Craft Contractors Company'S Application: Fill & Download for Free

Actually, you might be surprised how this can happen in a very small scale. True story, follow along:Called by a new client to recommend an office computer network, I sat in the owner's office awaiting his appearance. The customer was a machine shop, located in an old dairy barn which had been re-purposed to house the numerous lathes and milling machines which hummed away on the production floor. These were high precision machines under software control. The operators were more managers than actual machinists - they stood by to manage the process.At the front of the owner's desk, in a wood cradle, sat a fat brass tube which shined like an ancient treasure. I couldn't identify it, yet it was somehow oddly familiar, to me.At last, he entered. We discussed his office automation needs and I gathered up everything that would be needed to produce a proposal, for him. Then I inquired about the object on his desk. "That," he said, "Is the rocket body for the Hellfire missile." And so I replied, "You guys make things to blow up stuff and hurt people?""Yup," he smiled. "And our biggest customer is right over there." He gestured to an ordinance producer a few miles in the distance. This was, and in fact for many years had been, a facility which tested and built some serious weapons. I won't say who, and I won't say where. My reply: "Cooooool. How about a tour?" And so he took me through his small plant, where I could see, indeed, the rocket bodies being machined and stacked all over the place on pallets and in crates.Now as it turns out, machine shops are pretty big in my career history, and when I was in the insurance business, they were a specialty of mine. Thus I studied up on them, and soon realized that much of our nation's most advanced and lethal weaponry is crafted in shops with 5 to 20 employees. They don't do all the work, but they supply the big names who assemble the final product. They are a kind of "shadow industry," who don't readily appear on the intelligence radar of our adversaries.And I say all this to say that your point of entry and connection is not necessarily with the defense establishment directly. Rather, a more fruitful approach may lie with the hidden enterprises which are part of the supply chain. And, they are many. Walk along the halls of office buildings near Washington DC and you'll see the names on the doors to offices which might house just 2 or 3 people. "Electronic Countermeasure Systems, Inc.," "Patriot Ballistic Systems," "Parametric Defense Associates," etc. Those names are totally made-up, by me, but not TOO made up. And if I accidentally actually named one -don't tell me.So -what to do? Subscribe to the trade papers, go to the trade shows. Find out who's who. Figure out the connections, and figure out where your case may best be made. Walk and talk.Oh! And will you be followed?Yes.Hope that helps.

Nova-C is a lunar lander designed by the private company Intuitive Machines to deliver small commercial payloads to the surface of the Moon.Intuitive Machines was one of the 9 contractor companies selected by NASA in November 2018, and Nova-C is one of the first three landers selected to be built and launched by the new NASA program called Commercial Lunar Payload Services. Launch is planned on a Falcon 9 rocket 21 October, 2021.

I was Manager of Contracts for a construction company once, when we were losing tens of millions of dollars on a major project. The original estimate was much too low, and management agreed to an even lower price, and we were experiencing overruns. It was a nightmare.Top management hired a Consultant whose business was assisting government contractors in filing claims against the Federal Government. He was retired military, and he actually had a good track record.Well, after reviewing all of our records and spending an hour or so with me, he made a presentation to management, recommending that we file what is referred to as a “Total Cost” claim. This is an extremely risky strategy where you demand more money because certain unquantifiable factors had caused a great overrun, and you are entitled to more money…just BECAUSE.Since I was the Contract Manager, I was asked what I thought of this recommendation - with the entire management team looking on.I very calmly told the assembled group that while such a claim might be successful against the Federal Government, it would do nothing but enrage this private sector company, with totally unpredictable results. It could backfire and make things worse.Two days later, I was terminated for “not being a team player.”Well…A couple months later, the claim was filed (three large binders with many pictures, graphs, and charts) by the President of the company (to ensure that it was taken seriously). As was related to me by my successor, the client left the room, and came back a half hour or so later. He said that this claim was considered to be a repudiation of the contract and a breach. He said that unless the claim was immediately withdrawn, the contract would be terminated immediately for default. Furthermore, he demanded a full and unconditional release from ANY claims from the beginning of the contract to date, and without this additional waiver they would stop all payments immediately.At the time, we had about 400 craft and labor workers on site, all working 12-hour days to keep the project on schedule, and all requiring WEEKLY payments by union contract. The company did not have the resources to carry the project for even a week at that burn rate, so we had to withdraw the claim in writing and give the customer the waiver that he demanded, thus giving up a couple million in LEGITIMATE claims that could now not be pursued.The company went bankrupt within another six months, due to the losses on that contract.Revenge? Maybe not. But I certainly felt vindicated. I’ve always wondered if anyone on the management team ever reflected back on what I said and acknowledged that I was absolutely correct.