Original Date: 08/07/1995
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

The Internal Review Process (IRP) at Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems (LMTAS) is a functional and/or cross-functional review activity that seeks to establish compliance of a product with its corresponding set of product requirements. By using comprehensive and timely internal reviews, the IRP ensures Product Definition and Design (PD&D) products are correct and complete before release.

Formally instituted within PD&D in 1994, the IRP begins with the requirements/concept phase and continues until the product has been produced and proven. Participants in the IRP include PD&D, Manufacturing, Quality, Logistics, Material, and DPRO. Elements of an internal review are the agenda, checklists, minutes, and action items. The agenda announces the review, articulates the review plan, and establishes exit criteria. Checklists identify potential problem areas and are developed, maintained, and improved by individuals/groups. These checklists are tailored to the needs of individuals/groups, and are used with the agenda to plan review questions. Minutes were produced to document review decisions and agreements, highlight unresolved issues, include checklist summaries, and include plans for future reviews. The checklist summaries provide excellent means to track lessons learned and support of root cause analysis (RCA). The action items are assigned to review participants and are tracked to closure.

Internal reviews ensure that requirements are properly addressed since the product and/or process is compared with the requirements. Omissions are discovered, extras are identified, and misunderstandings are resolved. This effort in turn helps LMTAS improve the product by reducing errors, while positively affecting schedules and cost. Another major benefit is the customer’s satisfaction that comes when the customer is delivered a product as it was requested.

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