Category: Government Contracts Bootcamp

As a continuation of our Government Contracting Bootcamp, I wanted to cover military solicitations.  Anything that’s not purchased through DOD Fedmall or Credit Card is likely procured through solicitations for competitive acquisition.  These lengthy documents include detail about the products being procured, the procuring agency, limitations on company size, and contract clauses from the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR).

If it’s your first time reading a defense contract, it is a good idea to read (or at least skim) the whole document.  The first few pages contain pertinent information about the procurement, while the remainder often contains boiler-plate legal language.  Much of the boiler-plate stuff doesn’t change from contract to contract, so after an initial review one can focus on the top of the document.

There are several types of solicitations that you will regularly see:

Request for Quotation (RFQ) – The bulk of military buying activity through the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) is done through RFQs.

Request for Proposal (RFP) – Larger more complex contracts that often span multiple years where DOD submits delivery orders.

Sources Sought Solicitation – Used when the military is conducting market research to determine how many potential competitors will participate.

They are assigned a solicitation number like SPE4A0-22-T-0316, which is broken down into sections:

SPE4A0 – DLA Aviation / Hill Airforce Base
22 – Fiscal year 2022
T – Automated Solicitation
0316 – The 316th automated solicitation from SPE4A0

Automated solicitations refer to the DLA Master Solicitation which standardizes some of the contractual clauses so they don’t need to be included in every government contract.  This includes the rules and regulations for how quotes are submitted and evaluated.

Government Contract Example

Click here for a full copy of solicitation SPE4A022T0316

The core information on page 1 is the buying agency, closing date, buyer contact information, and whether the solicitation is set-aside for small businesses.  Each year a growing percentage of solicitations must be exclusively for small businesses.  Page 1 also includes a link to the latest master solicitation and sources for technical data / drawings.

These are contract clauses that pertain to this particular solicitation.  It’s an automated award, but requires a first article test item where you submit a sample for evaluation before the government buys the rest. It mentions FAR 52.219-6, a reference to the regulation requiring contracts to be set-aside for small business.  The NAICS code is the commodity class that determines small business size, and inspection occurs at the vendors facility.  This solicitation has a minimum inspection standard, so if your facility is not ISO-9001 or equivalent you do not qualify.

Pages 3+4 are self explanatory, so we’ll skip to page 5 where we find the item description.  These page numbers will vary from contract to contract.

The PR number is the purchase requisition.  Solicitations begin as a requisition from the person that needs the item.  That requisition is sent to a buying office where it is turned into a solicitation.  The National Stock Number (NSN) in this case is 1560-01-073-0489 (dashes added for readability).  Almost everything the military buys is assigned an NSN, which can be used to find valuable information like who last sold it at what price.  This one is a backup ring assembly used on the F-15 aircraft. 

Using BidLink for research, I can see that it was last sold in 2019 by Federal Industries for $13,575 each.  Technical characteristics for each NSN include specific detail about the item.  In this case, this kit includes a ring, pin spring MS9048-222 (military standard), a cap NAS1474A4 20, and a rivet MS20426AD3-8.

Scrolling a few pages down we get to the first line item.  This is CLIN 0001 with an order quantity of 1. This page also includes drawing numbers and technical documents that can be downloaded from the DIBBS cfolders. The vendor has 275 days to deliver the merchandise after the first article test item is approved. The next page has CLIN 0002, which is the first-article test item.

The remainder of the contract are included clauses from the Federal Acquisition Regulations.  Breeze through them and read anything that might pertain to your company or this item.

Learning the basic structure of defense contracts makes them easier to read and understand.  Once you have been through a few of them you can scan quickly to the relevant information and determine if a particular opportunity is a good match for your company.

BidLink is the original bid notification service dating back to the 1980s when we shipped floppy disks to government contractors. After going online in 1999, BidLink has served thousands of companies and government agencies.  Our superior bid search can efficiently drill-down to contracting opportunities that make money for our clients.

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How do I Get a NSN assigned to my product?

This is a question we’ve heard 1000’s of times in our 20 years in business. Companies interested in selling their products learn about NSNs and how DoD buys millions of them in classes they take.   With this new knowledge the question we hear most often is “How do I get a National Stock Number assigned to my products” so that the Military would buy them.

So how do you do this?

Get the Military to buy your product a few times – Create a need.

Assigning the NSN comes after the need, DoD does not randomly assign NSNs.  In order for DoD to assign an NSN a requirement for that item needs to exist. Requirements come from the customer/end user Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard etc.

The NSN is an item relating to a product which is purchased on a regular basis.  An NSN can relate to a system/end item like an aircraft or a simple item such as a black waterproof plastic, NSN 6760-01-491-2816.  Request for NSN generation can also come from NATO countries or Contractors who manage Weapon Systems.

How do I find needs for my products?

Search for Open Solicitations – See who’s buying similar items.

One simple way is to start monitoring open solicitations on a regular basis for similar items, search by commodity class otherwise known as Federal Supply Class (FSC) that relates to your product.  Your results will show you who currently is buying these items.  This is your chance to submit what is called an “Alternate offer” in response to a specific solicitation.

When a solicitation is open, this is the time when the government buyers are listening, potentially looking for new manufacturers of items they need.  A government solicitation open for bid will have a statement such as “Offerers supplying other than exact Product(s) must submit TDP for Evaluation”.  This is “your time” to provide the buyer specifications of your product to evaluate. Your product could be accepted as an alternate product, and possibly the reviewer (item manager) assigns a new NSN to your item to reflect the differences.

The item managers research FLIS data to see if a National Stock Number already exists.  If a determination is made that the item does not have a NSN one will be assigned.  If one does exist then the NSN-MCRD (Master Cross Reference Database) or Part Number Cross Reference may be appended to include your company and unique part number.

Who Assigns the NSN?

The DLA Federal Logistics Information System (FLIS) is the division is who manages all NSNs.  NSN part data is updated on a regular basis.

Look at the past – Review Past Sales of similar items

Looking at the past can lead you to a successful future.  If your goal or reason for trying to get an NSN assigned to your product is to sell it, you should spend time researching competitors, What are they selling, Who are they selling it to?

This kind of research can be done by CAGE codes, Contract numbers and Part numbers.  It can return results such as Who’s buying the item, How many are they buying, and How much are they spending.  If you’re thinking I can use NAICS codes, Think again as they relate to specific industries and not things. Part Numbers, CAGE codes and Contract numbers will return more accurate results.

The BidLink Research Tool has been providing quick and easy access to DoD Contract, Solicitation, Sales and NSN- Part information for over 20 years.

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So you’ve found a solicitation you want to bid, but it requires QPL. Here’s what you need to know about QPL and how to qualify.

The defense department maintains a Qualified Parts List (QPL) of information regarding products and manufacturers, as compiled and maintained by the individual Qualifying Activities (QA).  Activity is just a fancy word for government agency.  Different product classes are maintained by specific agencies.  For example, rubber hose is maintained by DLA Land and Maritime, a division of the Defense Logistics Agency.

Items managed under QPL are broken down by military specification and Part or Identifying Number (PIN).  For example, mil-spec MIL-DTL-13444J defines the standards relating to rubber hose and hose assemblies.  A subcategory of this specification is defined by the PIN, which describes the specific characteristics.

 

Finding the agency that maintains a particular QPL is key to applying for inclusion on that list.

Finding the right mil-spec

You start with the National Stock Number which is in the solicitation.  BidLink  has a vast NSN lookup which includes whether the item requires QPL.

Note the words “Competitive – Controlled by QPL”.  This means that you must be on the QPL to provide this item to the government.  This particular item was listed on a solicitation valued at $17,880.

Next, we need the military specification number and PIN, which is also in BidLink.

In the Part Number Cross-reference, the first number MS52103Z-160760R is the PIN.  These are usually preceded by the characters MS.  The second number MIL-DTL-13444 is the mil-spec Document ID.

Look up the mil-spec

The official authority on military specifications is the Government’s ASSIST database.  There is a quick search but in order to drill down to the Preparing Activity, a login is required.  Registration is free.

Once you’re in, click search and enter the document ID. Several results will appear.  Look for the most recent one and click it.  It’s usually the top result.

This takes you to a list of revisions for this spec as well as a litany of other information.  Specifications are revised over time, so it’s important to have the most recent one.

Clicking the media logo next to the topmost revision (Revision J in this case) shows the most recent specification.  Here’s a copy of MIL-DTL-13444 so you can see what one looks like.  Within the spec you will see information relating to qualification requirements.  Read it thoroughly.

Finding who manages the QPL 

On the screen above, look for Preparing Activity.  You can see that the QPL for this item is maintained by DLA Land and Maritime.  The code next to this takes you to the agency contacts.

Clicking on a contact name will give you that person’s contact information.  This is who you would reach out to regarding possible inclusion on the QPL for rubber hoses.

It takes time to be added to the QPL, but this has been shortened as DLA migrates from the legacy system to the Qualified Parts Database (QPD).   As items are moved to the QPD, they will be moved off the legacy QPL.  Additional information, including a list of companies which belong to a particular QPL can be found here: https://qpldocs.dla.mil/.

Belonging on a QPL proves to the government that you have the capability to build something according to the specification.  This means that when bidding on a contract that requires QPL, you may be competing with fewer suppliers.

BidLink helps contractors find government business through it’s superior bid search engine.  To learn more, create a risk free trial account.

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