Quality Assurance
Alion - IPS Corporation ensures quality of the products and services we provide. The Alion Team has been recognized with local and national awards, NAVSEA letters of commendation, ASN certificates of excellence, and NAVSEA excellence awards. Our established QA plan, which provides for customer acceptance and feedback on all contract deliverables, will be instituted on all contract tasking and includes the following:
- Peer review required prior to products being delivered
- Quality Assurance form submitted with every deliverable product for customer assessment and comments, in terms of quality, timeliness and completeness
- Formal interviews with customers for contract support feedback and use of the results to evaluate our processes and determine if any changes need to be made
- Opportunities for staff training to continue improvement of their skill sets, thereby, increasing the knowledge base, raising the level of quality and improving responsiveness
- Document task performance and establish a “Lessons Learned“ database accessible from our Website. Lessons learned would also be briefed to the team to ensure successes are known and can be implemented in other tasks across NAVSEA and problem areas are identified with problem resolutions shared so pitfalls can be avoided on other tasks.
- Evaluate each team member using the Integrated Risk Assessment (IRA). Specific areas of quality, business relations, responsiveness, cost, schedule, technical and management will be addressed.
The IRA has been incorporated into each of our subcontracts. The IRA is a management tool that will be used by Alion - IPS Corporation to evaluate our Team Members. The Team Members will be scored against defined criteria in four areas: cost, schedule, technical, and management/ programmatic. The criteria were developed to reflect program risk as well as programmatic issues important to Alion - IPS Corporation and NAVSEA. The criteria we defined in support of this contract are shown in the Table 1. Individual criteria scores will be averaged in each of the four areas. The criteria listed in the “three” column reflect what Alion - IPS Corporation considers to be the minimum acceptable performance requirements of low risk, well-managed Team Members. Criteria under “four” represents efforts or status above and beyond requirements, whereas criteria under “two” and “zero” represent proportionally greater risk to Alion - IPS Corporation and NAVSEA and are not acceptable performance. The criteria reflect requirements identified in the MAC contract, as well as other essential management areas.
| Cost | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Total estimated cost | Actual cost and hours (CPFF) do not exceed estimate. | Hours estimated accurately, but cost higher than expected. | Cost/hours understated. New funding needed. Follow-on task in jeopardy. | Task lost due to cost issues. |
| Innovations | Innovations implemented and save NAVSEA dollars. | Innovations presented with potential cost savings. | Innovations provided with coaxing from Team Members. | No innovations provided. |
| Invoices | Invoice provided to The Alion Team within 5 days of month’s end. | Invoice provided to The Alion Team by the 10th working day of the month. | Invoice provided within the month following performance. | Invoice over one month late since work was performed. |
| Budgetary internal controls | No cost overruns. | Internal budgets within 10% of provisional rates. | Budgets not controlled, but corrective action plans are presented. | Cost overruns frequent. DCAA contacted. |
| Schedule | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| POA&M | For major deliverables, POA&M developed and exceeded. | For major deliverables, POA&M developed and met. | For major deliverables, POA&M developed, but not met. | No POA&M. |
| Reports/Data | Require minor modification by customer or during QA approval. | Require minor modification by customer; major changes during QA approval. | Require major modification by customer and during QA approval. | Unable to submit to customer due to poor quality. |
| Responsiveness | All information provided early to deadlines. The Alion Team kept apprised of status in a proactive manner. | All information provided on time to deadlines. The Alion Team kept apprised of status in a proactive manner. | Information provided 1 or 2 days after deadlines. Delays have no impact. Status provided to The Alion Team. | Information not provided. Impact observed from lack of response. The Alion Team not informed. |
| Customer Satisfaction | Customer feedback consistently outstanding. | Customer feedback very good. Minor adjustments requested. | Customer feedback inconsistent. Corrective action plan required. | Customer feedback very negative. Replacement of company requested. |
| Technical | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Best Practices | New best practices developed and implemented. Training session is conducted. | Current best practices used as a matter of task accomplishment. | Current best practices employed sporadically, even when applicable. | Best practices ignored. |
| Integration of PSS across NAVSEA | Capability to provide PSS across NAVSEA developed and marketed to NAVSEA. | Capability to provide PSS across NAVSEA developed. | Capability to provide PSS across NAVSEA needs improvement. | Capability to provide PSS across NAVSEA not being pursued. |
| EDI | Maximizes the use of EDI for contract requirements. | Provides most contract requirements through EDI. | Provides less than the average of teammates via EDI. | Does not use EDI for contract requirements. |
| Management/ Programmatic | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| Business Relations | Excellent interaction with prime. All support systems exceed requirements of the contract. Problems are few and readily addressed. | Interaction with the prime is reasonable and cooperative. Accounting system is adequate for this contract. | Interaction with the prime is infrequent but cooperative. Accounting system does not meet all contract requirements. |
No interaction with the prime.
Accounting system does not meet contract requirements. |
| Task Order Management Plan | Plan is prepared within 1 business day. | Plan is prepared within 2 business days. | Plan is prepared within 5 business days. | No Task Order plan provided. |
| Maintenance of Website data | Data updated w/in 48 hours of receipt. Data reviewed monthly for accuracy. E-mail to The Alion Team that update was complete. | Data updated w/in 15 days of receipt. Data reviewed quarterly for accuracy. E-mail to The Alion Team that update was complete. | Data updated quarterly. Data reviewed annually for accuracy. E-mail to The Alion Team that update was complete. | Data not updated. No notification to The Alion Team. |
| Task Order and Marketing | Provides leads that position the team to be a strong competitor. Assists with the proposal. | Positive attitude about pursuing task orders. Assists with proposal. | Provides requested cost data. No technical support provided. | Provides no leads and brings in no work. |
Defined expectations improve performance and customer satisfaction and reduce risk.
Using such precisely defined criteria has three benefits. The first is that Alion - IPS Corporation partners know exactly what is expected from them as Team Members. The second is that all Team Members are evaluated fairly and objectively using the same set of criteria. The third is that specific areas of risk can be identified, highlighted, and proactively mitigated. Detailed criteria developed from other programs will be used to evaluate current risks in cost, schedule, technical, and management / programmatic areas. Every quarter, each partner will be assessed according to these criteria, with its score reflecting an objective estimate of the relative risk that the company presents. Each company will receive a color code according to its most recent assessment. Furthermore, each company’s areas and the individual criteria in each area will also be color-coded according to their assessments. Using a four (4.0) point scoring system, with 4.0 being the highest and 0.0 the lowest, the following lists our score and color scheme: 3.51 - 4.00, Blue; 2.76 - 3.50, Green; 2.00 - 2.75, Yellow; 0.00 - 1.99, Red. Companies performing in the yellow or red zones will be instructed by our PM to submit a “get well” plan (i.e., how they will adjust their performance to achieve a green rating within two weeks of notification). If the company does not improve within two months, we will discuss a stop work order with the NAVSEA technical representative and, potentially, replace the poorly performing company. Team Members will have the opportunity to provide feedback to Alion - IPS Corporation by using our customer satisfaction survey. Ratings are assigned in five areas and address the functions of contracts, procurement, accounting, facilities, line managers, and business operations