SAM #6973GH-27-MS-00001

FAA Flight Program Operations Engineering, Certification, and ODA Support

The FAA is conducting market research for specialized aircraft engineering, certification, and ODA support across its flight program fleet. - Government buyer: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Flight Program Operations (AJF), AJF Engineering. - OEMs and vendors: No OEMs, commercial vendors, or product manufacturers are identified by company name. The aircraft platforms named are Challenger 605/650 and BE300/BE350ER/BE360ER. - Requested services: - Engineering, certification, and project management for aircraft modifications, new Supplemental Type Certificates (STCs), STC amendments, continued operational airworthiness, and fleet modernization for the named aircraft. - Flight Inspection System and Modular Mission System support, including modifications, enhancements, sustainment, and modernization of special-mission equipment and associated aircraft systems. - ODA administration and engineering/flight-test ODA unit support. The FAA’s planning baseline is 1.0 FTE ODA Administrator, 2.0 FTE Engineering/Flight Test ODA Unit Members, and 1.0 FTE Project Manager—4.0 FTE or 7,520 labor hours annually. - Project planning and management, including schedules, status meetings, risk tracking, and recovery planning; monthly technical/program and financial reporting are also required. - Indicative annual workload: 4–8 concurrent projects, 2–4 new STCs, 4–8 STC amendments, 10–20 other certification or engineering actions, and 5–10 over-and-above actions. Conformity, TIA, and flight-test work depends on the STC workload. - Notable requirements: The contractor must maintain an active ODA and authority to issue STCs for the specified aircraft. The FAA is seeking industry input on pricing, data needs, workload and risk allocation, and converting the existing labor-hour approach to firm-fixed pricing. - Period: One base year with four one-year options, exercisable at the FAA’s discretion. The procurement strategy and competition approach have not been determined.

Description

Introduction: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is seeking input from industry participants regarding the transition of its current Time and Materials (T&M) contract for Flight Program Operations support to a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract. This market survey aims to gather information that will assist the FAA in understanding the requirements and potential challenges associated with this transition.

All attachments and information herein are subject to change if/when an official solicitation is released. 

Background: The FAA Flight Program Operations performs multiple missions requiring airborne operations, including Aviation Safety Training, Flight Inspection, Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, and Critical Event Response/Transportation. The current contract provides engineering, certification, Organization Designation Authorization (ODA), and project management services for aircraft modification, certification, continued operational airworthiness, and fleet modernization activities.

This will be a follow-on requirement to FAA contract 6973GH-22-D-00031. The incumbent is Delta Engineering Corporation (SAM UEI: MJNYMCPK6M18). The preponderance of work under this contract is performed under a Labor Hour (LH) contract type.

Objective: The objective of this RFI is to collect information from interested and capable vendors on the necessary data, methodologies, and considerations for transitioning the existing Labor Hour (LH) contract to a Firm Fixed Price (FFP) structure in compliance with recently updated agency acqusition policies and procedures.   

The procurement strategy, award methodology, and nature of competition for this requirement has not yet been determined. Responses to this announcement may be used to finalize draft requirement information, inform the development of a future solicitation, and/or to determine the FAA's procurement strategy whether to conduct an open and unrestricted competition, or set-aside this procurement, in part or in whole, to small business concerns. If interested in submitting a proposal for any resulting solicitation for this work, please make the FAA aware of your company's capability and interest by responding to this announcement. 

Preliminary Workload and Staffing Assumptions: For planning purposes, the FAA estimates an annual baseline of 4.0 Full-Time Equivalents (FTE) or 7,520 labor hours. The breakdown is as follows:

Labor Category                                                                  FTE        Annual Hours

ODA Administrator                                                             1.0         1,880

Engineering / Flight Test ODA Unit Members                    2.0         3,760

Project Manager                                                                1.0         1,880

Total                                                                                   4.0         7,520

The 2.0 FTE / 3,760 hours for Engineering/Flight Test ODA Unit Members represents an aggregate technical level of effort. It is not intended to require two specific individuals. The Contractor should provide the appropriate number and mix of qualified Unit Members and Flight Test ODA personnel based on the disciplines and requirements of each project.

Estimated Workload:

Concurrent active projects: 4–8

New STCs: 2–4

STC amendments: 4–8

Other certification/engineering actions: 10–20

Over and Above (O&A) actions: 5–10

Conformity/TIA/flight-test activities: As required by STC/STC amendment workload

Conformity, TIA, and flight-test activities are currently workload-driven activities associated with individual STCs and STC amendments. The level of effort for future activities will likely vary based on the scope and certification requirements of each project.

Flight Program Operations considers 4.0 FTE / 7,520 annual labor hours to be a reasonable preliminary baseline for market research and Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) purposes.

Vendor Statement of Interest and Capabilities: The FAA requests the following information from interested and capable vendors:

FIRST - An introduction/overall capabilities statement of your company

SECOND - System for Award Management (SAM) Unique ID

THIRD - Recommended NAICS for this type of work 

FOURTH - Descriptions of current relevant certifications possessed by your company.

FIFTH - Small Business Status; please define your small business status (8(a), Woman-owned, Veteran-owned, etc.)

SIXTH - An authorized point of contact, to include: name, title, telephone number, business address, and email address 

Request for Information (RFI): The FAA invites responses to the following questions:

1. What are the main factors that should be considered when transitioning from a Cost-type contract to an FFP contract for services related to aircraft modification and certification?

2. How should the FAA address risks and uncertainties inherent in an FFP contract structure for this type of work?

3. What specific information would industry require from the FAA to accurately propose a Firm Fixed Price for the scope of work described in the Performance Work Statement (PWS)?

4. What are the critical data points and historical performance metrics necessary to establish a realistic and competitive fixed price?

5. Please provide insight into a FFP pricing structure that makes sense for this type of work with Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) information for the FAA’s budgetary planning purposes. This will information not be considered by the FAA to be official proposal information; however, please mark any such competitive or sensitive information appropriately.

Submission Instructions

Interested vendors must provide responses via email. Responses must be in common electronic writable formats such as Microsoft Word, Excel, and/or PowerPoint. Adobe PDF documents. 

All responses, submittals, and any questions for this Market Survey must be e-mailed to the Contracting Officer, Josh Huckeby, at joshua.d.huckeby@faa.gov on or before the closing date of this announcement.

Please include “MARKET SURVEY RESPONSE: ODA STC_(Your Company Name)” in the subject line of your email. Information provided will not be released but please mark PROPRIETARY on all documents submitted as appropriate.

Interested firms must be registered in the System for Award Management at (www.SAM.gov) to be eligible for award of any future FAA contracts for this requirement.

Disclaimer:

A Screening Information Request (SIR)/Request for Offer may be made under a separate announcement in the future. The FAA is not seeking or accepting unsolicited proposals. The FAA will not pay for any information received or costs incurred in preparing vendor responses to this market survey. Therefore, any cost associated with a market survey submission is solely at the interested vendor expense.

The FAA’s acquisition regulation is the Acquisition Management System (AMS). Our agency is not subject to the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). You can learn more about FAA acquisition policy and procedures at the following website:  https://fast.faa.gov/PPG_Procurement.cfm

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