Today we reviewed all contracts awarded by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) for the month of February 2019 to see what trends might appear. Contractors selling Commercial Hardware (CH) items were third from the top of the list, by percentage of contracts. The Commercial Hardware category is diverse both in types of items as well as government contractors supplying them. Nearly every Ship, Submarine, Aircraft, Vehicle, System or Facility has parts categorized under the Commercial Hardware category it’s NOT just things you find in your big box store”.

The Commercial Hardware category consists of over 350

subcategories. Companies looking to

start selling to DOD or wishing to increase their DOD sales should take a

serious look at this category, especially when searching for government solicitations.

Over ten (10) percent of all the contracts

awarded in total by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) for the month of February

(as of today) have been awarded to over 400 companies selling products

categorized as Commercial Hardware.

What is Commercial Hardware? First of all it doesn’t include Screws, Nuts, Bolts, or Washers, they have their own categories. Commercial Hardware items are produced by all types of industries such as Machine shops, Fabricators and Assembly shops made from various materials like metals, plastics and rubbers.

Here is a small sampling, a few names of products found within the subcategories under Commercial Hardware:

Adapters, Bands, Bellows, Brackets, Bumpers, Caps, Casters, Clamps, Clips, Covers, Fasteners, Frames, Guards, Hinges, Mounts, Plates…

When searching for government solicitations for commercial hardware items it can be cumbersome and time consuming due to the fact that this category has over 350 subcategories. The trick is to search by the individual item name(s) for a more refined result set. In fact after searching for open government solicitations in BidLink today we found 1,500 open bids for commercial hardware items.

In conclusion if you are interested in increasing the

number of government contracts you win take a look at the category “Commercial

Hardware”. No matter what your specialty

is the chances of finding something you can supply to DLA is fairly good under

this category. Also looking at the procurement

history of past government contracts shows that small businesses succeed in

this category.

BidLink is a provider of DOD procurement research tools and has been a leading provider of industry marketing data relating to DOD procurement and solicitations for the past 20 years. Find defense contracts and research competition. Learn more at www.bidlink.net