Air Force furnishes new way forward

  • Published
  • By Jennifer Schneider
  • AFCEC Public Affairs
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-LACKLAND, Texas --  Many shoppers have found that buying products in bulk generally leads to a lower cost per item. The Air Force is now applying  that same approach to furnishings purchases.

The Air Force Installation Contracting Agency, through the work of its Furnishings Commodity Council, aims to reshape the way the Air Force purchases and manages furnishings.

While the Air Force has applied strategic sourcing methods at the installation and major command levels in the past, 2011 marked the first year centralized management of these types of purchases was mandated Air Force-wide, when Blanket Purchase Agreements, or BPAs, were put into place for office seating and dormitory acquisitions. In recent years, the furnishings program has been expanded to include contracts for systems and modular furniture, as well as BPAs for filing and storage products,  and executive office and conference furniture.

"By taking what the Air Force spends on furnishings across the entire enterprise into account, we were able to negotiate deeper discounts with suppliers," said Marcy Roppe Bernard, a furnishings program manager at AFICA.

Multifunctional teams, which included experts from design and construction, facility management, small business, contracting, policy and legal, helped to shape Air Force requirements and provided other valuable input throughout the sourcing process.

The Air Force is already reaping the benefits from the program, saving as much as 27 percent on previously projected costs.

These strategically sourced programs provide other valuable benefits as well such as streamlined ordering processes, improved suppler performance management and an enhanced management reporting capability.

"The program creates standards and leads to consistency across the Air Force," Roppe Bernard said. "In addition, it was difficult to determine exactly what was purchased in the past. The supplier reporting we now receive will provide more accurate data which, in the future, will allow the Air Force to more efficiently manage this type of spending, including better utilization of warranties."

Additionally, with the necessary market research completed upfront, contracting officers are now spared from performing the market intelligence and supplier qualification assessments that would normally be required if this program didn't exist.
While there were initial concerns that small businesses would be negatively affected by the program, the opposite has been true, Roppe Bernard said.

"We carefully considered the effect these programs have on small businesses, and worked closely with our small business representatives to ensure they could be players in the program," Roppe Bernard said. "In the systems and modular furniture category, we designed an acquisition strategy that obtained large manufacturer pricing, with contracts initiated and fulfilled through each manufacturer's respective small business affiliates. This results in 100-percent small business credit for all orders in this category."

The program is all inclusive, applying to purchases as small as one chair, to as large as outfitting a new facility, and has led to changes in how many Air Force locations do business.

The military construction program, managed by the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, is one area impacted, as all new facilities must be designed and constructed to accommodate the available product selections for furniture and cubicle configurations.

To facilitate use by those associated with MILCON, the program was built to be accessed and used by agencies and services outside the Air Force, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Naval Facilities Engineering Command, as well as associated architectural and engineering firms and general contractors.

"Since it is a change in how we've done business before, there is a necessary learning curve," said Wayne Reber, Air Force architecture subject matter expert at AFCEC. "However, once those involved understand how it works, it becomes apparent that it is a simpler process for furniture procurement and there are cost and time savings involved."

In addition to the furnishings currently covered by the program, programs for dormitory furnishings as well as carpet are planned to be implemented in late 2015.