Original Date: 02/28/2000
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

Crane Army Ammunition Activity uses Operator Control/Inspection Sheets on most maintenance and renovation product lines. A Quality Assurance Specialist uses the process operating procedures for a specific project to plan out the inspection characteristics.

Traditionally Crane Army Ammunition Activity (CAAA) used full time inspectors in each building or project line to inspect all work done by operators. This 100% quality control (QC) effort was done either hands-on or by looking over the shoulder of the operator, with the inspector having full responsibility for the inspection results and the acceptability of the product. Around 1995, the philosophy began changing to give the operator more responsibility for the quality of his work, and to move away from 100% inspections by a separate QC person. There was also a perceived need to improve the overall quality of CAAA products.

Operator Control/Inspection Sheets are now used on most maintenance and renovation product lines. A Quality Assurance Specialist uses the process operating procedures for a specific project to plan out the inspection characteristics. These are then reflected in the Operator Control/Inspection sheets used by the operator to enter all inspection results and sign for the completeness of the operation. The QC inspector then reviews each sheet for completeness before releasing the product. The previous 100% QC inspection has been reduced to about a 20% sample inspection.

CAAA realized several benefits in moving away from 100% QC inspections and requiring operators to inspect and sign for the quality of their own work. This has given operators an increased sense of pride and responsibility in the quality of their work, and quality levels (reject rates) on programs such as the Mine Clearing Line Charge (MCLC) and the C-4 Explosive Reclamation Project have improved. QC inspection resources have been reduced with inspectors sampling in multiple areas instead of being assigned full time to 100% inspection activities in each building or project line. The improved quality levels and the controlled documentation of inspection results were instrumental in CAAA becoming registered to the ISO-9002 Quality Program Standard.

For more information see the Point of Contact for this survey.