Defense Supply Center Philadelphia, Attn: DSCP-PBA, Bldg. 6-1-D, 700 Robbins Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19111-5092

A -- PROCUREMENT READINESS OPTIMIZATION ADVANCED CASTING TECHNOLOGIES SOL BAA00-0002 DUE 020100 POC Sue Bonanno 215-737-7339 PROCUREMENT READINESS OPTIMIZATION -- ADVANCED CASTING TECHNOLOGIES (PRO-ACT). SOL BAA# 00-0002, DUE February 1,2000, Point of Contact (POC): Sue Bonanno, Phone: 215-737-7339; FAX: 215-737-7942; Email sbonanno@dscp.dla.mil. The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is soliciting proposals for its new PRO-ACT program which seeks to demonstrate readiness improvements by developing and applying innovative methods of designing, manufacturing and buying weapons systems spares through advanced casting technologies. Proposed research 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 and/or the Military Services. Subject to availability of funds, a total Government investment of about $10 million is planned during Fiscal Years 00-05 for funding efforts selected from this BAA. Proposals for less than the total amount and shorter than the total duration are welcomed. GENERAL INFORMATION: Proposers must submit an original and ten (10) copies of full proposals and an electronic copy on a floppy or CD-ROM (in Word Perfect or Word or ASCII text for IBM compatible) and referring to BAA# 00-0002 by 3:00 PM, local Phila time on February 1, 2000, to DSCP-PBA, in order to be considered. No additional information is available, nor will a formal RFP or other solicitation regarding this announcement be issued. Request for 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. All responsible sources capable of satisfying the Government's needs may submit a proposal which shall be considered by DLA. Historically Black Colleges and Universities(HBCU) and Minority Institutions (MI) are encouraged to submit proposals and join others in submitting proposals; however, no portion of this BAA will be set aside for HBCU and MI participation due to the impracticality of reserving discrete or severable areas of research in metal casting technology. Large Business concerns are required to submit a Small Business/Small Disadvantaged Business Subcontracting Plan. For purposes of this acquisition, the size standard is 500 employees Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 3364. 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 POC at the top of the BAA; e-mail or fax is preferred. Proposals may NOT be submitted by fax or e-mail; any so sent will be disregarded. AREAS OF INTEREST: Proposers are encouraged to develop project teams involving all of the elements of the metal casting supply chain in order to achieve the overall goal of this program. Proposed work should result in the delivery of tools such as industry standards, best practices, guidelines, and software which have continuing value. Areas of interest are: tools for casting technical data package review and modernization; tools for evaluating foundry productsand processes for best value source selection; foundry processes which improve the speed and predictability of casting manufacture; tools for capturing, retaining, and recalling casting process models, so that older items, which have not been made for a number of years, can be put back in production quickly with minimum risk; best practices for qualification of new casting materials and processes when old materials and processes are no longer viable; interactive web based software tools for design engineers to walk through potential casting applications and come up with decisions (process and material selection) whether application is appropriate for casting; improved acceptance standards such as reference radiographs; casting applications development for small lots and short lead times, which will demonstrate the technical and economic superiority of castings to meet these goals, through promotional activities that can be targeted at single industries or can be broad spectrum promotions in seminars and trade shows. Although DLA sees special merit in these areas, offerors are free to innovate and are not limited to proposing exactly these technology areas. Equal consideration will be given to all approaches that enable improved readiness for weapon system spares made from castings. SUBMISSION PROCESS: The proposal should express a consolidated effort in support of one or more related technical concepts or ideas. Disjointed efforts should not be included into a single proposal. EVALUATIONCRITERIA/EVALUATION AND FUNDING PROCESSES: 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 (see below). 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) Overall scientific and technical merit: the overall scientific and technical merit must be clearly identifiable. The technical concept should be clearly defined and developed. Emphasis should be placed on the technical value of the development and experimentation approach; (2) Offeror's past performance, capabilities, and related experience: the technical proposal must provide evidence of previous technical expertise, experience and implementation of the proposed approach; (3) Potential contribution and relevance to DLA's mission: The offeror must clearly address how the proposed effort will be the goals of PRO-ACT. The relevance is further indicated by the offeror's understanding of the operating environment of the capability to be developed; (4) Cost realism, including the extent (total or proportion) of cost share. The overall estimated cost to accomplish the effort should be clearly shown as well as the substantiationof costs for the technical complexity described. Evaluation will consider the value to the Government of the research and the extent to which the proposed technical plan will effectively allocate resources to achieve the capabilities proposed. As soon as the proposal evaluation is completed, the proposer will be notified of selectability or non-selectability. Selectable proposals will be considered for funding; non-selectable proposals will be destroyed. (One copy of non-selectable proposals may be retained for file purposes). Not all proposals deemed selectable will be funded. Decisions to fund selectable proposals will be based on funds availability and merits of the proposal. Proposals may be considered for funding for a period of up to one year. The Government reserves the right to select for award all, some, or none of the proposals received. Due to the commercial market profit potential, some level of cost sharing is required, and proposals identified for funding will result in a cost share contract. Profit/fee is not applicable under cost share contracts. PROPOSAL FORMAT: All proposals must be in the format given below. Non-conforming proposals may be rejected without review. VOLUME I -TECHNICAL AND MANAGEMENT PROPOSAL shall include the following sections each starting on a new page and each page is 8-1/2" x 11" with type not smaller than 12 pitch. VOLUME I shall not exceed 50 pages. Maximum page length for each section is shown in braces { } below. Section I, Administration: A. {1}Cover page including: (1) BAA number, (2) Technical topic area, (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 type of business, selected among the following categories: "LARGE BUSINESS", "SMALL DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS","OTHER SMALL BUSINESS", "HBCU", "MI", "OTHER EDUCATIONAL", or "OTHER NONPROFIT". (7) Names of all organizations that comprise the offeror's proposed team. (8) Duration and cost (Government and cost share) of the effort. B. {1} Official transmittal letter. Section II, Summary of Proposal: This section provides an overview of the proposed work as well as an introduction to the associated technical and management issues. A. {1}Innovative claims for the proposed research. This page is the centerpiece of the proposal and should succinctly describe the unique proposed contribution. B {2} Deliverables associated with the proposed research. Include in this section all proprietary claims to results, prototypes, or systems supporting and/or necessary for the use of the research, results, and/or prototype. If there are not proprietary claims, this should be stated. C. {1} Cost, schedule and milestones for the proposed research, including estimates of cost for each task in each year of the effort and total cost, broken out by performing organization. D. {4} Specific technical approach, rationale and strategyfor accomplishment of technical goals in support of innovative claims and deliverables. (This section should be supplemented by a more detailed plan in Section III-C.) E. {1} List of key personnel along with the amount of effort to be expended by each person during the contract year. Section III, Detailed Proposal Information: This section provides the detailed discussion of the proposed work necessary to enable an in-depth review of the specific technical and managerial issues. A. {3} Statement of Work (SOW) written in plain English, outlining the scope of the effort and citing specific tasks to be performed and specific contractor requirements. B. {5} Description of the results, products, and transferable technology to be developed. C. {18} Detailed technical approach and rationale enhancing that of Section II. This should describe the proposer's directly relevant previous accomplishments. D. {2} Description of the facilities that would be used for the proposed effort. E. {2} Concise summary of the qualifications of key personnel. Section IV. Program Plan {7}This section shall provide a detailed program plan that displays all major tasks (in the form of a PERT network, GANTT Chart, or other appropriate format), their schedule and dependency relationships, which organization is responsible for task execution, and the resources allocated to each task. A one page cost summary will be included in the program plan. Section V, Additional Information {2} This section shall contain a bibliography of relevant technical papers and research notes (published and unpublished) which document the technical ideas upon which the proposal is based. VOLUME II, Cost Proposal {no page limit}: adequate price competition is anticipated; therefore, 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 submittingsuch 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 a SF 1448 may be obtained from the POC listed above. Cost proposals should be organized to include two sections in the following order: total project cost, and cost sharing and in-kind contributions. Section 1 -- Total Project Cost -- will include total project cost by month. The offeror will also give a detailed breakdown of the total project costs, broken down 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 allow the government to evaluate the reasonableness of these proposed costs, including salaries, overhead, material purchases, fair market rental value of leased items and the method used for making such evaluations. Section 2 -- Cost Sharing and In-kind contributions will include (1) the sources of cash and amounts; (2) the specific in-kind contributions, their value in monetary terms, and the methodology used to derive their values. Proposals should contain sufficient information regarding the sources of cost share so that a determination regarding availability, timeliness, and control of the resources may be made by the government. Posted 12/22/99 (W-SN410843). (0356)

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