Vancouver City Council

ADMINISTRATIVE REPORT

Date: February 7, 2003

Author/Local: Eric Lotz, 7227

RTS No. 03146
CC File No. 1805

Council: February 25, 2003

TO: Vancouver City Council

FROM: Manager of Materials Management

SUBJECT: Award of Contract for the Supply of Janitorial Chemicals, Cleaning Supplies and Sanitary Papers - Proposal No. PS02008

RECOMMENDATION

A. THAT, subject to the conditions set out in Recommendations C, D and E, an agreement be entered into with Janitors Warehouse Distribution Inc. to supply janitorial chemicals, cleaning supplies and sanitary papers for a period of three years at an estimated amount of $1.2 million (excluding GST) subject to a contract satisfactory to the Director of Legal Services, and the Manager of Materials Management.

B. THAT, if Council approves Recommendation A, and subject to the conditions set out in Recommendations C, D and E, Janitors Warehouse Distribution Inc. be awarded the RFP for the three year term.

C. THAT all legal documentation is to be in a form which is satisfactory to the Director of Legal Services and the General Manager of Corporate Services.

D. THAT upon approval of the legal documentation by the Director of Legal Services and the General Manager of Corporate Services, that the Director of Legal Services and the General Manager of Corporate Services be authorized to execute and deliver the necessary agreement on behalf of City Council.

E. THAT no legal rights or obligations shall arise hereby and none shall arise or be granted hereafter unless and until all contemplated legal documentation has been executed and delivered by all parties.

GENERAL MANAGER'S COMMENTS

The General Manager of Corporate Services recommends approval of the above.

POLICY

The policy of Council is to award contracts for the purchase of equipment, supplies and services that will give the best value based on quality, service and price.

Contracts with a value over $300,000 are referred to Council for approval.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to recommend that Council award a three-year unit price contract to Janitors Warehouse Distribution Inc. as the primary supplier of janitorial chemicals, cleaning supplies and sanitary papers to the City. This recommendation is based on responses to a public process through Request for Proposal PS02008.

DISCUSSION

The City spends an estimated $400,000 per year on cleaning and sanitary products from several suppliers. This not only means that the City may be losing optimum pricing on supplies by spreading our requirements among the various vendors, but also results in increased administrative costs associated with transactions related to ordering, payment processing and supplier performance management.

On May 29, 2002, the City issued a Request for Proposal (RFP PS02008) for the supply of janitorial chemicals, cleaning supplies and sanitary papers. The competition was advertised on the City's web site and on the BC Purchasing Commission's "BC Bid" web site. Invitations were also sent to the respondents to the previous Request for Information (RFI PS01082) as well as to other key vendors known within the industry. From the ten prospective proponents attending the informational bid pre-submission meeting, six proposals were received.

The City's objectives for the RFP's supply and service requirement includes:

$ Standardization of products used by City facilities;
$ Acquisition of products and packaging that would protect the environment and maximize worker safety;
$ Reduce inventories and handling costs through direct ordering and delivery of product from the supplier;

$ Improve assurance of supply from vendors resulting in the reduction of backorders;
$ Receive firm and lower pricing for products;
$ Reduce transaction process costs by consolidating requirements with fewer vendors and implementing on-line ordering, summary billing and/or the use of purchase cards where feasible;
$ Enhance the management of costs and vendor performance through usage of expenditure reports, and the establishment of vendor key performance measures.

Under the sponsorship of the Manager of Building Services of Corporate Services, and the Assistant General Manager/Deputy Chief of Emergency Services of the Fire and Rescue Services, the RFP process was facilitated by the Materials Management Division of Corporate Services with the evaluation team comprised of the following:

- Audrey Dronsfield, Supervisor, Building Services, Museums, Planetarium and Archives;
- Peter Naidu, Supervisor, Building Services, - Public Safety Building and Carnegie Centre;
- Terry Hill, Supervisor, Building Service and Maintenance, Vancouver Public Library;
- John Rooney, Supervisor, Building Services, City Hall and Van City Campus;
- Maureen McCall, Storekeeper, Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services;
- Gary Yuill, Senior Business Analyst, Corporate Services.

Evaluation criteria were as follows:

$ Proponent Qualifications:

Factors considered included the firm's history, scope of service abilities, experience of its key personnel, and product offering.

$ General Requirements:

Factors considered included the capabilities of meeting the product and service needs of the City's facilities including 48 hour and special delivery requirements; the ability to supply the specified products; the safe disposal of obsolete products; efficient ordering and summary billing provisions; product usage reporting capabilities; and a workable transition and implementation plan.

$ Risk:

Factors considered were identification of risks associated with implementing a contract of this nature, and a proposed solution to mitigate those risks.

$ Value Added Services:

Factors considered included types of services that could be provided by the vendor such as WHMIS documentation and training to staff on the use and disposition of products, and provision of dispensing fixtures.

$ Quality of Proposal:

Factors considered included the organization, compliance and the comprehensiveness of the proposal.

$ Financial Offering:

Pricing was determined by consideration of the Proponent's offering on a predetermined basket of products organized into commodity groups within the RFP. Using a value equalization analysis on common size and unit of measure, the Proponent's offering was included within the overall evaluation after the subjective factors were scored.

The following steps were taken in completing the evaluation process:
$ Proposals were evaluated by team members individually;
$ A composite score was assigned to each proposal based on team member scores;
$ Pricing was then combined with the team composite score to provide an overall rating;
$ Based on composite scores assigned, proponents were short listed.
$ Interview/Presentation meetings were held with each of the three short listed proponents to allow the Evaluation Team to seek clarification of the proposals, and receive a detailed explanation of products and services provided as well as a demonstration of the ordering/billing technology offered;
$ Final evaluation and selection of vendor.

The bid request was structured in two parts; namely, the supply of mandatory janitorial cleaning chemicals, and the supply of all other related products (sanitary papers, plastic bags miscellaneous cleaning supplies, soaps, deodorants and hardware). The RFP stated that the City could separately award a contract for each part at its option. This would allow vendors to respond even though they could not provide the mandatory cleaning chemicals.

The cleaning chemicals had to be "Buckeye" brand and was identified as mandatory within the RFP. Buckeye is the trade mark of Buckeye International Inc., a company who manufactures a wide variety of commercial cleaning products and related maintenance, packaging, and proportioning dispensing systems used for controlling the mixture of cleaning formula. Their products are well known for containing less aggressive chemicals which are combined with other natural cleaning products. In response to Council Directives on using environmentally friendly products, their cleaners,

as well as those from other suppliers were tested by staff in the Building Services and Fire and Rescue Services Departments during 2000/2001. Buckeye was proven to have the most effective environmentally cleaning qualities and safety features and was subsequently adopted as the City standard.

Of the six bids received, only Janitor's Warehouse Distributors Inc. could meet the requirements for the mandatory Buckeye cleaning chemicals. Within the other commodity groups, two Proponents, Acklands-Grainger Inc. and Janitors Warehouse Distributors Inc., were the only bidders able to offer sufficient items to provide a complete solution.

The recommendation that the City award the contract to Janitor's Warehouse Inc. was based on the following strengths of their Proposal:

$ The only vendor who could supply the `Buckeye" brand of janitorial chemicals. Based on past experience, the vendor has provided strong support to the products through training and other services offered to the City's personnel.

$ Demonstrated greater experience in supplying the janitorial chemicals, sanitary paper products, and other cleaning supplies and servicing multi-location clients similar to the City;

$ With its five distribution facilities located within the greater Vancouver area, Janitors Warehouse Distribution Inc demonstrated a stronger capability to assure the City of continuous supply of product with the minimum of backorders;

$ Demonstrated a superior technical solution which provides a more efficient acquisition process whereby authorized City staff in the respective departments will be able to place orders directly using the internet into the supplier's order system;

$ The ability to issue summary billings that will reduce transaction costs.

$ Material consumption reporting capabilities were judged to be superior.

$ Their Proposal provided more value added services such as onsite training for product and procedures, floor maintenance procedures, graveyard shift training as needed, TEPALO floor slip test, WHMIS documentation and training, dedicated personnel to the city for order processing, supply reports as required, procedural manuals for training and custodial staff, an easy customized product catalogue, dispensing systems, rental and leasing programs for equipment when required, preventative maintenance programs, and educational programs.

$ Janitors Warehouse Distribution Inc. was judged superior in terms of its qualifications because of its experience with the required commodities, implementation of similar contracts, and its ability to provide ongoing service to the City's facilities.

$ Janitors Warehouse Distribution Inc. financial offering, based on analysis of pricing on a predetermined basket of products included under part 2 of the RFP was the lower of the two proponents. The following table summarizes the results of the analysis:

Proponent Competitive Product Commodity Group	Acklands-Grainger	Janitors Warehouse
Paper and Plastic Products (48% of annual spend)	$ 1,733.01	$ 1,614.22
Other products including misc. cleaners, soaps, disinfectants, deodorants, and hardware (42% of annual spend)	$ 817.81	$ 876.34
RFP Basket Value for all competitive commodities	$ 2,550.82	$ 2,490.56

FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

Funding is to be provided from the respective departments' operating budgets. It is estimated that through consolidation of purchases, annual savings due to the price reduction for the Buckeye products alone will be $1,400 per annum. There will be opportunities to reduce the costs to the City on other commodities as well over the term of the contract. In addition there will be an increase in efficiency as a result of going to on-line ordering, summary billing, improved reporting and reduction of the number of vendors supplying the City.

CONCLUSION

In consideration of the advantages for consolidating the purchase of janitorial chemicals, cleaning supplies and sanitary paper requirements to one vendor, the recommendation to award this RFP to Janitors Warehouse Distribution Inc. is deemed as the best value for the City over the term of the contract. Based on the Proposals submitted, Janitors Warehouse Distribution Inc. was the leading Proponent demonstrating that their solution would be able to meet the product, service, and technological objectives of the City.

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© 2002 City of Vancouver