AIA NAS413

Description/Abstract

Today, product/process conformity is typically verified on location, where the product/processes resides, such as the supplier’s premises, manufacturing facilities, or operating environments. To conduct a product/process conformity verification, both industry and government are required to dispatch personnel to the location, incurring costs for time, travel, and non-productive workflow wait times for product/process acceptance or strategic repair (mission readiness).

In response to challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) issued a Job Aid for Interim Alternative Contract Insight for Technical Functional Specialists on March 30, 2020. Section 3.3 of this Job Aid provided DCMA Functional Specialists the authority of “deploying virtual technologies for product verification and support purposes.” In response to this new authority, the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) developed National Aerospace Standard (NAS) 413, a remote verification implementation guidance to ensure that the intended purpose of the DCMA Job-Aid could be realized during the Covid-19 crisis and beyond, including:

• Promoting supply chain resilience and efficiencies;

• Maintaining liquidity of funds to promote the health of the Defense Industrial Base;

• Heightening awareness that A&D Industry deployment of SVT are underutilized.

AIA acknowledges the scope of this guidance document and has committed to broaden the scope with a revision, when available.

Purpose

This standard practice provides guidance for developing and implementing processes/procedures to incorporate remote verification capabilities utilizing Surveillance Verification Technologies (SVT). The adoption of NAS413 is encouraged on a voluntary basis in conjunction with the DCMA Job Aid. Participation will not affect rights and obligations under existing contractual requirements, regulations, and statutes.

Application of NAS413 includes:

• Quality Management System (QMS) verification;

• engineering and ground tests;

• engineering compliance verification;

• Government Source Inspection;

• production line in-process conformity inspections;

• process reviews;

• MRB; and

• government acceptance activities where contracts require customer/DCMA oversight.

The objective of this implementation guidance is not only to promote the efficiencies and financial benefits of remote verification, but to offer the A&D industry an opportunity to provide innovative solutions coupling newly introduced SVT with secure data exchange protocols. The opportunities for remote applications are abundant when considering the volume of inspections and technical support required throughout the supply chain not requiring higher levels of security classification. The A&D industry is utilizing remote verification capabilities within the firewalls of their facilities and exploring what technologies exist to establish secure protocols external to these firewalls. The application of SVT has the potential to be a differentiator, offering a competitive advantage throughout the supply chain.

An effective remote verification implementation program will ensure that the proper controls are in place that identify potential problems, mitigate risks, promote awareness, provide effective employee training, and use industry best practices and lessons learned for continued improvement. Users are encouraged to apply the contents of this document to suit their unique product or program.

This document is a guide to the implementation of a remote verification program. However, to implement activities or controls to achieve the appropriate level of risk protection, some activities and controls need to be defined by the company. These important activities and controls will indicate a “should” expectation.