Nash & Cibinic in February talked about combining source selection procedures. In the recent case linked here, K-MAR B-411262, the Air Force's approach to best value is interesting.
One the one hand the AF told offerors that past performance, evaluated qualitatively not pass/fail, is significantly more important than price. On the other other hand the AF essentially stated it would rank-order proposals by price and then evaluate past performance of only the lowest priced proposal and if that offeror was rated substantial confidence for past performance then the evaluation process would stop. The Air Force did just that and K-MAR protested because its proposal and its past performance wasn't considered. Protest denied.
In a footnote the GAO notes that K-MAR failed to protest the RFP's evaluation scheme prior to the deadline for proposals.
What if K-MAR had timely protested the RFP's best value evaluation process, do you think the GAO would have sustained that protest?
Is it wise to use this AF approach that past performance is more important than price but then not consider other offerors' past performance?
http://www.gao.gov/products/B-411262,B-411262.2#_ftnref5