NASA Quality Policy - American Society for Quality

To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
- NASA Quality Policy -
Brian Hughitt
NASA HQ OSMA
Quality Assurance

To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
Quality is never an accident; it is always the
result of high intention, sincere effort,
intelligent direction and skillful execution; it
represents the wise choice of many
alternatives.
William A. Foster

NASA Quality Policy
To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
It is NASA policy to comply with
prescribed technical and quality
requirements, and to provide for
independent assurance of
compliance with requirements.

NASA Quality Policy
To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
Risk Based:
Mitigate risks associated with noncompliance.
Determination of risk considers the likelihood
of noncompliance and the consequences
associated with noncompliance

NASA Quality Policy
To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
Risk Based:
Attain confidence levels commensurate
with risk associated with noncompliance,
including 100% verification of critical
product attributes

NASA Quality Policy
To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
Risk Based:
Continuously reevaluated and adjusted
based on changes to risk factors.
Determination of risk considers the maturity,
complexity, criticality, importance and value
of work performed, as well as past quality
program performance.

To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
The quality system provides assurance that all
requirements are complied with- those that
matter a lot and those that don’t matter much.
For highly complex and critical operations, there
are MANY requirements that matter a lot.
NASA = HIGHLY CRITICAL AND COMPLEX
Don’t waste your time assuring requirements that
don’t matter much. Be deliberate, be watchful,
be smart. Careful planning and measurement of
risk is the inviolable first step before quality
program execution.

To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
Separate the vital few from the trivial many.
Joseph Juran

To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.

To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
“Life is full of gray choices… Ten thousand
gray choices; doing what we must do, and not
a bit more because that would take away from
other work that is absolutely critical to be
done right.”
Wayne Hale
Johnson Space Center
Space Shuttle Entry Flight Director
October 26, 2004

NASA Quality Assurance Policy
- AS9100 Implementation -
To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
Quality System Requirements for Activities
Performing NASA Work
AS9100 ISO 9001 AS9003
FAR
Inspection
Clause(s)
Quality
Clauses
(ARP 9009)
Critical and Complex Work X X
Complex / Non-Critical
Work
X
X
Critical / Non-complex
Work
X
X
Non-Critical Work X X

NASA Quality Policy
To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
Proactive:
Consist of up-front prework assurance
measures to provide increased confidence
that prescribed requirements will be
complied with.

NASA Quality Policy
To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
Continuous improvement:
Advocacy
Awareness training
Teaming
Sharing
Integration
Standardization
Lessons learned
Best practices

NASA Quality Policy
To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
Communication:
Ensure clear and mutual understanding of
requirements.
- Assignment
- Performance
- Assurance

To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
synergy:
creative cooperation

NASA Quality Policy
To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
Independence:
Be performed by persons that are not
assigned direct responsibility for meeting
cost or schedule objectives.

To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
Corrective action:
- Proximate and root cause(s)
- Scope/population
- Correction, replacement, repair, or
authorized disposition
- Preventive measures
- Validation of Effectiveness

NASA Quality Policy
To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
Supply Chain Control:
Flow quality requirements down to all
levels of the supply chain to ensure
control of sub-tier suppliers and assure
compliance with critical attributes.

NASA Quality Policy
To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
Competence
- Knowledge, skills, and experience related
to quality functions performed
- Knowledge, skills, and experience related to
the specific product, processes, or attribute
for which assurance is being provided
- Formal qualifications where required or
necessary to perform specialized functions

To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
"The society which scorns excellence in
plumbing because plumbing is a humble
activity and tolerates shoddiness in
philosophy because it is an exalted
activity will have neither good plumbing
nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes
nor its theories will hold water."
John Gardner

To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
Back- Up Slides

To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
- Customer Notification of Unsafe, Unreliable,
or Non Functional Product
- Objective Quality Evidence
- Quality Data Analysis
- Quality System
- Government Contract Quality Assurance

NASA Quality Policy
To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
AS9100 Quality Systems
Quality Management System
- Documentation Requirements
- Quality Manual
- Control of Documents
- Control of Records
- Configuration Management
Management Responsibility
- Management Commitment
- Customer Focus
- Quality Policy
- Planning
- Responsibility, Authority
and Communication
- Management Review
Resource Management
- Provision of Resources
- Human Resources
- Infrastructure
- Work Environment
Product Realization
- Planning of Product Realization
- Customer Related Processes
- Design and Development
- Purchasing
- Purchasing Information
- Verification of Purchased Product
- Production and Service Provision
- Identification and Traceability
- Control of Monitoring & Measuring Devices
Measurement, Analysis and Improvement
- Monitoring and Measurement
- Internal Audit
- Processes
- Product
- Control of Nonconforming Product
- Analysis of Data
- Improvement
- Corrective Action
- Preventive Action

- Management Responsibility
- Quality System
- Contract Review
- Design Control
- Document and Data Control
- Purchasing
- Control of Customer Supplied Product
- Product Identification and Traceability
- Process Control
- Inspection and Testing
- Control of Nonconforming Product
- Corrective Action
- Handling, Storage, Packaging, Preservation and Delivery
- Control of Quality Records
- Internal Quality Assessment
- Training
- Servicing
- Statistical Techniques
NASA Quality Policy
To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
AS9003 Inspection and Test Quality System

NASA Quality Policy
To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
FAR Inspection Clause
“The Contractor shall maintain an inspection system
acceptable to the Government covering supplies
under this contract and shall tender to the
Government for acceptance only supplies that have
been inspected in accordance with the inspection
system and have been found by the Contractor to be
in conformity with contract requirements.”

NASA Quality Policy
Quality Contract Clauses
To improve life here,
To extend life to there,
To find life beyond.
• Quality System
• Material Identification, Damage, Count
• Right of Access
• Flow Down Requirements
• Certificate of Compliance (C of C)
• Certificate of Compliance Raw Material
• Certificate of Compliance - Calibration
• Special Process Certification
• Calibration System
• Configuration Management System
• Change Authority
• Critical Processes
• Government Source Inspection (GSI)
• Contractor Source Inspection (CSI)
• First Article Inspection
• Nondestructive Inspection (NDI) /
Nondestructive Test (NDT)
Certification
• 100% Attribute Clauses
• Limited Operating Life Items
• Limited Life and Age Control (Shelf
Life)
• Packaging Requirements
• Packaging Handling & Labeling
• Shipping Documents
• Nonconformance Reporting
• GIDEP
• Record Retention
• Electrical Wire and Cable Test Report
• EEE parts Date of Manufacture
• EEE Single Lot / Date Code
• Electrostatic Discharge (ESD)
Protection Program
• High-Strength Fasteners
• Pressure Vessels
• Solvent Containers