Attachment 5 - Production Readiness Review Plan rev1 04.12.2022.pdf

N00024-21-R-5324 Attachment #5

PRODUCTION READINESS REVIEW PLAN

N00024-18-R-5310

1.0 GENERAL

1.1 Introduction

This attachment provides elaboration and further guidance for conducting Production Readiness Reviews (PRRs) for Vertical Launching System Module Assemblies, Modernization Kits, spare parts and associated equipment production.

The PRRs are an Option ITEM under this contract, which is exercised solely at the Government’s discretion.

1.2 Purpose of PRRs

The PRRs are a risk mitigation tool that helps assure that the Contractor and its subcontractors have accomplished adequate production planning and preparations to produce Vertical Launching System Module Assemblies, Modernization Kits, spare parts and associated equipment that meet performance requirements in accordance with the delivery schedule and without unacceptable risks. The Prime Contractor PRR shall be conducted on a mutually agreed upon schedule, no later than 60 days prior to the start of module production. PRRs of subcontractors shall be conducted prior to the PRR of the Prime Contractor, in order to examine during the Prime Contractor PRR the Contractor’s responses to significant issues discovered during the PRRs of the subcontractors, and no later than 60 days before each subcontractor begins production of its respective item listed in the Statement of Work, Attachment 1, Section 5.0.

2.0 Entrance Criteria

The following Entrance Criteria shall be accomplished to the Government’s satisfaction before PRRs shall start:

Contract Award.

Formal identification of subcontractors by Contractor.

For PRRs of subcontractors, 30 day formal notice of PRR from Contractor to subcontractor.

Mutually agreeable starting date & duration for PRR confirmed.

Confirmation of necessary hosting preparations by the company under review PRR planned in accordance with this attachment.

Final tailored set of PRR questions provided to company under review.

PRR team (Government and Contractors) identified and participation confirmed.

The local Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) point of contract information has been provided to the PRR team.

PRR funded.

Production plan is in place Copy of Presentation and Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) with Critical Path submitted to the Government 10 working days prior to the start of the PRR.

Production schedule meets the programs delivery requirements Obsolescence issues have been identified with resolution plans in place

Acceptable test equipment has been identified and documented

3.0 Exit Criteria

For a PRR to be evaluated as successful, the following Exit Criteria shall be accomplished to the Government’s satisfaction:

The accumulation of risks does not jeopardize the likelihood of successful production in the Government’s determination.

Manufacturing capability demonstrates a satisfactory basis for proceeding into production.

All spot checks of objective evidence completed.

Contractor’s Response Report submitted within 30 workings days of completion of the

PRR.

All risks corrected or have a feasible corrective action plan acceptable to the Government, submitted within 30 workings days of completion of the PRR.

Prime contractor manufacturing plan includes disciplined process for correcting production line failures.

All component vendors/sources are viable, reliable, adequately licensed, and have been verified to meet system life cycle requirements.

4.0 PRR Organized by Functional Areas

Each PRR shall examine key aspects of manufacturers’ operational and supporting functional areas that must be successfully accomplished for production. This examination is performed by asking questions to verify key aspects in each functional area and obtaining answers supported by objective evidence. The PRR questions are tailored to Vertical Launcher Module Assemblies, Modernization Kits, Launch Control Units, spare parts and associated equipment manufacturing, It is recognized that it is not practical for all corrective actions to be completed within 30 days. For example, if the corrective action is to obtain additional specialized equipment to meet surge capability, that would likely take more than 30 days, but the VLS launcher program would not be jeopardized as long as a corrective action plan was submitted that showed firm commitments to obtain the equipment within the needs of the overall schedule. On the other hand, if a risk was identified of some crucial long lead not ordered, the controlling impact of long lead items on delivery schedule may cause that to be a critical risk that simply a plan cannot correct.

and shall be answered in the PRR. Additional questions shall be added to this list to further tailor to the subcontractors’ role, relevant past information gained during the proposal process, such as information in Contractor Performance Assessment Reports (CPARs) submissions required by the Past Performance section, and other pertinent information that may be discovered during the solicitation process.

The Functional Areas are:

A. PRODUCIBILITY

B. MANUFACTURING PLANNING

C. MANUFACTURING SCHEDULES

D. CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

E. QUALITY ASSURANCE

F. MATERIAL PROCUREMENT & SUPPLIER CONTROL

G. FACILITY AND EQUIPMENT

H. PRODUCTION PROCESSING & FABRICATION

I. CALIBRATION, TOOL AND TEST EQUIPMENT

J. NON-CONFORMING MATERIAL CONTROL

K. COMPLETED ITEM INSPECTION AND TEST

L. HANDLING, STORAGE AND DELIVERY

The PRR questions organized by Functional Areas are listed in Appendix A to Attachment 6 at the end of this document. The Government may add questions, or eliminate or tailor any of these questions at its discretion.

4.1 Presentation_of_Answers

The company (contractor or subcontractor) that is the subject of the PRR shall present their answers to the PRR questions in a conference room setting. This presentation shall be of the same general style as presentations given for the Semi-Annual reviews, with the exception that uploads of the presentations prior to the date of the PRR are neither required nor desired. The company shall use their own standard conference room systems and processes to convey the answers in the most effective manner possible. Notwithstanding that, multiple presenters are appropriate, as subject matter experts shall present their Functional Areas of expertise.

The audience for presentations of PRRs will be Government and a representative cross-section of Contractor personnel responsible for the project, both management and technical subject matter experts. The audience for presentations of Subcontractor PRRs will be Government, a representative cross-section of Contractor personnel responsible for the project, and a representative cross-section of subcontractor personnel responsible for the subcontractor’s portion of the project.

4.2 Objective_Evidence

While a PRR is not an audit, answers shall be supported by objective evidence as much as possible. Therefore, answers shall not be simple Yes/No statements, and shall contain sufficient detail to provide confidence that the process is understood and under control. A helpful and appropriate mindset to take when responding to the questions is to answer them as your company would want a critical supplier to you to answer the questions. Illustrations from actual plans, policies, procedures, working paper, and other documents under control and in use for the project shall form part of many answers. Key documents shall be readily accessible for consultation if needed in the conference room. The government reserves the right during the PRR to conduct spot checks on the factory floor and in support function spaces. Those spot checks shall be coordinated in a mutually agreeable manner to minimize disruption of operations, but need to be completed to successfully accomplish the PRR.

5.0 Team_Size_and PRR_Duration

The entire PRR team shall be in the conference room and absorbing the company’s presentation of answers. However, the PRR team can be divided into teams for detailed evaluation and processing of the company’s presentation and answers. The exact team structure can be tailored, but a typical set of teams is: Management Team; Manufacturing Team; and Quality Assurance and Configuration Management Team. (The company that is subject of the PRR shall provide liaisons for each team.) Additionally, the PRR team shall have a PRR Chairperson.

Therefore, with 1 or 2 people per team, and a Chairperson, the PRR team size shall be 4 to 7 people, depending on the tailoring to the size of the company and the complexity of their product. The anticipated duration of a PRR is 2 full days, with ½ day latitude either way to accommodate a smaller scale PRR of a subcontractor or a more challenging PRR of a Prime Integrator Contractor.

6.0 PRR_Findings

Findings shall be generated throughout the PRR on-site visit. The PRR team shall be making appropriate notes as the presentation progress and during spot-checks of the facility and manufacturing. If desired by the company under review, the PRR team shall conduct an informal out brief of the findings at the end of each day. To allow the PRR team group consultation and sub-team preparation for that, the day’s presentation shall end approximately 1 hour early and prior to the informal out brief. The informal out brief is best conducted verbally, without diverting time to making viewgraphs or other elaborations; and final categorization of the findings as “deficiency”/”observation or risk severity is not necessary at this point. The intent of the informal out brief is to pass the key finding concerns to the company so there are no surprises, and potential misunderstandings can be corrected.

On the last day of the PRR, the out brief is a formal out brief. The Government PRR team shall present all findings to the company and rest of audience in viewgraph format. Elaborate viewgraphs are not desired, but the presentation shall be professional and complete. This presentation shall in effect be a complete package of findings so that the company can proceed on preparing corrective action. Disagreements with findings by the contractor shall be instead included in the written response of corrective actions forwarded through contractual channels.

Appendix A to Attachment 6

A. PRODUCIBILITY Functional Area

A.1 Are there any new required manufacturing methods, or any that have not been proven by the company in production quantity rates in the past? If yes, elaborate.

A.2 Has the Manufacturing Group completed review of the TDP and translated the TDP requirements into specific manufacturing/production/operations that can be release to the work force? If not, what is the percentage of completion and final completion date?

A.3 Have written shop instructions been developed and released for manufacturing personnel?

A.4 Does the Manufacturing Group review and sign-off on all assembly documentation releases? If so, does the sign-off signify producibility review/approval?

A.5 To what extent will shop instructions be developed for manufacturing personnel?

Please describe graphical or pictorial aids used during production.

A.6 How are vendor or subcontractor producibility problems identified and managed, including critical dependencies between any projects’ producibility issues and suppliers?

How do you perceive current vendor/subcontractor producibility risk areas?

B. MANUFACTURING PLANNING Functional Area

B.1 What is the estimated production cycle time per unit? Does the manufacturing line support the planned production schedules? Please provide a summary of the analysis used to design the floor plan and calculate the production cycle time.

B.2 Are there qualified people available to support the Project’s manufacturing Program and schedule? Is there a manpower planning plan? Please discuss how shop loading was determined.

B.3 Please identify the critical outside vendors required to support the manufacturing schedule. Please explain your back-up plan for your critical outside vendors? (The Statement of Work here means both the SOW from government to your company, and SOWs or Purchase Orders or any other equivalent imposed by your company on vendors.)

B.4 Please provide an organizational chart with the identified areas of responsibility.

B.5 What is the role of Quality Assurance in the manufacturing planning activity?

B.6 What Engineering resources are available to support the Program? What engineering support is available when production problems occurred on the factory floor?

B.7 Provide a risk matrix of self-identified risks. Provide a number on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 most consequential, for probability and consequence.

B.8 Please explain how the company’s risk management plan for manufacturing is implemented. How does it fit in the overall Risk Management Program?

B.9 Are there any new start or existing programs competing for resources during the period of performance defined for this program? What percentage of the work being performed at the production facility/facilities is being in support of the MK 41 VLS program?

C. MANUFACTURING SCHEDULES Functional Area

C.1 Please discuss the Integrated Master Schedule and critical path provided. Please explain how lower level subassembly schedules exist that support end-item delivery requirements. Please discuss these schedules in conflict with requirements of other programs.

C.2 What information is provided to upper management and also to the government to give them schedule performance vs. plan visibility? How is this data validated and updated?

C.3 What are your criteria for designation as critical or long lead items? Based upon your review of the TDP, other than as identified in the TDP, are there any other long lead or critical items?

C.4 What percentage of your labor resources is committed to support this program? Will more than one 40 hour shift be necessary? Are multiple shifts possible? Has multiple shifts been utilized previously?

C.5 How will production priorities and resource allocation between this program and other customers’ programs be resolved?

D. CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT Functional Area

D.1 What standard is your configuration management system based on?

D.2 Please explain the engineering change control process you will use for this project.

Describe how a change will be received and processed. Show how you accomplish review, concurrence, and communication to manufacturing and method to implement/break in change in the manufacturing process. Where does the customer fit in?

D.3 What are the controls for the incorporation of engineering changes into production paper (such a work instructions and production processes, as opposed to engineering drawings)?

D.4 Please explain in moderate detail how do you will control the production baseline.

D.5 What and how are Configuration control requirements flowed down to subcontractors?

E. QUALITY ASSURANCE Functional Area

E.1 What standard is your quality assurance system based on?

E.2 Please explain how the QA group has the authority and independence to identify and evaluate quality problems and initiate corrective action.

E.3 Does QA participate in program planning, process development and approval? Please elaborate.

E.4 Does QA monitor both the issuance of work instructions and compliance to them?

Please elaborate.

E.5 How many QA FTEs are assigned to this project? Please briefly discuss QA personnel responsibilities, assignments (including degree of commitment to other concurrent projects) and experience.

E.6 Please explain and illustrate the receiving inspection program for materials and supplies. Please provide a process flow chart for material.

E.7 How is discrepant material handled at receiving?

F. MATERIAL PROCUREMENT & SUPPLIER CONTROL Functional Area

F.1 Have all suppliers been identified and orders placed? How do you ensure that parts are purchased from only approved suppliers? ("Supplier" includes subcontractors and those vendors purchased from with a purchase order.)

F.2 How are supplier problems identified and managed? Are there any risk areas identified with the suppliers? Please include any potential risks due to delivery and schedule. Who are your suppliers of most concern, and why?

F.3 How do you rate your suppliers? How is that rating used in supplier source selection? Do you allow Research & Development, emergency, provisional, or other non-standard status for suppliers; if yes please explain that sub-process.

F.4 Based upon your review of the TDP, what Diminishing Manufacturing Sources (DMS) items have you identified? What is your DMS strategy for these items?

F.5 Is your company prepare to conduct process certification or review for special process such as welding, plating, bonding, and painting, if these process are performed at suppliers? Please elaborate.

G. FACILITY AND EQUIPMENT Functional Area

G.1. How will this program affect the capacity of this plant? Is any facility improvement needed or anticipated?

G.2 Are all tools, equipment, and test equipment including GP available to support production, and are they under the appropriate level of configuration management control? Please elaborate.

G.3 Demonstrate how the test equipment meet the production rate requirement. What is the basis of your confidence? Please elaborate on analysis that was completed

G.4 Is any special tooling needed at suppliers?

G.5 Are there back-up machines and tools. What maintenance contracts are in place for machinery.

H. MANUFACTURING PROCESSING & FABRICATION Functional Area

H.1 Do the work instructions and inspection sheets provide criteria for determining whether production, processing and fabrication work is acceptable or unacceptable?

Please explain in moderate detail.

H.2 How is training correlated to project/TDP needs to assure no gaps exist? What training programs are in place? How will personnel be trained on the manufacturing, assembly and test requirements for this program?

I. CALIBRATION, TOOL AND TEST EQUIPMENT Functional Area

I.1 Are the required tool, gauges, testing, and measuring equipment necessary to assure that products meet technical requirements available for use? Please list any potential choke points.

I.2 Do procedures exist for the proper calibration of tooling, test and measuring equipment?

I.3 Who performs instrument calibration? What calibration standard do they comply with?

I.4 Explain the process to follow-up on any released products that were built with out-of-calibration tooling or test equipment. What is the timeline for notification to the customer in this situation?

I.5 Is any production tooling used as inspection equipment? If yes, is such production tooling proved for accuracy prior to use? Is such tooling re-inspected at intervals established in a manner which assures the adjustment replacement or repair of the tooling before it becomes inaccurate?

J. NON-CONFORMING MATERIAL CONTROL Functional Area

J.1 Please explain your process for identification, segregation, and disposition of non-conforming material. What role does QA have in the process?

J.2 Are holding areas adequate for the segregation, security and storage of non-conforming material? Please elaborate.

J.3 Explain the Material Review Board (MRB) process you will use for this project?

Please identify membership (by role/title) for this board. Explain how the government and the prime contractor is involved?

J.4 How are rework and repair procedures generated and who has the approval authority?

K. COMPLETED ITEM INSPECTION AND TEST Functional Area

K.1 Do instructions provide for a final inspection and test of completed items for overall quality?

K.2 Has there been a discussion with DCMA on hold points? When is the discussion scheduled to be held?

K.3 Is there an integrated test plan? Does it identify all tests, screens, burn-in, etc. done by your company and suppliers (as appropriate)? Has a requirements verification matrix been developed and distributed showing which tests verify which requirements, and which company is responsible?

K.4 Is there a requirement for re-inspection and retest for all items that are reworked, repaired or modified for defects found during initial testing?

K.5 Has time been allocated in your schedule for rework and retest? Please illustrate using your scheduling tools.

L. HANDLING, STORAGE AND DELIVERY Functional Area

L.1 How are the Vertical Launcher Module Assemblies, Modernization Kits, Launch Control Units, spare parts and associated equipment specific Packaging, Handling, Storage, and Transportation (PHS&T) requirements integrated into your PHS&T system and process?

L.2 Is there a procedure to assure the proper cleaning/preservation for items that could degrade during fabrication or interim storage?

L.3 Do procedures provide for the proper identification and labeling of all material to be stored or shipped?

L.4 Are there any “limited shelf-life” materials? If yes, what are your procedures that provide for clear identification of "limited shelf-life" materials and for their disposal when shelf life has expired?