical and experience levels of the subject matter experts (SME???s) must be submitted with the contractor's proposal. This expertise must include recent experience and understanding of the knowledge requirements to operate safely in the National Airspace System as a airman, have a working knowledge of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR's) as they relate to airman certification requirements, have recent airman operational experience in the airspace system, and have recent experience in teaching and testing procedures for airman certification. The FAA is looking for firms with a minimum of 5 years experience in printing/publications of technical aviation programs and automation systems. For Each SAMPLE identify the additional information requested below: 1. Technology Used--- 2. Audience (target audience, type and size of project and type of publication). 3. Who was the publication developed for (provide point of contact, phone numbers, address, level and type of training, total cost of project and cost per page of published product and when completed. Prior history must be on projects worked within the last 5-years. FACTOR 2--Pricing of technical manuals per page. Due to the complexity of cost estimating the page pricing and each handbook varying with number of text pages, text and graphics pages, and graphics only pages, the following rate scale is suggested. Type of page Development Revision Full Text Page $ $ Half Text - Half Graphics $ $ Full Graphics Page $ $ Fold Out Graphics Page $ $ Business Size Designation for NAICS 611710 Educational Support Services To qualify as a small business under the NAICS 611710 the size standard is $6 Million. All potential vendors shall be required to state in their response to this market survey their current size status. SEDB status contractors will be required to provide copies of the SBA letters Designation of SEDB and under what NAICS or SIC Codes. For businesses claiming SEDB status AMS Clause 3.6.1-7 Limitations on Subcontracting (August 1997) will be included in any SEDB contract award. Large business will be required to submit a subcontracting plan that includes a Goal of a minimum of 25 percent participation by Socially and Economically Disadvantaged Businesses, and Small Businesses. Potential offerors need to address the above in their response to this market survey. It is a hard requirement that will be incorporated into any award made to a large business. All offerors must provide the above required information no later than 3:30 p.m., local time (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma) on January 9, 2004. Information packages received after this date will be determined to be late and will not be considered and shall not be returned. Please send all questions and comments by letter or FAX, to Brent D. Foreman, Contracting Officer, FAA, Aviation, Medical & Training Division, AMQ-310, P.O. Box 25082, Oklahoma City, OK 73125 (for overnight packages-to 6500 South MacArthur Blvd., MPB Room 377, Oklahoma City, OK 73169) or FAX to (405) 954-3030, Phone (405) 954-7894. Reference DTFAAC-04-R-94041.
- Web Link
-
FAA Contract Opportunities
(http://www.asu.faa.gov/faaco/index.htm)
- Record
- SN00491173-W 20031219/031217212021 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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