Quality Assurance   

 

Quality Assurance (QA)

TDL is experienced in subcontractor and vendor management, supported by demonstrated processes and procedures, ensuring high-quality results.

Schedule Effectiveness
Our approach to developing and managing schedules focuses on delivering the product on time and within budget. Senior management, contracts, and quality assurance review the project schedule every quarter to ensure that our commitments are being met, technical risks are correctly managed, and that corrective action plans exist for those commitments at risk of not being met.

Risks
Risk management is not a separate program function, but an integral part of the overall program planning, management and execution. Any program element related to cost, schedule, or performance during any phase of the project has a direct relationship with the risk management process. The TDL’s risk management ensures customers, project managers, and other managers that any risk is identified early in a project, action is implemented to reduce risk to an acceptable level, and project risk is assessed regularly throughout the project to ensure that acceptable levels are maintained.

TDL ensures quality by employing performance metrics at each stage of a program. Performance metrics include specific program requirements and milestones. Milestones, such as Preliminary Design Reviews and Critical Design Reviews, are anticipated at specific times in the systems engineering process. These major milestones become auditing events against which requirements and schedule are compared.

When the standard or performance metric is not met, the Program Manager is required to provide a Corrective Action Plan to bring the performance back to the established metric. All subcontractors will be evaluated, at appropriate intervals, to ensure they meet the initial criteria and any new requirements. Verification of purchased and/or subcontracted products is accomplished through receiving inspections, source inspection, testing, or reviews and audits. TDL practices both in-house and source quality inspections. In-process controls greatly affect final quality. But in-house inspection or testing is not completely adequate.

Verification tests require unique test and evaluation equipment that is only available at the source, often indicating the need to inspect an item or service. Where source inspection or in-process inspections are performed, the Quality Administrator, project Quality Manager, or Project Engineer completes an inspection record and distributes it to the appropriate program elements. Deficient products or services may require a Corrective Action Report (CAR). If a CAR is issued, the TDL QA manager specifies when the corrective action will be complete and the when the retest or re-inspection will take place. Retest or re-inspection data are maintained as part of the program record, including certificates of conformance.