HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- At 82 U.S. Army facilities on installations across the South Korean peninsula, contractors are busy replacing more than 8,000 administrative desks, chairs and filing cabinets in one of the largest furniture projects ever taken on by the U.S. Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville Military Integration Division's Furnishings Program.
Huntsville Center’s Furnishings Program is designated as the central manager for the U.S. Army Installation Management Command Furnishings Program.
The project, valued at more than $6.7 million, was also one of the highest dollar amount contracts executed by the Furnishings Program.
“Removing old furniture, cleaning rooms, and installing new furniture in 82 buildings in 44 weeks is an 11 month logistical masterpiece -- the Berlin Airlift of furniture,” said Alan Fearns, Huntsville Center Contracting Directorate’s lead contracting specialist for the project.
Just as the Berlin Airlift was a mutual effort accomplished by allied nations’ air forces, supplying the Eighth Army with furniture required collaboration as well.
“It's certainly a team effort,” said Edward Minnerly, USACE Far East District, Chief of Logistics, who acted as the contract technical representative for FED contracts.
The contract award process was a joint effort between Huntsville Center and the FED, which first initiated the project by hiring an architectural firm to perform surveys at Eighth Army and FED facilities to assess what furniture is currently serviceable and what furniture needed replacing. A daunting task considering the assessment included more than 80 facilities at multiple installations located across the peninsula.
The Far East District Logistics Management Office is also the sponsoring activity for U.S.-Republic of Korea Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) for all contracts.
“In that capacity, we process U.S. civilian employees’ applications for SOFA status, provide required logistical support such as CACs and paperwork, and processed the Korean customs paperwork for container delivery for two of the three (furniture) contracts,” Minnerly said.
Project manager Patricia Mooneyham said once the completed survey results were submitted to Huntsville Center in late 2013, the furnishings program received funds to execute the contract in February 2014 and was tasked with procuring what was initially estimated as $8.2 million of furniture and executing the contracts by fiscal year end.
“What made this contract so staggering was that the average contract for us is typically $500,000,” she said. “This was an incredibly aggressive schedule that we overcame due to the excellent teamwork and the support of the lead interior designers, Jennifer McDowell and Amy Webb, as well as Alan Fearns in contracting.”
Mooneyham said the contracts’ statements of work stated vendors had to comply with General Services Administration industry standard specifications and Huntsville Center performance specifications that incorporated the durability Soldiers require.
Mooneyham said quotes, complying with project specifications, were then received from vendors.
“Huntsville Center ensures only comparable furniture in terms of quality of construction and materials, end user requirements and overall functionality (critical for facility standard design application) is considered as the best solution for outfitting the facility,” Mooneyham said.
Due to the tremendous scope of the project, Fearns said carefully crafting the Eighth Army’s request into multiple contracts streamlined the large project, and enabled the customer to receive the greatest benefits.
“With a single contract to furnish 82 buildings, the contract could have taken a year and a half to complete and would have been too much, too long for the stakeholders,” Fearns said.
According to Fearns, the project manager made a decision to divide the 82 building project into three large projects.
“While consolidation can provide significant value and efficiency, care is required,” Fearns said. “Here, because the duration of activities had never been performed by the contractors, there was excess risk - which could have translated to cost. Due to an excellent project management plan that was well-executed by the interior designers and the Center’s Contracting Directorate, Huntsville returned $1.4 million to the customer.”
Fearns said that opportunity among contractors was another important consideration.
“We wanted our competition to be based on long-lasting furniture, of course, but also on the contractors’ ability to succeed with certified installers working non-stop for 11 months in a foreign country. While we couldn’t affect who won (the awards), we established the conditions for multiple winners and ended up with two different contractors for the three contracts,” he said.
Fearns said the three contracts were made possible only because of the work of the Huntsville Center’s interior designers, who reviewed more than 8,000 items in more than 700 rooms to meet the Eighth Army’s expectations, along with all the expectation of the Furnishings Program’s other important customers.
“Because of the interior designers’ skillful development of the requirements, deep understanding of furniture and teamwork, the final two (of three total) contracts were awarded early (Sept. 30),” Fearns said.
The contracts awarded by Huntsville Center were $1.9 million to replace furniture at 33 facilities on U.S. Army Garrison’s Casey and Jackson, $3.3 million for 31 facilities on U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan and K-16 Army Airfield, Songnam, and $1.5 million for USACE FED’s 18 facilities in Seoul.
In January, the American-made furniture arrived in Korea and the contractors began disposing of "non-serviceable" furniture and installing the new. Installation for all facilities is expected throughout 2015. At the vendors’ suggestions, the contracts were written to enable overall schedules to be shortened by up to 30 percent, which will further benefit the stakeholders.