Code
The United States Advanced Battery Consortium LLC (USABC) posted an RFP whose purpose was to identify the developers with electrochemical energy storage technologies. Some of the members of the company are the leading automobile manufacturers such as Ford Motor Company, Chrysler Group LLC and General motors. These companies conduct automobile related research and development with an aim of improving efficiency and reliability of automobile products. The company has carried out researches and development programs that focus on long life, high energy, high power and low cost technologies. Through the RFP, the organization seeks to develop advanced battery systems for 12 voltage start and stop applications. Additionally the organization expects the applicants of to the RFP to bring onboard past experiences, lessons learned, development strategies and improvement mechanisms on the energy storage technologies.
The Request for proposal (RFP) is well structured and comprises well-articulated requirements that the applicants can understand. It has the necessary requirements needed from the applicants, the purpose of the RFP and the business objective of the organization. The company went further to identify the goals for the development project and listed in the appendices. This provides adequate clarity of what is expected in the submission of the proposal. The RFP clearly indicates the timeframe for the project and further requests the applicants to indicate the schedule of activities and costs for the project duration. However the criteria for evaluation is not clearly indicated, it would be assumed that the information requested from the applicants, which include the company background information such as profile, ownership, location, customer base and financial capability. The criteria for evaluation should clearly be indicated in the RFP.
Some of the information missing in the RFP that ought to be included are the payment method whether it’s a fixed or flexible approach. Despite the fact the company has indicated the financial obligations of each party, the payment criteria should be indicated.
REFERENCE
USCAR. (n.d.). Request for proposal. Retrieved 09 17, 2013, from UNITED STATES COUNCIL FOR AUTOMOTIVE RESEARCH LLC: http://www.uscar.org/guest/article_view.php?articles_id=87
