Request for Information (RFI) - FBO Special Notice Announcement (3/3/2017)

Subject: Questions for industry on FFP non-nuclear surface ship modernization and repair

Contracting Office: Naval Sea Systems Command, DC 1333 Isaac Hull Ave SE, Washington Navy Yard, DC 20376

Point of Contact: Steven Galer, Contracting Officer, [email protected], 202-781-2873

Background:
This is a Request for Information (RFI) announcement in accordance with FAR 15.201 to solicit information from industry.

The Naval Sea Systems Command is conducting market research to solicit Industry's perspective and analysis on the time necessary for offerors to provide high quality price & technical proposals for non-nuclear surface ship modernization and maintenance/repair availabilities. Industry has expressed their concerns on the time necessary to create high quality proposals on numerous occasions. The intent of this RFI is to obtain information from industry that could help the Navy increase its responsiveness to Industry concerns.

The information provided by industry will be reviewed by the Government and may or may not be incorporated into the acquisition process at the Government's discretion. Subsequent to its review, the Government may contact individual companies to discuss specific details of the information provided.

What/Where to Submit:
Interested companies should submit a written response via email to Steven Galer at [email protected] with subject line "RFI - Questions for Industry - [Insert Company Name]." The written response should include answers to the below questions. There is no page limit.

1. Please provide a narrative description of your proposal creation, finalization and delivery process.

2. Please explain how the offeror's proposal creation, finalization and delivery time changes based on the size of the Availability (measured in man-days).

Note - The Navy understands that proposal timelines may be influenced by other factors, such as the number of work items or the specific composition of the work package (in terms of the number of trades required or systems impacted), but these factors may not be fully understood early enough to influence acquisition timelines.

3. Are there any solicitation requirements you would recommend changing to streamline the proposal creation, finalization and delivery timeline while ensuring that the Navy obtains the best value available as a result of its source selection?

4. NAVSEA is considering providing potential offerors an advance portion of specific work packages (including specs, references & drawings) 45 to 60 days prior to official RFP release. It is the Government's intent to only include information which is not expected to change at time of the official RFP release date. Please provide your feedback on this process - what specific information would be beneficial for the Government to make available to industry and what specific information would be detrimental or counter-productive?

5. Due to ship operational timelines, the Government often can't provide shipchecks on the actual ship a specific requirement is for. The Government is considering providing indexed pictures corresponding to specific work items to illustrate scope. Please provide your feedback on this process - what specific information would be beneficial for the Government to make available to industry and what specific information would be detrimental or counter-productive?

6. Are there any other concerns that you would like to make NAVSEA aware of?

When to Submit:
Responses are requested no later than 2PM local time, Washington D.C. on 13 March 2017.

Other:
All information shall be provided free of charge to the Government. The Government will not pay for any effort expended or any material provided in response to this announcement or any follow up information requests, nor will the Government return any data provided. The Government does not intend to award a contract as a result of this notice and responses to this notice are not an offer and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract.