Description
Organization: NAVSEA, NUWC Division Keyport
Team Name: Expedited Task Order Process Team
Related Acquisition Topic(s): Acquisition Practices Streamlining, Business Process Reengineering (BPR), Cycle Time Reduction (CTR), Integrated Product Teams (IPT), Paperless Contracting
Description:
The Expedited Task Order Process (ETOP) Team is a cross-functional team that utilized "out of the box" thinking, Total Quality process improvement methodologies, and acquisition reform initiatives to improve the process for issuing $32 million in task orders against NUWCDIVKPT engineering and technical support services contracts. The Team's efforts have resulted in making the Task Order Process more efficient, responsive, and timely. Specific accomplishments include shortening the procurement acquisition lead-time, improvements in the quality of the statements of work, and elimination of burdensome paperwork requirements.
The Team benchmarked an existing SPAWAR process (Beyond Expedited Delivery Order Process), compared the SPAWAR process with NUWCDIVKPT business strategies, and then tailored the process to align those practices. The result was the Expedited Task Order Process (ETOP). ETOP has streamlined Ordering Office procurements while maintaining procurement integrity and applying sound business practice to the task order process.
SIMPLIFYING THE ACQUISITION PROCESS
A set of leaders, team members worked together to issue $32 million in task orders for engineering and technical service support. Although a functional process existed for issuing these task orders, there was room for improvement as indicated by feedback from Customer Surveys. The ETOP Team was willing to think 'out of the box' and refused to accept those old practices simply based on longevity. Thanks to their energy, spirit, and innovation, the task order process is now more responsive to our customers' needs. Most of the control over processing time is now in the hands of our customers in the product line departments who directly support the war fighter. Be beginning their process with well written statements of work, and eliminating the need for government estimates and technical evaluations, and by utilizing available paperless acquisition technology, the amount of time taken to issue task orders is more dependent upon the customer than the Contracts and Ordering Offices.
SHORTENING ACQUISITION LEAD TIME
Prior to ETOP the Ordering Office took an average of 23 days to issue a task order. That process included conducting a review of the statement of work, acquiring contractor estimates, and preparing lengthy technical and financial analyses. Statements of work are reviewed electronically by the Contracting Officer's Representative (COR), contractor, and Ordering Officer at the same time. Contractors submission of estimates is automatic and paperless. Using the ETOP process, Ordering Office processing time has dropped to an average 4 days, representing an 82 percent reduction in procurement acquisition lead time.
PARTNERSHIP WITH INDUSTRY
A notable change to the task order process, and one which is largely responsible for the decreased acquisition lead time, is the increased quality of the statements of work which have resulted from ETOP. ETOP encourages partnership with the contractors who are involved from the onset in requirement discussion and definition. The Contracting Officer's Representative, the customer, and the contractor meet to gain a common understanding of the requirements and resources before any paperwork is processed. Together statements of work are generated which contain technical specificity and well-defined deliverables.
PAPERLESS ACQUISITION INITIATIVE
ETOP takes advantage of information technology to move towards a paperless acquisition environment as mandated by DOD. Prior to ETOP the task order process was 100 percent paper. Today the process is 90 percent paper free. ETOP utilizes electronic mail to pass information between the Government parties and the contractor. The forms utilized by the Ordering Office to document fair and reasonable pricing have been redesigned and converted to electronic documents. Future plans are to incorporate electronic data interchange technology to further reduce the paper procurement documents, such as the DD1155 (Task Order) and SF30 (Modification).
CONCLUSION
Task Order processing is a significant part of the workload of a field procurement activity. NUWCDIVKPT engineering and technical support service contracts are integral to the ability of our product line teams to support the Warfighter, our ultimate customer. Due to the total commitment of the parties to task order process reform, the NUWCDIVKPT process is now more responsive to the needs of the customer and more efficient.
