The Defense Department and NASA need to set up a mechanism to periodically asses the condition of parts quality problems in major space and missile defense programs, including periodic reports to congress, a new government report said.
“Quality is key to success in U.S. space and missile defense programs, but quality problems exist that have endangered entire missions along with less-visible problems leading to unnecessary repair, scrap, rework and stoppage; long delays and millions in cost growth,” The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a newly released June 2011 report.
Parts quality issues affected cost and schedule for all 21 of the DoD and NASA programs GAO examined. They included the DoD Air Force Advanced Extremely High Frequency Satellite, which had a reported additional cost of at least $250 million contributing to a 24 month launch delay. The Space-based Space surveillance system had a $3.3 million parts quality problem adding one month to its schedule. The Navy Mobile User Objective system did not report the dollar cost, but reported an 18 month schedule effect. The Missile Defense Agency Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system added $1.9 million in parts problems, but reported no schedule impact. Ground based Midcourse Defense reported $19 million in costs, with 25 months in schedule implication, while the Space Tracking and Surveillance system reported a $7.8 million cost impact with five month schedule impact.
GAO examined 12 NASA programs all with parts quality problems, including Glory, a low Earth orbit scientific research satellite mission, which reported $72.2 million in parts quality problems and a 20 month launch delay.
“In most cases problems were associated with electronic versus mechanical parts or materials, GAO said in report GAO 11-404. The agency analysis of DoD and NASA data found 64.7 percent of the problems were electronic parts, 20.6 percent were materials, and 14.7 percent were mechanical parts.
The causes: “poor workmanship, undocumented and untested manufacturing processes, poor control of those processes and materials and failure to prevent contamination, poor part design, design complexity and an inattention to manufacturing risks,” the report said.
The GAO review began before DoD and NASA adopted new policies on parts quality problems. The agencies are now collecting and sharing information on problems and developing guidance and criteria for testing, managing subcontractors and mitigating problems, but it is too early, GAO said to determine how much the collaborations have reduced the problems.
Auditors pointed out that “significant barriers hinder efforts to address the problems, such as broader acquisition management problems, workforce gaps, diffuse leadership in national security space community, the government’s decreasing influence on the electronic parts market and an increase in counterfeiting of electronic parts.
“Given this, success will likely be limited without continued assessments of what works well and must be done,” the report said.