R&D Contracting Directorate, Bldg 7, 2530 C Street, WPAFB, OH 45433-7607

A -- LEAN TRANSITION OF EMERGING INDUSTRIAL CAPABILITY SOL BAA 97-10-MLKT POC Contact William O. Beeman, Contract Negotiator, 937-255-3506 or Mr. Bruce J. Miller, Contracting officer, 937-255-7143 E-MAIL: Click here to contact the contract negotiator, beemanwo@wl.wpafb.af.mil. INTRODUCTION: Air Force Research Laboratory, Manufacturing Technology Directorate (WL/MT), is soliciting proposals (technical and cost) for the program entitled "Lean Transition of Emerging Industrial Capability", that demonstrate the benefits of advanced manufacturing practices such as those being researched by the Lean Aircraft Initiative (LAI). The solicitation number is BAA-97-10 MLKT. For consideration, proposals in response to this BAA must be received by 1500 Eastern Daylight Time, 25JULY1997, addressed to Wright Laboratory, Directorate of R&D Contracting (WL/MLKT) ATTN: Mr. William O. Beeman, Building 7, 2530 C Street, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7607. This is an unrestricted solicitation. Proposals submitted shall be in accordance with this announcement. Proposals received after the cutoff date specified herein shall be treated in accordance with restrictions of FAR 52.215-10. A copy of this provision may be obtained from the contracting point of contact. There will be no other solicitation issued in regard to this requirement. Offerors should be alert for any BAA amendments that may revise the proposal submission date. Offerors may request a copy of the WL Guide entitled, "PRDA and BAA Guide for Industry". This guide was specifically designed to assist offerors in understanding the PRDA/BAA proposal process. Copies may be requested from WL/MLKT, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-6503, telephone (937) 255-3506. This guide is also available at the following website: www.wl.wpafb.af.mil/contract/hp.htm (2) Technical Description: The objective of this project is to apply "Lean" practices and principles to identify new methods which enable timely and affordable insertion of advanced technology into weapon systems. The project(s) resulting from this solicitation are expected to result in improved processes, procedures and practices for the implementation of advanced technology into Air Force weapon systems, providing potential for saving millions of dollars on future advanced technology transition and insertion . This solicitation targets those process improvements within a manufacturing enterprise that enhance the transition of advanced technology from the development laboratory to manufacturing with attendant benefits in product performance and quality and with reduced cost and development-to-implementation cycle time. The Lean Forum Propulsion/Engines Working Group identified technology transition as a fruitful area for improvement. In the traditional military weapon system development and acquisition cycle, technology is developed in a laboratory environment and is only selected for product application when the risk is deemed low or acceptable and there is a clear need (usually performance or cost). The metrics which are used to define the required technology and measure the level of risk are not well defined and the transition period can thus take many years and involve abortive and wasteful design-specific process development/demonstration efforts before the transition is successfully completed. Enterprises fully engaged in Lean product development have found ways to shorten this transition cycle and maximize resulting product value and achieve these goals with reduced expenditure of resources. Lean attributes are potentially employed at multiple levels in reaching these objectives, including supplier relationships, product development, factory operations at the enterprise level, simultaneous development, process variability reduction, flexible manufacturing, process simulation and prototyping with production resources at a lower functional level. Adaptation and demonstration of these concepts for the defense production environment will require consideration of business practice changes, infrastructure improvements, and identification of the barriers and disincentives to their accomplishment. Offerors are encouraged to construct the proposed effort around a phased approach. In our vision of the project, Phase 1 would consider the identification of candidate advanced technologies, application components (and industrial sector) for study, identification of technology transition barriers and new methodologies/strategies for dealing with the barriers, and the determination of suitable advanced technology transition benchmarks. This collective information would be used to structure a model of the "as is" and "to be" technology transition processes. Phase 2 would then formulate and conduct a series of experiments to assess and quantify the benefits realized from the process changes through comparison of benchmark metrics. Solutions should involve teaming arrangements involving supplier/vendor (producer of component requiring advanced technology enhancement), system manufacturer (producer of target weapon system application), and the advanced technology development source (if necessary). Air Force target applications for airframe, propulsion, and/or electronics should be developed for fighter, transport and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) systems which have reasonable potential of success in terms of either spares or new system production. Advanced Technology categories which will be considered include but are not limited to Materials, Components/Devices, Manufacturing Processes, and Precision Assembly. In developing responses, offerors must consider the requirements of and provide a migration path leading to production implementation. Improvements proposed in response to this announcement should focus on demonstration of one or more of the aforementioned technology transition process improvements against weapon systems programs in production or in transition to production. Offerors will demonstrate emphasis on up front assessment of technology transition barriers, process improvement drivers and affordability concerns on which to base the proposed effort. Proposals submitted in response to this solicitation should: clearly define the nature and scope of the problem being addressed, including relevant data and metrics; identify the generation and analysis of a baseline on which to launch improvements and clearly identify demonstrations and their benefits for the customer. Additionally, offerors must define a method for ensuring widest dissemination of results. Finally, offerors should describe or illustrate how proposed improvements fit into a longer term corporate improvement strategy. A presentation on this program was given at Wright Laboratory Industry Days and is available by email, in Microsoft PowerPoint format from the technical point of contact listed below. 2) Deliverable Items: The following deliverable data items shall be proposed: (a) Program Plan, DI-MGMT-80909/T (one time, 4 months after contract award); (b) Technical Report Study/Services, Technology Transfer Plan, DI-MISC-80508/T (one time); (c) Status Report, DI-MGMT-80368/T, (monthly); (d) Scientific and Technical Reports, Interim Report, DI-MISC-80711/T, (annually); (e) Scientific and Technical Reports, Final, DI-MISC-80711/T, (draft and camera ready copy, one time, upon completion of effort); (f) Presentation Material DI-ADMN- 81373/T, (as required); (g) Contract Funds Status Report (CFSR), DI-MGMT-81468/T, (quarterly); (h) Scientific and Technical Reports (contractor's billing voucher), DI-MISC-80711/T, (monthly); (i) Technical Videotape, DI-MISC-81275/T, (as required). (3 Security Requirements: It is anticipated that work performed as a result of this BAA will be unclassified. (4) Other Special Requirements: C-ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: (1) Anticipated Period of Performance: Technical effort is expected to last approximately 38 months plus an additional 4 months for final reporting. (2) Expected Award Date: September 1997. (3) Government Estimate: The government anticipates 1 or 2 awards for a total government funding no greater than $5.6M. This project will be incrementally funded as follows; FY 97 $150 K (FY97) ; $900 K (FY98); $ 2.45 M (FY99); $ 2.1 M (FY00) ; The dollar amount per individual award will vary upon the number of awards being made. This funding profile is an estimate only and is not a promise for funding as all funding is subject to change due to Government discretion and availability.(4) Type of Contract: Based upon section 256 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1995 (Public Law 103-337), cost sharing is required. Cost shared contracts or cooperative agreements are anticipated. It is noted that FAR part 31 sets forth the principles for allowable cost share pertaining to contracts while OMB Circular A-110 defines allowable cost sharing for cooperative agreements. A copy of OMB Circular A-110 may be obtained upon request by calling 202-395-4660. (5) Government Furnished Property: None contemplated. (6) Size Status: Firms responding should indicate their size status as well as indicating whether they are or are not a socially and economically disadvantaged business or a woman owned business. For this award, small businesses are considered to employ 500 or fewer employees. SIC code 8731 applies. D-PROPOSAL PREPARATION INSTRUCTIONS: (1) General: Offerors should apply the restrictive notice prescribed in the provision of FAR 52.215-12, "Restriction on Disclosure and Use of Data," to trade secrets or privileged commercial and financial information contained in their submittals. Proposal questions should be directed to one of the points of contact listed elsewhere herein. Offerors should consider instructions contained in the WL PRDA and BAA Guide for Industry referenced in Section A of this announcement. Proposals shall be submitted in separate volumes, technical and cost; the cost proposal shall be valid for 180 days. Proposals shall reference the above BAA number. In an effort to move toward paperless contracting, you are encouraged to submit your cost and technical proposals via electronic means on computer disk or CD-ROM. Please note that classified information shall NOT be submitted on disk. If proposals are not submitted on computer disk or CD-ROM, they shall be submitted in an original and five copies. If proposals will be submitted by electronic means, submit 2 paper copies and 4 electronic copies.. All responsible sources may submit a proposal, which shall be considered against the criteria set forth herein. Offerors are advised that only Contracting Officers are legally authorized to bind the government. (2) Cost Proposal: Adequate price competition is anticipated. The accompanying cost proposal/price breakdown shall be furnished with supporting schedules and shall contain a personhour breakdown per task An analysis of each major subcontractor must be performed by the offeror in accordance with FAR 15.806-2 and included in the cost proposal. Details of the cost sharing to be undertaken and the rationale for the cost share percentage should be included in the cost proposal. (3) Technical Proposal: The technical proposal shall include a discussion of the nature and scope of the research and technical approach. Additional information on prior work in this area, descriptions of available equipment, data and facilities, and resumes of personnel who will be participating in this effort should also be included as attachments to the technical proposal. The technical proposal shall include: (a) a Statement of Work (SOW) detailing the technical tasks proposed to be accomplished under the proposed effort and suitable for contract incorporation. Any questions concerning the technical proposal or SOW preparation shall be referred to the Technical Point of Contact cited in this announcement. Offerors should also refer to the WL Guide referenced in Section A to assist in SOW preparation; (b) a statement of intention, if any, to use foreign nationals; (c) a break out of person hours for each major task in the SOW; and, (d) the names and qualifications of subcontractors, and level of effort to be subcontracted. Offerors are notified that the SOW, or any part thereof, may be incorporated by reference, in any resulting award. The paragraph numbering used in the Technical Proposal for the technical approach discussion, the SOW tasks, and the Cost Proposal shall correlate. Travel is projected to include, but not be limited to: Contract Kick-off Meeting, Annual Industry Reviews, Semiannual, Quarterly and End of Contract Reviews at locations selected by the Government. (4) Page Limitations: Technical proposals shall not exceed 50 pages, double spaced, single-sided on 8.5" x 11" paper using 12 pitch or larger type with 1.25" minimum margins. If electronic means are used to submit the proposal, it shall be readable by Microsoft Word for Windows, version 6.0. The double spacing requirement shall be satisfied by Microsoft's Word's double spacing method and the 12 pitch or larger requirements shall be satisfied by setting the Microsoft Word for Windows type size (point) at 10 or smaller. The page limitation includes all information, i.e. indexes, photographs, foldouts, and appendices. Pages in excess of this limitation will not be considered by the Government. Cost proposals have no limitations, however, offerors are requested to keep cost proposals to 50 pages as a goal . If electronic means are used to submit the cost proposal, it shall be readable by Microsoft Excel for Windows, version 5.0. (5) Preparation Cost: This announcement is an expression of interest only and does not commit the Government to pay for any proposal preparation cost. The cost of preparing proposals in response to this BAA is not an allowable direct charge to any resulting contract or any other contract. It may be, however, an allowable expense to the normal bid and proposal indirect cost as specified in FAR 31.205-18. If selected for negotiations, qualifying offerors will be required to submit a subcontracting plan. E-BASIS FOR AWARD: The selection of one or more proposals will be based on a complete evaluation of offerors' response (both technical and cost) to determine the overall merit of the proposal in response to this announcement. The technical aspect, which is ranked first in order of priority, shall be evaluated based upon the following criteria which are of equal importance: (a) soundness of approach in baselining, demonstrating, and measuring improvements; (b) understanding of the problem with cost drivers and improvement barriers identified; (c) special technical factors including personnel qualifications, facilities availability, and customer tie(s). Cost and/or price, which includes consideration of proposed budgets and funding profiles, is a substantial factor, but ranked as the second order of priority. No other evaluation criteria will be used.. The technical and cost information will be evaluated at the same time. The Government reserves the right to select for award of a contract, cooperative agreement, or a grant (for universities and non-profit institutions), any, all, part or none of the proposals received. Award of a grant to universities or nonprofit institutions or cooperative agreement, in lieu of a contract, will be considered and will be subject to the mutual agreement of the parties. The government reserves the right to award any resulting contract pursuant to the Research and Development Standard Contract format in DFARS 235.70. F-POINTS OF CONTACT: (1) Direct technical questions to Mr. Kevin Spitzer at (937) 255-5037; e-mail spitzekr@ml.wpafb.af.mil. Direct contracting questions to Mr. William O. Beeman at (937) 255-3506/7143 FAX (937) 255-4434 or Email beemanwo@wl.wpafb.af.mil.. (2) An Ombudsman has been appointed to hear concerns from offerors and potential offerors during the proposal development phase of this acquisition. The purpose of the Ombudsman is not to diminish the authority of the Contracting Officer, but to communicate contractor concerns, issues, disagreements and recommendations to the appropriate government personnel. All potential offerors should use established channels to voice concerns before resorting to use of the Ombudsman. When requested, the Ombudsman will maintain strict confidentiality as to the source of the concern. The Ombudsman does not participate in the evaluation of proposals or in the selection decision. Interested parties should direct all routine communication concerning this acquisition to William O. Beeman, Contract Negotiator, WL/MLKT, Bldg. 7, 2530 C Street, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7607, telephone 937-255-3506. The Ombudsman should only be contacted with issues or problems that have been previously brought to the attention of the contracting officer and could not be satisfactorily resolved at that level. These serious concerns only may be directed to the Ombudsman, Mr. Mike S. Coalson, ASC/SYI Bldg., 52 Room 136, 2475 K St., Wright- Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7642, E-Mail coalsoms@sy.wpafb.af.mil, phone 937-255-3855. See Note 26. ***** (0160)

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