760
Special Procedures: Product Development
Design proposal material is prepared in the form of shop drawings,
material specifications, and any other sketches, models or text required to
completely describe the design.
764.4.6
Evaluate Designs
At the termination of the design period established in the bid documents,
all designs are submitted to the VA and its consultants for evaluation.
Failure to submit a responsive design disqualifies a bidder. Designs
judged probably capable of meeting all performance criteria if developed
are officially accepted and considered equivalent for bidding purposes
regardless of various features which may exceed minimum requirements.
Bidders thus qualified are so notified and invited to submit sealed bids on
the basis of their own designs. Until bid opening, all designs have their
confidentiality guaranteed.
764.4.7
Evaluate Bids
Bid forms require application of certain weighting factors to the bidder's
base cost calculations to reflect external cost implications of his design.
The purpose is to approximate true owning cost in the adjusted total and
thus render different designs more truly comparable. For example, a
weighting factor of four cents per inch of thickness per square foot of
ceiling is added to account for the cost effect on the total building of
increased floor-to-floor height.
Bids are opened at the scheduled time and place and examined for
responsiveness. If alternates have been requested, they are applied to
the base bid in a predetermined manner. The overall low bidder is
nominated Component Contractor and assigned a contract to develop,
test, supply and install the required quantity of ceiling in accordance with
his design. If all bids significantly exceed the target, the VA either rejects
all bids or negotiates with the low bidder.
Unit prices are either required on the bid forms, or the contract requires
their submission at some designated time during the development period.
If the VA has provided any direct financial aid to potential bidders to offset
design costs, all designs are made public. Otherwise, only the designated
Component Contractor's design is revealed; all others are kept
confidential and design material returned to the unsuccessful bidders.
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