Federal Strategic Sourcing Initiative (FSSI) - Janitorial & Sanitation

<p>Hello,</p><p>I have reviewed both the MRO and JanSan Draft RFQ Questions and Answers and would like to ask you for a brief clarification on Question No. 5 for MRO and the same question, Question No. 11 for JanSan.</p><p>The answers are different for the same question. The MRO Answer to Question No. 5 states that the Government does not intend to give the Contractor a chance to rebut the documentation found in their past performance evaluations; however, for JanSan Answer No. 11, you state that it is being evaluated by the Contracting Team.</p><p>Therefore my question is whether the Go/No-Go Factor of Past performance will be treated differently from one RFQ to the other?</p><p>Thank you very much for your time and cooperation.</p><p>Sincerely,</p><p>Capp, Inc.</p><p>Steven Yudis</p><p><a href="tel:%28610%29%20394-1169" target="_blank" value="+16103941169">(610) 394-1169</a>/ V</p><p><a href="tel:%28610%29%20389-4426" target="_blank" value="+16103894426">(610) 389-4426</a>/ Cell</p><p><a href="mailto:scapp@cappusa.com" target="_blank">scapp@cappusa.com</a>/ E-mail</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p>TAA Compliance Issue in Core Item List, Motorized Floor Cleaning Equipment.</p><p>Dear All:</p><p>TAA Compliance Issues in Core Item List within Motorized Floor Cleaning Equipment Pool:</p><p><strong>Item # MF 38:</strong>Vacuum Cleaner, Upright, Roller Ball, Cyclone, Multi-floor, Lightweight, motorized.</p><p>In order to be technically acceptable for this item description the vacuum has to be designed with the Roller Ball concept. This Roller Ball concept and design is patented and only manufactured by Dyson.</p><p>Dyson vacuums Country of Origin is Malaysia. Malaysia is not a TAA designated country.</p><p>Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.225-5, Trade Agreements, GSA Schedule Contracts are subject to the Trade Agreements Act (TAA), meaning all products listed on the GSA Schedule Contract be manufactured or &quot;substantially transformed&rdquo; in a &quot;designated country&rdquo;.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Recommendation:</strong><br />GSA FSSI team should consider removing Item # MF 38 in its entirety or modify the item description to enable vendors to offer products that meet the item description and are TAA Compliant.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Item # MF 39</strong>: Vacuum Cleaner, Upright, Roller Ball, Cyclone, Multi-floor, Lightweight, motorized brush bar, weighs 16.12lbs.</p><p>In order to be technically acceptable for this item description the vacuum has to be designed with the Roller Ball concept. This Roller Ball concept and design is patented and only manufactured by Dyson.</p><p>Dyson vacuums Country of Origin is Malaysia. Malaysia is not a TAA designated country.</p><p>Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.225-5, Trade Agreements, GSA Schedule Contracts are subject to the Trade Agreements Act (TAA), meaning all products</p><p>listed on the GSA Schedule Contract be manufactured or &quot;substantially transformed&rdquo; in a &quot;designated country&rdquo;.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Recommendation:</strong><br />GSA FSSI team should consider removing Item # MF 39 in its entirety or modify the item description to enable vendors to offer products that meet the item description and are TAA Compliant.</p><p>Please feel free to contact me in case you have any questions or need further information.<br /><br /><br />&nbsp;</p>

<p>Dear All:</p><p>Below please find feedback and concerns for the FSSI JANSAN blog.<br /> The marks below are concerns and constructive recommendations for pool / group #4 Motorized Floor Cleaning Equipment.</p><p><strong>Price Quotation, CORE ITEM LIST:</strong></p><ol><li>In the motorized core item list there are items that don&rsquo;t meet the requirements<ol><li>Item # MF 13, Floor Pad Buffing, 20&rdquo; Maximum&hellip;</li></ol></li></ol><p>Above item is a buffing pad, it doesn&rsquo;t have any kind of motor installed on it.<br /> <strong>RECOMMENDATION: </strong>This item does not belong to the motorized cleaning equipment pool<br /> and should be moved to &ldquo;Non-Motorized Cleaning Equipment&rdquo;.</p><ol><li>Item # MF 49, Vacuum Pump Oil, Mineral, 1 qt, 100 Grade&hellip;<br /> Above item is a mineral oil, this oil is used to lubricate equipment such as pumps etc.<br /> <strong>RECOMMENDATION: </strong>This item does not belong to the motorized cleaning equipment pool<br /> and should be moved to &ldquo;Cleaning Compounds&rdquo;.</li><li>Many of the items in the CORE ITEM LIST are the same product with different wording in the description, these items are in essence duplications of each other.<br /> <strong>EXAMPLE: </strong></li></ol><p>Item # <strong>MF 04</strong>, Floor Buffer, High Speed, 1.5 HP, 175 RPM Brush Speed, 20&rdquo; Frame.<br /> Is the same as Item # <strong>MF 12</strong> and very similar to Item # <strong>MF 14</strong>.<br /> <strong>EXAMPLE 2:</strong></p><p>Item # <strong>MF 07</strong> , Floor Buffer/Burnisher/Polishers, 1500 RPM, 19&rdquo; Burnishing Size, 20&rdquo; Cleaning Path. Is the same as Item # <strong>MF 09</strong> Floor Burnisher, Ultra High Speed, 1.5 HP, Etc.</p><ol><li>Some of the item descriptions are very vague which causes a concern in evaluating the product quality vs. price.<br /> <strong>EXAMPLE:<br /> </strong>Item # <strong>MF 24</strong> Vacuum Cleaner, Upright, 16&rdquo;x14&rdquo;18&rdquo;, 13&rdquo; Cleaning Width&hellip;</li></ol><p>Above item description emphasizes on the box size, which is not important specs for the customers.</p><ol><li>The CORE ITEM LIST is missing essential products.<br /> Although the items listed below are not purchased in large quantities, they are big ticket items (ranging from $2,000 - $10,000 per unit). It&rsquo;s true these items are not ordered as often as the items on the CORE ITEM LIST (small ticket items, $90-$500, such as vacuum cleaners) however, they should be considered because of their large sum dollar amount. The Savings on the items listed below can be substantial on a single order.<br /> <strong>EXAMPLE:</strong></li></ol><p>The SIN&rsquo;s listed below are part of the FSSI JANSAN however they do not have even one single item on the CORE ITEM LIST.<br /> SIN #: 375-125 (Sweeper &amp; Scrubber, Walk Behind Type).</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><strong>RECOMMENDATION: </strong>The FSSI JANSAN Team should consider the SIN&rsquo;s above to be added to the CORE ITEM LIST. At least one motorized walk behind scrubber and one walk behind sweeper should be added in order to ensure they are evaluated as they are described on the front page of the draft RFQ.</p><p><strong>Technical Quotation, &ldquo;GO/NO GO&rdquo; Factors:</strong></p><ol><li>AbilityOne-certified Contractor.<br /> There are no motorized floor care equipment products that are under the umbrella of the AbilityOne Program, this can cause a situation where vendors who decide to bid on the motorized cleaning equipment pool, and don&rsquo;t have the AbilityOne certification, will be considered &ldquo;NO GO&rdquo; during the evaluation period. Furthermore there are no products in the CORE ITEM LIST that are AbilityOne Certified except for item # <strong>MF 13,</strong> Floor Buffing Pad, which does not belong in the Motorized Floor Cleaning Equipment pool to begin with.</li></ol><p><strong>RECOMMENDATION: </strong>The AbilityOne Certification &ldquo;GO/NO GO&rdquo; Factor has to be removed when evaluating offers from vendors that are bidding on pool # 4, Motorized Floor Cleaning Equipment.</p><ol><li>Demonstrated ability to meet all environmentally preferable requirements:</li></ol><p>As of today there has not been any official environmental guidelines authorized by the government for Motorized Cleaning Equipment.</p><ol><li>The official US Government website &ldquo;sftool.gov&rdquo;, is the main portal advising government buyers and vendors on Green Procurement. Under all the categories available there are no guidelines or recommendations for which official government program is to be used for green procurement on Motorized Cleaning Equipment products such as vacuum cleaners, floor machines, etc&hellip;</li></ol><p><strong>Example 1:<br /> </strong>The &ldquo;Appliances&rdquo; category (at sftool.gov) offers recommendations such as the &ldquo;Energy Star&rdquo; program, however, as of today the &ldquo;Energy Star&rdquo; program does not have any specifications established for vacuum cleaners to be considered &ldquo;Energy Star&rdquo;.</p><p><strong>Example 2:</strong></p><p>The &ldquo;Cleaning Products&rdquo; category (at sftool.gov) recommends the BioPrefered program which is administrated by the USDA. The &ldquo;Cleaning Products&rdquo; category provides plenty of information on all types of cleaning solvents such as chemicals however it does not include any Motorized Floor care Equipment such as, Vacuum Cleaners, Floor Buffers, Carpet Cleaning Machines, etc&hellip;</p><ol><li>The JANSAN Industry has established its own guidelines and programs for environmentally preferable requirements. The JANSAN Industry definitions of green cleaning products are largely based on the Illinois Guidelines and specifications for the Green Cleaning Schools Act, the 2009 edition of the USGBC LEED-EB Standard, and other publicly available documents.&nbsp; For the Motorized Floor Cleaning Equipment the industry adopted programs that are available include: L.E.E.D Green Building Council and The Carpet &amp; Rug Institute CRI Green</li></ol><p><strong>RECOMMENDATION: </strong>The Demonstrated Ability to meet all environmentally preferable requirements &ldquo;GO/NO GO&rdquo; Factor has to consider adopting the programs that the JANSAN Industry has established until the government will establish its own program to evaluate environmentally preferable products for Motorized Floor Cleaning Equipment.<br /><br /><strong>Delivery Terms:<br /> </strong>The idea to modify the standard delivery time from 3-4 days to a tiered delivery approach is the right move. Vendors and government want to be successful in meeting their delivery term requirements.</p><p><strong>EXAMPLE 1:</strong><br />Shipping a single vacuum via FedEx, UPS, or USPS Standard delivery can take between 3-6 business days from the moment it is picked up by the carrier. Let&rsquo;s say an order comes from GSAadvantage.gov at 3 p.m., at this time all deliveries have already been picked up and shipment will leave the next day (right here one day is lost). To ensure the item is delivered within 3-4 days, as in the initial offer, vendors would have to use 2^nd day shipping methods which would add an additional cost to the delivery.<br /> By allowing 3-6 days vendors can ship via FedEx, UPS, and USPS standard delivery and the item will arrive to the customer at the requested delivery time.</p><p><strong>EXAMPLE 2:</strong><br />Vendor receives at 2:00 p.m. a GSAAdvantage order for 10-each floor machines to be delivered to DLA Consolidation Warehouse in Tracy, California. The vendor must prepare the items to be shipped on pallets via a tracking company because floor machines are extremely heavy and are more secured and protected when shipped palletized.&nbsp; Vendor will ship the palletized items via a trucking company, estimated shipping time is 5-10 business days, coast to coast. There is no way that shipment will arrive within 3-4 days without any additional charges.<br /> <strong>RECOMMENDATION: </strong><br /> In order to keep government prices low on orders that may not require expedited delivery to begin with, the tier delivery approach is extremely welcomed.</p><p><strong>Established Averaged Discount on non-market basket items:<br /> </strong>In many cases vendors are dealing with multiple manufacturers and suppliers, each manufacturer has its own guidelines and tiered discounts structure. The discounts on non-market basket items should be left to the vendor to define. Since each manufacturer and supplier has their own prices, applying a flat percent discount across all items &amp; manufacturers can cause a situation where the discount offered on the Core Items is not optimized for government savings due to vendors not being able to cover costs on items outside of the Core Item List (non-market basket items). The discounts for Core Items should be separate from non-market basket items, this will allow the vendor to optimize the discount price on Core Items for government savings while still providing savings on non-basket items as well.</p>