CONTRACT NOTICE FOR CONTRACTS IN THE FIELD OF DEFENCE AND SECURITY

Section I: Contracting Authority

I.1)

Name, Address and Contact Point(s)

I.2)

Type of contracting Authority and Main Activity or Activities

Ministry or any other national or federal authority, including their regional or local sub-divisions National or federal agency/Office Regional or local Authority Regional or local Agency/Office Body governed by public law European Institution/Agency or International Organisation

General public services Defence Public order and safety Environment Economic and financial affairs Health Housing and community amenities Social protection Recreation, culture and religion Education

Section II: Object of the Contract

II.1)

Description

II.1.1)

Title attributed to the contract by the contracting authority

II.1.2)

Type of service contract

Main site or location of works, place of delivery or performance

II.1.3)

Information on framework agreement

The notice involves the establishment of a framework agreement

II.1.4)

Information on framework agreement (if applicable)

	Framework agreement with a single operators
	Framework agreement with several operators

Number of participants to the framework agreement envisaged

Duration of the framework agreement

Justification for a framework agreement the duration of which exceeds seven years

Estimated total value of purchases for the entire duration of the framework agreement

Frequency and value of the contracts to be awarded

II.1.5)

Short description of the contract or purchase(s)

Additive Manufacturing (AdM), also known as 3D printing, is a range of manufacturing technologies that enable the creation of lighter, stronger parts and systems. It has the potential to address significant issues within Defence such as excessive lead times for Defence inventory and manufacture of obsolete/obsolescent parts to improve platform availability. A Prior Information Notice (PIN) was published on 11/04/2022 to inform the market of an upcoming Framework Agreement opportunity under the Reference Number 703280451, titled ‘Metal Additive Manufacturing as a Service Challenge’. This Project will now be known as ‘Project TAMPA –Additive Manufacturing as a Service Challenge’ under the new Reference Number of this Opportunity Listing.

The Authority wishes to enter into a multi-supplier Framework Arrangement for accelerating the maturity of Additive Manufacturing technology to better exploit the technology within the end-to-end support chain, deliver a more agile response to demand for parts, and begin to generate the inherent efficiencies that this technology promises. The Authority intends to seek bids for limited innovation funding to conduct spiral development tasks under the new Framework; spiral tasks will be awarded via mini-competition between Framework participants (the Authority may choose to include the first task with the Framework Invitation to Tender). The Authority currently estimates the Framework value between £3M - 5M, duration of 2 - 7 years (further funding in the later Option years (up to the max 7 yrs) may be considered). It is recognised that the funding available from the Authority needs to be underpinned by a level of investment from suppliers in order to realise the advantages of this technology.

The Authority also requires that suppliers wishing to apply for this Opportunity must already have one or more extant equipment/platform support contracts in place with the Ministry of Defence to provide military spares under NSN; the supply of spare parts must be capable of benefitting from Metal Additive Manufacturing technology. The support contracts already in place with potential suppliers for this Opportunity must be extant for a minimum period of 2 years following the intended award date of the Framework. If these extant support contracts expire without replacement then the supplier may stay on the Framework but may not be invited to take part in any mini-competitions where the existence of the support contract is a pre-requisite: they may however still take part in other Framework activities, eg working groups.

The rationale for restricting award of a Framework place to those Suppliers who already have an equipment/ platform support contract in place is that these Suppliers will:

• understand the challenges associated with part provision for these equipment/platform(s);

• will be familiar with the underlying processes and procedures associated with certification, quality control and inventory management

• will be familiar with the MOD community associated with the equipment/platform(s)

• have access to the design rights with the equipment/platform(s)

• already have channels set up to supply and install spares on military platforms

• either have in-house additive manufacturing facilities, have established relationships with additive manufacturing technology suppliers, or be willing to enter into such collaborative arrangements.

• be security cleared for involvement with the supply of spares for particular equipments/platform(s)

The Cyber Risk Profile for this requirement identified by the Cyber Risk Assessment is NOT APPLICABLE.

Additional Information:

It is intended that the multi-supplier Framework benefits/outcomes will include, but may not be limited to:

• Initially produce certified metallic parts for the Defence Inventory, for which the print files are transmissible over the Defence infrastructure;

• Collect and share learning with the Authority and collaborative MOD/ industry working groups regarding the process to fit the parts onto In-Service platform/equipments (conducted under extant support contracts with the Authority);

• Facilitate collaborative working to generate the underlying processes that will enable rapid scaling across further ranges of inventory and materials;

• Achieve Industry, DE&S and FLC engagement, increased interest and commitment regarding the use of Additive Manufacturing within the UK Defence Supply Chain.

The rationale for focusing initially on metallic parts is two-fold:

• It is the lack of availability of metallic parts of the inventory that is currently affecting equipment/ platform availability;

• It reduces the needs associated with certification.

The Authority anticipates that an initial task (Spiral 1) under the new Framework will produce a non-safety critical metallic NSN. This will be followed by a series of further spirals that will seek to incrementally address increasing degrees of complexity.

The spiral tasks envisaged by the Authority are set out below (these will be subject to individual approvals and are indicative only at this stage):

• Spiral 2 - a safety critical metallic NSN, produced in the Industrial base, certified by the producer (OEM or under licence).

• Spiral 3 - a non-safety critical metallic (or polymer) NSN, produced in a location remote from the Industrial base, certified by the producer

• Spiral 4a - a safety critical metallic (or polymer) NSN, produced in a location remote from the industrial base, certified by the producer

• Spiral 4b - a non-safety critical metallic (or polymer) NSN, produced in a location remote from the Industrial base, certified by the producer and where access to Design Rights is required.

This competition is subject to the DSPCR 2011 Restricted Procedure. To establish a list of suppliers to be taken forward to ITT, it is the Authority’s intention, through this PQQ and Contract Notice, to source interest from and screen the capability of the industrial supply base. Participation at the next stage (Invitation to Tender (ITT)) will be subject to successfully passing the Pre-Qualification Questionnaire (PQQ) released with this Contract Notice. There is no intention to limit by number the suppliers who can be taken forward to the Invitation to Tender stage as this will be for joining a multi-supplier Framework; however potential applicants are advised that their PQQ responses will be evaluated on the basis of their ability to meet all the technical criteria and those not meeting the minimum criteria will not be taken forward to receive an Invitation to Tender.

The Authority intends to re-open the Framework on a maximum twice-yearly basis for additional suppliers to join, via the same competitive process and under the same Framework terms and conditions.

II.1.6)

Common Procurement Vocabulary (CPV)

II.1.7)

Information about subcontracting

	The tenderer has to indicate in the tender any share of the contract it may intend to subcontract to third parties and any proposed subcontractor, as well as the subject-matter of the subcontracts for which they are proposed.
	The tenderer has to indicate any change occurring at the level of subcontractors during the execution of the contract.
	The contracting authority/entity may oblige the successful tenderer to award all or certain subcontracts through the procedure set out in Title III of Directive 2009/81/EC.
	The successful tenderer is obliged to specify which part or parts of the contract it intends to subcontract beyond the required percentage and to indicate the subcontractors already identified.
	The successful tenderer is obliged to subcontract the following share of the contract through the procedure set out in Title III of Directive 2009/81/EC: minimum percentage: (%), maximum percentage: (%) of the value of the contract. (The maximum percentage may not exceed 30% of the value of the contract)

II.1.8)

Division into lots

II.1.9)

Will variants be accepted

II.2)

Quantity or Scope of the Contract

II.2.1)

Total quantity or scope

II.2.2)

Information about options

Provisional timetable for recourse to these options

II.2.3)

Information about renewals

II.3)

Duration of the contract or limit for completion

Section III: Legal, Economic, Financial and Technical Information

III.1)

Conditions Relating to the Contract

III.1.1)

Deposits and guarantees required

III.1.2)

Main Terms of financing and payment and/or reference to the relevant provisions

III.1.3)

Legal form to be taken by the grouping of suppliers, contractors or service providers to whom the contract is to be awarded

III.1.4)

Other particular conditions to which the performance of the contract is subject

See PQQ

III.1.5)

Information about security clearance

III.2)

Conditions for Participation

III.2.1)

Personal situation

Suppliers Instructions How to Express Interest in this Tender:

1. Register your company on the eSourcing portal (this is only required once)

- Browse to the eSourcing Portal

- Click the “Click here to register” link

- Accept the terms and conditions and click “continue”

- Enter your correct business and user details

- Note the username you chose and click “Save” when complete

- You will shortly receive an email with your unique password (please keep this secure)

2. Express an Interest in the tender

- Login to the portal with the username/password

- Click the "PQQs Open to All Suppliers" link. (These are Pre-Qualification Questionnaires open to any registered supplier)

- Click on the relevant PQQ to access the content.

- Click the “Express Interest” button in the “Actions” box on the left-hand side of the page.

- This will move the PQQ into your “My PQQs” page. (This is a secure area reserved for your projects only)

- Click on the PQQ code, you can now access any attachments by clicking the “Settings and Buyer Attachments” in the “Actions” box

3. Responding to the tender

- You can now choose to “Reply” or “Reject” (please give a reason if rejecting)

- You can now use the ‘Messages’ function to communicate with the buyer and seek any clarification

- Note the deadline for completion, then follow the onscreen instructions to complete the PQQ

- There may be a mixture of online & offline actions for you to perform (there is detailed online help available)

If you require any further assistance please consult the online help, or contact the eTendering help desk.

Suppliers Instructions How to Express Interest in this Tender:

1. Register your company on the eSourcing portal (this is only required once)

- Browse to the eSourcing Portal

- Click the “Click here to register” link

- Accept the terms and conditions and click “continue”

- Enter your correct business and user details

- Note the username you chose and click “Save” when complete

- You will shortly receive an email with your unique password (please keep this secure)

2. Express an Interest in the tender

- Login to the portal with the username/password

- Click the "PQQs Open to All Suppliers" link. (These are Pre-Qualification Questionnaires open to any registered supplier)

- Click on the relevant PQQ to access the content.

- Click the “Express Interest” button in the “Actions” box on the left-hand side of the page.

- This will move the PQQ into your “My PQQs” page. (This is a secure area reserved for your projects only)

- Click on the PQQ code, you can now access any attachments by clicking the “Settings and Buyer Attachments” in the “Actions” box

3. Responding to the tender

- You can now choose to “Reply” or “Reject” (please give a reason if rejecting)

- You can now use the ‘Messages’ function to communicate with the buyer and seek any clarification

- Note the deadline for completion, then follow the onscreen instructions to complete the PQQ

- There may be a mixture of online & offline actions for you to perform (there is detailed online help available)

If you require any further assistance please consult the online help, or contact the eTendering help desk.

III.2.2)

Economic and financial standing

III.2.3)

Technical and/or professional capacity

III.2.4)

Reserved contracts

	The contract is restricted to sheltered workshops
	The execution of the contract is restricted to the framework of sheltered employment programmes

III.3)

Conditions Specific to Service Contracts

III.3.1)

Is provision of the service reserved to a specific profession?

III.3.2)

Will legal entities be required to state the names and professional qualifications of the personnel responsible for the execution of the service?

Section IV: Procedure

IV.1)

Type of Procedure

IV.1.1)

Type of Procedure

	Restricted
	Accelerated restricted
	Negotiated
	Accelerated negotiated
	Competitive dialogue

Justification for the choice of accelerated procedure

IV.1.2)

Limitations on the number of operators who will be invited to tender or to participate

Objective criteria for choosing the limited number of candidates

IV.1.3)

Reduction of the number of operators during the negotiation or dialogue

Recourse to staged procedure to gradually reduce the number of solutions to be discussed or tenders to be negotiated

IV.2)

Award Criteria

IV.2.2)

An electronic auction will be used

IV.3 Administrative Information

IV.3.1)

Reference number attributed to the notice by the contracting authority

704935450

IV.3.2)

Previous publication(s) concerning the same contract

	Prior Information Notice
	Notice on a Buyer Profile

Other previous publications

IV.3.3)

Conditions for obtaining specifications and additional documents

IV.3.4)

Time-limit for requests to participate

IV.3.5)

Date of dispatch of invitations to tender or to participate to selected candidates

IV.3.6)

Language or languages in which tenders or requests to participate can be drawn up

Section VI: Complimentary Information

VI.1)

Indicate whether this procurement is a recurrent one and the Estimated timing for further notices to be published

VI.2)

Does the contract relate to a Project/Programme financed by Community Funds?

VI.3)

Additional Information

The Contracting Authority intends to use an e-Tendering system in this procurement exercise, please visit www.contracts.mod.uk for full details and to register your interest in this procurement.

VI.4)

Procedures for appeal

VI.4.1)

Body responsible for appeal procedures

Body responsible for mediation procedures

VI.4.2)

Lodging of appeals
Precise information on deadline(s) for lodging appeals:

VI.4.3)

Service from which information about the lodging of appeals may be obtained

VI.5)

Dispatch date of this Notice