Sources Sought for a potential Supply Chain Management Contract for J85 Engine Support

Solicitation Number: To be advised at time of issuance

DISCLAIMER: THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT INTEND TO AWARD A CONTRACT ON THE BASIS OF THIS

SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE OR TO OTHERWISE PAY FOR THE INFORMATION SOLICITED.

This Sources Sought Notice is issued for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation. The Government requires that only non-proprietary information be submitted in response to this Sources Sought Notice. The Government shall not be liable for or suffer any consequential damages for the use of any proprietary information submitted. Responses to the Sources Sought Notice will not be returned. The responses to this notice are not an offer and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. The Government reserves the right to reject, in whole or in part, any contractor's input resulting from this Sources Sought Notice. Responders are solely responsible for all expenses associated with responding to this Sources Sought Notice.

PURPOSE: This Sources Sought Notice is issued as a means of conducting market research to determine if other companies, besides General Electric (GE), are capable of developing a proprietary forecasting and analysis tool to include supply chain management consisting of supply support, demand/planning forecasting, material management, engineering support and sustainment elements, packaging, storage/warehousing, reliability improvements, and field customer service/engineering support of the J85 Engine manufactured by GE, and the associated J85 Bill of Materials (BOM) of 5,736 DLA-managed Consumable parts and USAF-managed Depot Level Reparable (DLR) parts to support United States Air Force (USAF) customers. Attachment 1 represents the J85 BOM of 5,736 parts that align with the scope of the proposed sole source contract for the proprietary forecasting and analysis tool. The J85 Engine powers the T-38A/C Talon dual engine aircraft, the training workhorse for the US Government and its allies.

The proposed contract action is for PBL support for which the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source under authority of FAR 6.302-1. The contract is anticipated to be a 5-year Requirements-type, Firm Fixed Price Contract. Interested parties may identify their interest and capability to support the objectives by responding to this notice. All responses received by the notice response date will be considered by the Government. A decision by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received in response to this notice will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. This notice is for information and planning purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation or commitment by the Government.

OBJECTIVES: The overarching objectives of this acquisition are to decrease J85 Engine repair delays due to outstanding consumable requirements and fill requisitions within material availability priorities by emphasizing improvement of lead times. In order to meet these objectives, the contractor must have the ability to cleanse and analyze the entire J85 BOM to identify items that pose a challenge to meeting lead times, analyze drawings for any/all items to determine if updates are required, identify sources in the supply base to build the items as well as identify any tooling needed, drive changes into the weapons system configuration, and understand, analyze, and assess the implications-both in terms of performance and operational usage-of any potential configuration change. In addition, the contractor will be required to make recommendations for Engineering Change Proposals (ECPs) along with being responsible for obsolescence management and mitigating Diminishing Manufacturing Source (DMSMS) challenges for the J85 BOM.

The contractor must have the ability to perform an in-depth National Stock Number (NSN) analysis of the J85 BOM to identify potential Sourcing and Tooling issues, Processes, Engineering Stability, Executability, and build the J85 NSN population. The contractor must have the ability to perform a tooling availability, location, condition assessment, and provide a recommended tooling solution if required, for each NSN. The contractor must have the ability to Identify/ Develop/ Update Technical Data Packages (TDP) & Build to Packages (BTP) for each NSN. In addition, the contractor must have the ability to identify/develop and warm the supply chain on all NSNs with the goal to ensure the supply chain is ready to respond once an order is placed. The contractor will combine current usage data, replacement factors and their NSN analysis