Customer Requirement Analysis and Advice to the Acquisition Team
You may complete this exercise individually or as a group. Students will form their own groups with some other students. Groups will work through the week to answer the questions relating to the exercise below. Each group will make one submission into the Conference Section of the course, with each group member's name written on the submission. Each group will receive the score assigned for the group effort.
Requirement:
You work for a Department of Defense (DoD) agency, and your customer has a requirement for 5,000 lightweight, low-power global positioning system (GPS) handheld receivers for use in military deployment areas overseas.
Your customer has stated that 1,000 units will need to be delivered within six months of contract award, with the remaining units delivered within 24 months.
The minimum requirements are as follows:
- has weight of 8 ounces or less
- has 24-hour battery life on four AA alkaline batteries, OR has 12-hour battery life on two AA alkaline batteries
- fits in a 7" × 3" × 2" survival vest pocket
- is waterproof
Similar units were purchased in 1995 and 2006 at $4,000 per unit. The four companies previously involved in the acquisition are expected to be potential sources for this requirement.
The customer budgeted $2,400,000 for this requirement over the next two years and expects funding to be available at least one month prior to contract award.
Exercise Questions
1. What are your requirement, quantities, and minimum requirements?
2. Who will be included in your acquisition team?
3. How will you conduct your market research?
4. Do you believe you can meet the customer's quantity and time needs?
5. How will you find these things out?
6. Are there any risks associated with this situation?
7. Will there be competition?
8. What factors will you use to evaluate proposals received?
9. Will any of the evaluation factors take priority over others or be weighed higher?
10. What advice will you provide to the customer about meeting this requirement?