Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
5/30/2014
An unnamed vendor provided nonconforming parts to the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Kansas City Plant for nearly 30 years, according to a new Department of Energy Inspector General report that gives plant contractor Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies’ quality assurance program a clean bill of health despite the issues. According to the IG report, released this week, the vendor was found to have deviated from design requirements on parts supplied to the plant during a 2013 on-site review of the vendor by Honeywell and Sandia National Laboratories, and it was later determined that the vendor had made substitutions on parts provided to the Kansas City Plant dating to July 1985.
According to the IG, there were sometimes as many as six substitutions per part, affecting more than 10,000 parts in all. "The affected parts had issues with substituted processes, materials, adhesives and/or coatings," the IG report said, though it noted that the changes were not expected to negatively impact nuclear weapons performance.
Honeywell Takes Corrective Action
In its report, the IG found no fault with Honeywell’s quality assurance program, noting that the NNSA had approved the program, Honeywell regularly inspected parts from vendors, and documented non-conforming parts when discovered. In response to the issue with the vendor, Honeywell initiated its own review of the problem and issued a pair of Corrective Action Reports, "which identified certain enhancements that would further ensure that Design Agency requirements continued to be met." The IG said: "Nothing came to our attention to indicate that Honeywell’s quality assurance program did not ensure Design Agency requirements were met."
In response to the issues, Honeywell also issued guidance to vendors in September 2013 requiring notification of any changes to drawings or specifications. It also expanded its inspection process to include First Article Inspections on selected parts that is expected to provide proof that engineering design and specification requirements are understood and met. "Honeywell stated that adherence to product and quality requirements is extremely important and potentially impacts national security," the IG said.
Substitute Parts Not Considered Significant Enough for Testing
As part of its quality assurance program, Honeywell has a detailed inspection program that identifies what features and characteristics of parts are to be inspected, as well as the number of parts to be inspected and the equipment that should be used for inspections. However, the IG said the parts substituted by the unnamed vendor "were not immediately identified because the inspection plan did not require the materials, adhesives and coatings used in manufacturing the parts to be inspected because the Design Agency did not consider those items to be significant enough to require individual testing."
The IG said that Honeywell and Sandia were optimistic that the substitute parts would still be able to be used. Using stockpile surveillance test data to evaluate the impact of the substitutions, Honeywell and Sandia found the parts "will most likely be accepted because no adverse impact on weapon performance had been identified." Full acceptance of the parts is expected by June, the IG said. "According to both Honeywell and SNL officials, they were primarily concerned with the form, fit and function of a part. Thus, typically, if a part passed the form, fit and function tests as defined by the Design Agency and Honeywell, it would pass inspection," the IG said.
Honeywell: Vendor Still Providing Parts to Plant
In a statement to NS&D Monitor, Honeywell FM&T spokeswoman Shaunda Parks noted that the company’s quality assurance program identified changes that were made by the supplier before consulting with Honeywell. She also said the substitute parts presented no quality issues, and that the vendor is still supplying parts to the plant. "Because the supplier has a strong reputation for results and cooperated fully through the review, it continues to provide parts under new quality oversight requirements that have been implemented across all suppliers to prevent similar events," Parks said. "As the report notes, the Inspector General’s office appears satisfied with our oversight and is not making any formal recommendations."
