CPS procures furniture via a pre-approved vendor pool; all vendors in this pool have Furniture Master Agreements in place with CPS. The entire CPS furniture catalog encompasses roughly two types of furniture contracts; one type was based on a bidding process, the other type piggybacks onto existing national contracts. Five contracts, were awarded through bidding and are based on a specific “catalog” of products with established pricing. Typically, only that vendor should be used to purchase the items in their catalog as they are considered preferred for their established pricing. The second type of contract allows access to five more vendors and there is unlimited access options to all of their products within their contract. Noted is that there is some duplication with items previously awarded through the bidding process. The number and types of vendors and the catalogs manufacturers they own represent can change with contract renewals.
Furniture procurement for Capital Improvement Projects are managed through the FF&E team. An FF&E Coordinators are assigned to each project and will work with the Design Manager (DM), Architect of Record (AOR), Principal and other school stakeholders, and Project Manager (PM) to confirm the furniture selections, place the order with all vendors, and coordinate the delivery, installation, and punchlist resolution. Typical steps and timeline are detailed below.
Furniture procurement for direct school orders is a similar process but accessed through the CPS Furniture Guidelines Portal and Marketplace.
In some cases, AORs may be asked to provide custom furniture layouts if a standard template does not exist. The expectation is that catalog furniture shall be utilized unless there is a special exception approved by CPS.
- FF&E team shares furniture catalogs, Vendor Lookbooks and typical room templates with DMs to be shared with AORs (at transfer, no later than 30% milestone).
- Furniture plans provided by DM to FF&E team (between 60% - 100% milestone, no later than OTB).
- DM schedules meeting with, Principal, FFE Team, AOR, PM, and school to walk through furniture plans and confirm selections with school (~1-4 hour meeting depending on project size). FFE team sends Lookbooks as a preview to the meeting for the school’s input. Ideally architectural finish palette is finalized prior to meeting with the Principal.
- FF&E team creates detailed Furniture Summary of all rooms and selections and sends to DM, AOR, PM, school – Typically within 1 week after meeting(s) takes place. (Allow 2 weeks for back and forth to finalize all choices).
- FF&E team solicits quotes from vendors based on Furniture summary (2 weeks total: 1 week to receive, 1 week for QAQC and revision).
- FFE team requests funding/ CPS Finance Team places orders in CPS Marketplace system / FFE verifies issuance for POs to vendors (1 - 2 weeks) Furniture vendors confirm manufacturing acknowledgments and lead times. Standard lead times are assumed to be 8 – 12 weeks with more specialized products requiring up to 16 weeks.
- FF&E share furniture plans with Vendors and regularly meet to monitor ship dates.
- FF&E team, Furniture Vendors, PMs establish furniture delivery and install schedule based on a Preliminary Acceptance date. Deliveries typically occur starting in early August, with the majority of deliveries in the last 2 weeks of August.
- FF&E team, Furniture Vendors, and / or PMs and DMs are onsite during delivery. Punchlist items are noted and shared with team within ~1 week of install.
- FF&E team in conjunction with PM manages punch list resolution. (Timeframe varies)
- POs are receipted in Oracle by CPS Finance once FFE confirms full delivery has been met. Furniture Vendors must send their invoices to cpsinvoice@cps.edu for payment.