May 21, 2014

Kansas City Plant's Vendor Quality Assurance

The National Nuclear Security Administration's Kansas City Plant, managed and operated by Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, LLC (Honeywell), is the primary production site for non-nuclear weapon products. These products must meet demanding specifications and stringent quality requirements. In April 2013, during an on-site review of one of Honeywell's vendors, Honeywell and Sandia National Laboratories discovered that the vendor had deviated from Design Agency requirements on parts supplied to the Plant. In May 2013, Honeywell officials notified the Office of Inspector General of the vendor substitution issue. In response, we initiated this audit to determine whether Honeywell's quality assurance program for vendors was operating effectively to meet Design Agency requirements.

Nothing came to our attention to indicate that Honeywell's quality assurance program did not ensure Design Agency requirements were met. Specifically, Honeywell had implemented and NNSA had approved a quality assurance program as required, performed inspections on parts received from vendors, and documented nonconforming parts when they were identified. In addition, during the same period as our audit, we noted that Honeywell had initiated its own review of the vendor substitution issue to evaluate the impact of the substituted parts. Although Honeywell believed that its overall vendor quality assurance program was effective, it issued two Corrective Action Reports, which identified certain enhancements that would further ensure that Design Agency requirements continued to be met. 

Topic: Management & Administration