$120 for a C7 cleaning kit?

[Jarnhamar]

Someone please tell me I'm wrong.
We've all seen the C7 cleaning kit.

Speaking about a DA i was just told each C7 cleaning kit costs/is worth $120.  Is that what we really pay for them??

Doesn't that seem a bit mich for 4 steel rods some brushes couple parts and a plastic clp bottle?

I paid under $80 for this

And it cleans not only a C7 but a C6, shotgun, pistols, other caliber rifles..

 

[Teflon]

On my DA Acct it says $21.94

 

[Jarnhamar]

I didn't think it was much either. I'm gonna look into it, I hope I'm wrong but I wouldn't be surprised lol

 

[Kat Stevens]

You may have got the NSN for the section cleaning kit instead.

 

[danchapps]

I can look into it tomorrow if you like, when I get back from sick leave. The kits shouldn't be $120. Much less than that in fact.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

The complete kit is probably accountable, but if you ordered all the parts individually (probably C class), it wouldn't be.

Attractive items are also quite often priced way over retail, just so they don't get 'lost'. Not saying there's anything attractive about a C7 cleaning kit BTW.

 

[Teflon]

The complete kit is probably accountable, but if you ordered all the parts individually (probably C class), it wouldn't be.

Yup, complette cleaning kit is accountable but you can order all the individual parts class C - Just went through that a month and a half ago as we where short cleaning kits so we had a little C7 cleaning kit assembly party on the go

 

[my72jeep]

The complete kit is probably accountable, but if you ordered all the parts individually (probably C class), it wouldn't be.

Attractive items are also quite often priced way over retail, just so they don't get 'lost'. Not saying there's anything attractive about a C7 cleaning kit BTW.

Its attractrive to any one who own a AR or a variant

 

[armyvern]

The complete kit is probably accountable, but if you ordered all the parts individually (probably C class), it wouldn't be.

Attractive items are also quite often priced way over retail, just so they don't get 'lost'. Not saying there's anything attractive about a C7 cleaning kit BTW.

The prices are based upon what we actually pay to get an item into the system via contract.  Suppliers aren't dumb - we're federal - they know we have to take a bid cost, even if the item can be bought by joe-blow civvie at a store for much much less. We don't set the prices ourselves, and they have nothing to do with an item's accountability.

We've got A Class (accountable stores) that are worth a mere 10 bucks; and we've got non-accountable items worth hundreds & hundreds in the system.

Prices also change when contractors change (because the new contract usually is at a different cost per item).

I figure that this item is also accountable (A Class) due to it's association with small arms.

 

[Jarnhamar]

So we are paying $120 to basically purchase a cleaning kit worth $21.

I'm not sure if the persons who decided this did very poorly in business school or VERY well.

Lets say we buy 5000 cleaning kits. That's worth $105'000.
We're paying $600'000.

Wow. I know I'm naive when it comes to supply and the business world but that just seems insane to me. No wonder we have money problems.
And that's just C7 cleaning kits. I can't help but wonder about everything else in the supply system....
(This isn't a dig at you or sup techs  in the slightest Vern)

 

[dapaterson]

The devil, as always, is in the details.  Is the C7 butt kit the $120 one, or is that the NSN for one of ther larger cleaning kits?

Did the CF write a spec that excluded some commercially available kits, forcing vendors to do smaller runs to meet DND's request - and thus driving up the price (fixed costs spread over 50000 units are greater per unit than if spread over 500000 units)?  Was the delviery schedule too aggressive, leaving some suppliers unable to meet the timeline?

How many vendors bid on the contract?  Many assess the situation, look at the profit they may make, then decide not to bid - as the bid prep and compliance costs of supplying the Fed gov't may be excessive.  (Look at the MSVS MilCOTS - we wanted a very basic truck, yet only one company offered to sell it to us).

There are many parts to the system - and while it's easily to ridicule some outcomes, it's not particularly useful to critique the outcome without understanding the steps that lead to it - and identifying points i nthe process to improve so future outcomes will be better.

 

[armyvern]

So we are paying $120 to basically purchase a cleaning kit worth $21.

I'm not sure if the persons who decided this did very poorly in business school or VERY well.

Lets say we buy 5000 cleaning kits. That's worth $105'000.
We're paying $600'000.

Wow. I know I'm naive when it comes to supply and the business world but that just seems insane to me. No wonder we have money problems.
And that's just C7 cleaning kits. I can't help but wonder about everything else in the supply system....
(This isn't a dig at you or sup techs  in the slightest Vern)

Understand that it is a problem for ALL federal departments.

Most taxpayers really have no clue how much the average Canadian Business is screwing them when it comes to contracts.

ALL federal depts must obtain items via contract. That's federal law. Lowest bid is sometimes vastly inflated over normal costs, because not a single dept can do anything about it and Canadian business' know that. In the end, it's the taxpayer paying a whole lot more to ensure "Canadian Business'" get the contracts.

 

[Jarnhamar]

The devil, as always, is in the details.  Is the C7 butt kit the $120 one, or is that the NSN for one of ther larger cleaning kits?

I'm hearing $120 for a dinky C7 cleaning kit.  $200 for the section (C9) cleaning kit.  C6 kit was a thousand +