ReCycle for ReUse Cartridges and Containers

18) Regarding historical contract volume, how many DTB cartridges were processed under this contract in the past three years? Volume over the last three years has been approximately 1.5 million in total. The desired volume going forward is about 1million a year or more. 19) SPEC 430 3.1.1 & 3.1.2 Refurbished cartridges & containers - Damaged/unusable cartridges & containers are to be retained for review by NLS. How long must we keep them? If this is a significant number, it becomes a storage issue. I suggest purging every 6 months. Numbers are not significant. You may contact NLS if you feel storage is an issue so we can address it. - For damaged/missing barcode labels on containers, NLS supplies the barcode. Does NLS supply the label or does contractor have to recreate the label with the new barcode? If the latter, what are the specs for the label? NLS supplies them. 20 ) SPEC 430 3.2.3 Security of Passcode Catchphrases & Appendix B1 &2 - How often does the cartridge passphrase need to be entered into the software/equipment? Once? Daily? Before each set of erasures/write enablement? This is a "set and forget" type of action unless an additional password is needed. 21) SPEC 430 3.2.5 Software - Is there a technical contact to provide support to ensure we can get assistance on the Gov't supplied software running on the linux platform, if needed? Yes 22) SPEC 430 3.3 Reporting - Says "Reports ... in a calendar month shall be provided to NLS on the first day of the following month." Can this be the first business day? Why isn't there at least 24 hours to create the report after the final tally for the month? The first business day is sufficient. 23) SPEC 430 4.1.2 Outgoing inspection. - Lot size of outgoing inspection is 13,500 cartridges and 10,000 containers. AQL is set at .65%. Doesn't that mean no more than 8 of the 13,000 can fail? So how many cartridges must be checked to pass? No, the number for failure in the inspection batch of 150 items is 3. - "Any failure to write enable a cartridge must be reported immediately to the NLS QAS, via e-mail at contact@example.gov, and shipments halted." So, if there is a single failure identified in the outgoing inspection, are all shipments halted and NLS is notified? No, that cartridge is pulled to the side and NLS is notified. The pulled cartridge is replaced so the shipment can go out. 24) Will LOC be responsible for the cost and scheduling of outgoing shipments? No, this is FOB destination Can you confirm that we would be using our own shipper and cover outbound freight cost to duplicators? And, we should take this into consideration in our proposal. The contractor is responsible for shipping and freight. 25) Record Keeping. We have to count the number of cartridges and containers received from each network library, successfully refurbished, unable to refurbish, shipped to NLS producers. Can we provide an aggregate number of cartridges refurbished for that month or does it have to track to the individual library? First is easy; second is very difficult. Meaning ... Aggregate number is sufficient. We're a bit confused by the response. Is the aggregate number sufficient or do we need to report the number of cartridges & containers received from each network library in that month? The aggregate number is sufficient. 26) Would LOC be providing shipping boxes and/or packing material, or would we be expected to take care of this? If so, what would be your specs and expectations? Products are supplied by the contractor per section C.2 of the solicitation. Specifications are found in NLS Specification 430, supplied in section J. For packing boxes, containers are normally sized in pallets of approximately 20 boxes per pallet that contain 3000 containers total (approximately 150 containers per box). One lot is 9000 containers. Cartridges are normally packed 200 in a box with 24 boxes per pallet. Usually stacked with four layers of five boxes and a fifth layer of 4 boxes on top for 9600 cartridges per pallet. This is considered one lot. Can you confirm what's constitute a lot? The solicitation (section 4.1.2) refers to 13,500 cartridges and 10,800 containers. The response to our question refers to 9,600 cartridges and 9,000 containers. Lots are 9,600 cartridges and 9,000 containers.