INTEGRATION OF RELIABILITY REQUIREMENTS INTO NASA PROCUREMENTS (v) provide to the contracting officer necessary copies of items described in (ii) above for inclusion in the request for proposal, or advise the contracting officer as to where they can be obtained. (b) Contracting Officers. Contracting officers, with or through appropriate reliability assurance personnel, shall: (i) review the reliability assurance requirements established by the originator of each procurement; (ii) determine the applicable requirements where reliability assurance requirements appear to be inadequate or have been omitted (this will be accomplished in coordination with, and with verification by, the originator); (iii) advise all prospective contractors for the procurement in question of reliability requirements and reliability program requirements for the particular procurement; (iv) ensure that the provisions of the contract are specific as to the contractor's responsibility for meeting reliability requirements; and (v) ensure that the contractor meets the terms and conditions of the contract relative to reliability requirements. (c) Reliability Assurance Personnel. Reliability assurance personnel shall: (i) advise and assist originators of procurement requests in performing the functions prescribed in paragraph (a) above; (ii) advise and assist contracting officers in the functions prescribed in paragraph (b) above; (iii) advise and assist installation project personnel in guidance and monitorship of contractor reliability programs; and (iv) take other actions as necessary to ensure that the system being procured meets required levels of reliability. (a) Processing of Procurement Documents for Procurements of Systems Expected to Exceed $1,000,000. (1) Procurement Requests. The procurement request for a system will include, in the description of the procurement, a statement of reliability requirements, in accordance with paragraph 1.5104(a)(i) and (ii). (2) Procurement Plans. The procurement plans for a system will contain provisions for reliability assurance, including a summary of reliability program requirements. (3) Review and Approval of Procurement Plans. (See 3.852-2.) (4) Requests for Proposals. Requests for proposals will include: GENERAL PROVISIONS (ii) Definition of the degree of detail desired in the proposal to describe (5) Proposal Evaluation Documentation. Paragraph 3.804-2(b) relating to source evaluation procedures in procurements not involving source evaluation boards, specifies that the documentation of technical evaluations of proposals shall include an evaluation of the company's proposed method of achieving the reliability required. (6) Reliability Representation on Source Evaluation Boards. Paragraph 300 of the Source Evaluation Board Manual (NPC 402) provides for the participation of the designee of the Director of Reliability and Quality Assurance, NASA Headquarters, in Source Evaluation Board proceedings. (b) Monitoring of Reliability Effort. The following measures, used in appropriate combinations, are considered effective tools for use by cognizant NASA installations in the guidance and monitoring of contractor reliability efforts: (i) use of resident NASA technical representatives in hardware contractor facilities (or, as a minimum, use of frequent reliability surveys by nonresident NASA teams); (ii) conducting in-house reliability studies; and (iii) use of independent reliability assessment contractors to assist NASA in assessment of system reliability or evaluation of the effectiveness of the hardware contractor's reliability program. (c) Inclusion of NPC 250–1 in the Contract. NASA Reliability Publication NPC 250-1 will be invoked in the contract via an appropriate contract clause designed to clarify any ambiguities which may exist. A sample clause is as follows: In performance of work under the contract, the Contractor shall implement a reliability program in accordance with NASA Reliability Publication NPC 250-1 [indicate edition] as further definitized in the Statement of Work. Guidance and monitoring of the Contractor's reliability effort, as well as approval or review authority for reliability program documentation, shall be the responsibility of the Contracting Officer, his authorized technical representatives, or their designees. The Contracting Officer will advise the Contractor, as well as appropriate NASA representatives and the Government inspection agency, by letter as to the identity (title, organization, and location) of his authorized technical representatives and the specific office or offices to which various items of required reliability program documentation shall be submitted. INTEGRATION OF RELIABILITY REQUIREMENTS INTO NASA PROCUREMENTS 1.5106 Technical Factors (Requests for Proposals and Statements of Work). Procurement requests and statements of work will provide guidance on the following technical factors when NASA Reliability Publication NPC 250-1 is invoked: (a) NASA Reliability Publication NPC 250-1 prescribes that the contractor's reliability organization will monitor certain tasks, the actual conduct of which is a part of the overall technical project effort. In the preparation of Statements of Work, the originator of the procurement request shall specify that these tasks are requirements unless specifically modified or waived. Paragraph references to NPC 250-1 in this category where additional guidance should be included in the Statement of Work are as follows: NASA NPC 250-1 (i) 3.5—Maintainability, and Description of Action Define the extent of effort required in these areas with respect to the overall space system and each of its various elements (requirements will often differ from element to element within the system). Where the system involves subsystems capable of being maintained by personnel while in use, or where flight safety of personnel is involved, append, or otherwise provide, appropriate documents giving detailed guidance to the contractor on requirements in this area. (ii) 3.8-Standardization of Make clear that the standards effort Design Practices. (iii) 4.3-Testing will be limited to that required to modify existing contractor standards to meet system requirements and that it is not necessarily intended to have the contractor set up a complete new standards system at NASA expense. Also, provide any NASA design criteria which the contractor will be required to use. The Statement of Work should clearly specify the requirement for: (A) An integrated test program which includes all tests (with specified exceptions) under the contract. Also indicate that tests (except reliability demonstrations) which include reliability inputs, or produce, along with other results, data GENERAL PROVISIONS NASA NPC 250-1 Paragraph Number Description of Action for evaluation of reliability, should be referred to as the appropriate type of performance test, and not be termed a "reliability" test. (B) Qualification testing of all elements of the system (consistent with project requirement). Indicate required levels of overstress to be employed in these tests where appropriate and specifically require the contractor to submit separate test specifications for each qualification test (containing appropriate overstress requirements), which will be subject to NASA review prior to use. (C) Flight assurance testing requirements at appropriate levels of assembly, together with guidance on required levels of stress to be employed, and configuration control requirements. Require the contractor to submit a separate specification for each flight assurance test, which will be subject to NASA review prior to use. (iv) 5.1-General Documenta- State whether the contractor is required tion. to establish a data center, and clearly define the scope of effort required of the prime contractor and of subcontractors (as required to be consistent with the system data center). Also make clear that the "unified file" of reliability information is a requirement only where the overall data center is not required. INTEGRATION OF RELIABILITY REQUIREMENTS INTO NASA PROCUREMENTS (b) Additional guidance as to the extent of applicability of reliability task requirements will be given for the following paragraphs of NPC 250-1: NASA NPC 250-1 (i) 2.2.2-Preliminary Re- (ii) 2.2.3-Intermediate Re- (iii) 2.4-Reliability Description of Action Indicate the degree of detail desired in the proposed reliability program and in the submittal of information on the contractor's qualifications. Indicate any desired variations from the procedure prescribed in NPC 250-1. Where it is desired to omit this submittal, prescribe that the requirements of this paragraph be combined with those of paragraph 2.2.2 in preparing the proposal. Pro- Give specific guidance on those aspects of control for which the NASA installation has special requirements and, if appropriate, for the preferred system of control. (iv) 2.6-Subcontractor and List those elements of the system conSupplier Control. sidered by NASA to be "major" in terms of the need for reliability control by a formal reliability program. The list may be identified as "suggested" where it is desired to obtain contractor inputs for subsequent negotiation. (v) 2.6.3-Resident Repre- Indicate those of the system elements sentatives. (vi) 2.7-Government-Fur- listed as "major" which are considered by NASA to require use of resident prime contractor representatives in subcontractor facilities. This list may be identified as "suggested" where it is desired to defer the final decision until specific information on subcontracts is proposed. Indicate which elements, if any, of the system will be Government-furnished property and provide information on the characteristics, including reliability, of each to enable the contractor to plan and propose his reliability program with appropriate consideration for Government-furnished property. |