Category: Industry News

DoD and the US Military use their own language especially when it comes to naming items. When searching for manufacturers, suppliers, contracts or solicitations you need to think like they do.  Each item they purchase has its own unique naming convention.

Today we quickly look at the Zip ties or cable tie. One of the official names DoD uses to describe these items is “Strap, Tiedown”.  If you’re looking for either Manufacturers, Suppliers, Solicitations (MSS) use this official name and your results will be much better.

Manufacturers

A couple of manufacturers currently producing zip ties are Panduit, Cage code 06383 and Thomas & Betts Cage code 56501. Ty-rap is a trademark of Thomas & Betts.

Suppliers

One simple way to find suppliers for an NSN is:

1. Find the manufacturers Cage code that relates to the NSN you are seeking.
2. Once you see the NSN-manufacturer-cage relation, look at procurement history relating to that NSN – Those are your suppliers.

Solicitations

This past week DoD posted solicitations for cable ties worth close to $30,000.00 and that’s just last week. When searching for government solicitations be sure to use correct nomenclature, in this case “Strap, Tiedown”. One of the cable tie NSNs open for bid is 5975-01-120-1088.

Using the correct nomenclature no matter what you’re looking for your results will improve.

BidLink is a provider of DoD procurement research tools and has been a leading provider of industry marketing data relating to DoD procurement and solicitations for the past 18 years. Find defense contracts and research competition. Learn more at www.bidlink.net

Last week we looked at DoD Small Business set-aside sales as a whole, today we’ll take a quick look at the breakdown which includes Small Business, Small Disadvantaged Business (SDB), Women Owned Small Business (WOSB), Service Disabled Veteran Owned Business (SDVOSB), and HUBZone Small Business.

The chart above shows the total sales over the past 3 years for each of the small business set-aside sectors. These are all prime contracts such as items sold direct to the Department of Defense (DoD).   Each year since 2015 the DoD awarded contract sales to each group has risen except within the HUBZone sector which has grown slowly.  This is probably due to not enough HUBZone companies answering government solicitations.

The chart above shows the total DoD sales to all small business set-aside sectors for FY 2018 year to date as of June 2018. With 3 months left of the U.S. Governments fiscal year it appears that the trend is continuing as the sales relate to each sector except the overall budget is higher so we expect the totals in September 2018 to be higher than last year.

BidLink has been a leading provider of industry marketing data relating to DoD procurement for the past 18 years. Find defense contracts and research competition.  Learn more at www.bidlink.net

Over the past 3 years small businesses sales to the Department of Defense (DoD) have been steadily increasing. In fact yearly sales have risen on average 4.5 Billion dollars each year and this year it’s even higher.  The chart above shows the total small business sales to DoD was  $31.5 Billion dollars in 2017 compared to $39.6 Billion in sales as of June 25, 2018 up almost 26% from last year.  Small businesses received $8.1 Billion dollars more in prime contracts selling to the DoD than they did last year, this trend is likely to continue till the end of the year.

Small Business set-asides are specific procurement goals which Congress puts forth under the Small Business Act in order to set-aside a percentage of U.S. Government contracts to small businesses.

The U. S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is responsible for ensuring government participation of these goals. The 2018 small business goal for DoD is to have 22% of their contracts awarded to small businesses.  DoD monitors all contract awards to small business daily in order to keep meeting these goals.  This chart above was created from data gathered from these awards on June 25, 2018.

The DoD budget increased by $33 Billion from 2017 to 2018 this is also an indicator for an increase in small businesses sales as the goal is based percentages of sales.  In fact the DoD budget has increased by over $20 Billion dollars every year since 2015.  With only 3 months of Government spending left this year in order for DoD to continue to meet their small business procurement goals they need to award more government contracts to small businesses, probably close to $20 Billion or more this year.

Meeting DoD small business procurement goals is not just a concern of the U.S. Government it should also be a concern of every small business to help them meet or exceed their goals. Actively searching for Government contracts and taking advantage of these set-asides is a crucial activity often missed even by the “seasoned contractor”.  As part of research for this article we used the BidLink database and search engine reviewing NSN’s, parts which had been solicited using set-asides such as HUBZone, small business.  There were government solicitations we found with no associated contract award possibly due to the fact that no companies with the correct set-aside responded.  Are some of the government contractors sleeping on the job and missing these government opportunities?

BidLink has been a leading provider of industry marketing data relating to DoD procurement for the past 18 years.  Find defense contracts and research competition.  Learn more at www.bidlink.net

Today DLA’s contracting office SPE4A6 – Aviation supply chain commodities division posted a requirement for an item used on the M2A2 Aiming Circles. The requested item is a metal spacer plate, aluminum alloy about 3 inches in diameter with two concentric bolt circles.  It’s a simple part any machine shop could manufacture.  DLA says they have a complete set of drawings for the item.  Machine shops searching for government contracts of metal parts should look at this one.

This spacer plate NSN 5365-01-082-7978 is part of the end item, “M2A2 Aiming Circle” NSN 6675-01-067-0687. An Aiming Circle is a portable optical telescopic device used by the Army and Marines to measure elevation and azimuth angles for field artillery and mortar target acquisition, somewhat similar to a transit used in surveying operations.

In supporting/sustainment of end items the Defense Department (DoD) either buys parts direct from the manufacturer or from other sources. This specific end item NSN 6675-01-067-0687 has a couple of repair/support parts DoD buys from sources other than the manufacturer, this is the case with the Spacer, Plate listed in this open solicitation. It’s one way new companies can start selling to DoD by going after these business opportunities.

According to BidLink procurement history after performing an NSN lookup  5365-01-082-7978 official name “Spacer, Plate” the last government contract SPE4A4-18-V7811 was awarded to Seiler Instrument Cage code 11934. The price was $30.00 each quantity of 33 pieces. Today’s open solicitation SPE4A6-18-T-12M1 is for a quantity of 218, however it’s classified as a Service Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB) set-aside which means Seiler Instrument can’t bid on it since their business is not classified as SDVOSB.

Seiler Instrument is a manufacturer specializing in optical instrument and lens manufacturing. Providing the Defense Department (DoD) products such as optical fire control sighting and ranging equipment.  Click on their Cage code 11934 in Vendor data section to see what items they produce and how much they are selling.  Their company has about 150 employees located in Saint Louis Missouri.

Summary

• Solicitation SPE4A6-18-T-12M1 closes on June 18, 2018
• Item requested NSN 5365-01-082-7978
• Quantity 218
• To see the actual drawings log into the DIBBs Site

BidLink has been a leading provider of industry marketing data relating to DoD procurement for the past 18 years.