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Supplier Quality

This document establishes the specific quality requirements that apply for BTB (‘buyer’) suppliers (‘seller’). This document will be referred to on the applicable purchase orders. These requirements are in addition to those set forth in any document that is part of the contract package. The provisions indicated herein are an integral part of the purchase order.

Compliance with these requirements does not reduce the seller’s responsibility for furnishing materials and services which fully comply with all applicable drawing and specification requirements, nor does it guarantee acceptance of materials or services by BTB. In the event that materials or services are found to be defective, and cannot be demonstrated by the seller to be in conformance with purchase order requirements, BTB shall retain the right to reject them.

Quality management system requirements

The seller shall establish and maintain a quality management system in accordance with ISO 9001 or AS/EN 9100 (or 9120 for distributors). When required sellers ‘organization shall be certified by an approved Certification Body as listed in the IAQG OASIS database (ww.iaqg.org/oasis). The seller must notify the BTB purchasing department when changes are made to their quality management system as originally accepted by BTB.

Control of changes

Seller agrees not to make any changes in materials or design details which would affect the part or any component thereof without prior written approval of BTB. The seller will identify the as-built revision level of the end item product being delivered on the statement of conformance and/or packing sheet.

Supplier corrective action

Seller shall, on request provide statements of corrective action on failures of the seller’s hardware or quality management system. Corrective action statements, at buyer’s option, may require approval signature by buyer. All rejected articles resubmitted by seller to buyer shall bear adequate identification including references to buyer’s rejection document.

Shelf life and temperature sensitive materials

The seller shall identify all materials and articles that have definite characteristics of quality degradation with age or environment. The seller shall affix this information directly on the material container or article. This identification shall indicate the date useful life was initiated and the date or cycle at which the useful life will be expended. when environment is a factor in determining useful life, the indication shall include the storage conditions (i.e. temperature, humidity, etc.) required to achieve the stated life. A minimum of 75 percent of the applicable material/article shelf life shall remain upon receipt of the material or article by BTB, or the material is subject to rejection and return to the seller.

Packaging

Unless otherwise specified by the item drawing, specification, or purchase order, the seller is responsible for assuring that all items are delivered without damage or deterioration, and are efficiently and economically packed for the method of transportation and type of handling involved. Unit and intermediate packaging shall be employed as necessary to prevent damage or deterioration.

Material safety data sheets

When applicable material(s) noted on the purchase order shall be supplied with Material Safety Data Sheets (MDHS. In addition, if the seller is aware of any additional precautions and/or handling requirements instituted with regard to other customers, the seller is requested to submit those safeguards with the MDHS.

Identification

Parts, assemblies, and components shall be identified as specified on the engineering drawing. When identification is not specified on the engineering drawing, the product shall be identified with the part number specified on the purchase order. When items are to small to easily identify, they may be bagged and tagged.

Certificate of conformance

The seller shall certify that the product delivered conforms in every aspect to the contractual and technical requirements of the purchase order, engineering drawing(s), specifications, and standards referenced therein where required by the BTB purchase order, inclusive of all documents referenced therein and parts, materials, or processes that have been procured from approved sources. A representative of the seller shall sign the statement of conformance document.

A seller’s certificate of conformance (c of c) may not be “blanket” in nature, or state generalities such as “meets applicable specifications”, “material is on QPL”, or “material has been accepted by the government”. Statements of belief rather than fact are also unacceptable, such as “to the best of my/our knowledge and belief.”

Statement documentation:

Each shipment by the seller shall be accompanied by a statement of conformance in accordance with the above.

When the item or the items contained within an assembly, sub-assembly, or detail part on this purchase order are supplied by a distributor, a copy of the statement of conformance from the original manufacturer must accompany each shipment.

Material test reports

When required each shipment of items shall be accompanied by a copy of the actual test data sheet for each part number, lot, batch, or heat, as applicable. Test data sheets shall reference the BTB purchase order number, buyer’s and manufacturer’s part number, including dash number, and revision letter, nomenclature, and applicable specification, and shall reflect the actual chemical and physical test results representative of the articles.

Shipment documentation (when required):

A legible unaltered copy of the test data sheet must accompany each shipment, unless verified and validated by BTB Quality Assurance representative at the seller’s facility.

Certified test data

When required certified test data have to be supplied. It shall contain quantitative requirements and permissible tolerance(s) for values measured, and shall indicate factual information necessary to demonstrate conformance to the requirements reflected on the engineering drawing, governing specification, or purchase order. The test data sheet(s) shall reflect the BTB purchase order number, title, manufacturer’s name, manufacturer’s part number, and BTB part number when applicable.

Shipping documentation (when required):

Each shipment must be accompanied by a legible, unaltered copy of the test report, unless verified and validated by BTB Quality Assurance representative at the seller’s facility.

Prevention of counterfeit parts

The supplier shall plan, implement, and control processes, appropriate to the organization and the materials and products, for the prevention of counterfeit or suspect counterfeit part use and their inclusion in materials and product(s) delivered to BTB.

These processes should consider:

  • training of personnel.
  • acquiring parts and materials from original or authorized manufacturers, authorized distributors, or other approved sources.
  • requirements for traceability to authorized manufacturers.
  • verification and test methodologies to detect counterfeit parts and materials.
  • monitoring of counterfeit parts reporting from external sources.
  • quarantine and reporting of suspect or detected counterfeit parts.

Approved process requirements

The seller shall perform a first article inspection (FAI) on the initial part of each firstly produced item (as applicable) at the detail, subassembly and/or assembly level. The results of the FAI shall indicate 100 percent conformance to engineering drawing characteristics, special processes, functional test, and laboratory requirements.

Subsequent FAI’s shall be performed under the following conditions, unless these conditions are waived by the BTB Quality Assurance:

A) class I/major engineering changes (configuration changes affecting fit, form and/or function) require supplemental FAI for those characteristics affected by the change.

B) if major changes are made in the sellers method of manufacturing, a new FAI shall be performed in accordance with this quality requirement.

Shipment document:

A copy of the seller’s FAI report shall be sent with each initial shipment of a part number configuration to BTB. All first article pieces shall be identified as such in the shipment to BTB.

All First Article Inspections shall be accomplished in accordance with AS/EN9102 requirements and reporting format.

Report of discrepancy

The seller must maintain lot and batch control on all manufactured products including raw material. On request the seller must provide positive traceability of manufactured parts, assemblies, standard catalog items and raw materials through the use of lot/batch or serial numbers.

Shipment document:

Shipping documents shall identify the lot/batch or serial number, as applicable, for all items in the shipment.

Buyer source inspection

In case BTB source inspection is required prior to shipment, the seller shall notify the buyer five (5) days in advance of the scheduled inspection date. The seller shall, upon request, provide a copy of this purchase order to the BTB representative serving their facility.

Shipment document (when required):

Evidence of BTB’ source inspection (acceptance stamp on shipping document) must accompany each shipment of product to BTB.

Buyer/customer government surveillance

During performance on this contract, sellers quality management system, and manufacturing processes can be subject to review, verification, and analysis by authorized buyer/customer/government representatives. Customer/government inspection or release of product prior to shipment is not required, unless seller is otherwise notified. Supplier’s sub-tier sources can also be subject to this surveillance.

NON-Destructive (NDT/NDI) certification

The supplier shall furnish with each shipment, and affixed to the product/material, a copy of the NDT/NDI certification for materials requiring any of the following nondestructive tests/inspections (see p.o. for NDT/NDI requirements):

  • penetrant
  • magnetic particle
  • ultrasonic
  • radiographic
  • eddy current

Plan of inspection

A detailed listing of all inspection points and inspection/test equipment to be used is required. The completed plan is to be reviewed/approved by the appropriate personnel in seller’s organization. On request a copy of the plan of inspection is to be submitted to BTB quality assurance for review/approval prior to the start of production.

Workmanship

The product shall be uniform in quality and condition, sound, and free from foreign materials and from imperfections detrimental to the usage of the product. The product shall meet all requirements noted in the design data.

Process approvals

When required processes, control factors, or pre-production samples, or any combination thereof specified, shall be approved by BTB, unless they are specifically waived in writing, before production parts are supplied.

Change approvals

The supplier shall make no changes to materials, processes, or control factors from those of which approval was based, unless the changes are approved by BTB. A significant change is one which, to the judgement of BTB, could affect the properties, quality, durability or performance, or could affect subsequent processing of the part or component.

Testing

The supplier shall be responsible for performing all required tests unless otherwise specified by BTB in writing. BTB reserves the right to sample and perform any confirmatory testing deemed necessary to ensure that the product conforms to the requirements established by BTB or their customers.

Rejections

Parts or components which do not conform to all applicable drawings, specifications, BTB documents, or modifications authorized by BTB shall be subject to rejection by seller or BTB.

Record retention

Seller shall maintain quality records for a minimum of 5 years. Upon request, seller shall be capable of retrieving and delivering records to BTB within 48 hours from the time of request by BTB. These requirements are applicable to records generated by seller’s sub-tier sources and shall be transferred accordingly to seller’s sub-tiers.

Communication

Communication between seller and buyer concerning the relevant technical data (e.g. specifications, drawings, process requirement, work instructions) shall be in writing.

Access to QMS certification data

On request Seller shall make available to buyer the details of external QMS certification, such as certificates, audit reports and nonconformities. OASIS registered (9100/9120) suppliers shall grant access to buyer to the detailed audit data as recorded in OASIS.

Governing document hierarchy

The precedence of the specifications and requirements pertaining to the items contained in the BTB purchase order is:

  1. purchase order/amended purchase order
  2. engineering requirements
  3. engineering drawing
  4. BTB specifications
  5. national standard specifications.