Original Date: 07/08/2002
Revision Date: 01/18/2007

The Directorate for Missiles and Surface Launchers has revised Missile Document, MD-57104. It is a stand-alone, comprehensive document that consolidates the Directorate’s systems engineering, quality, and reliability requirements, and can be tailored for different programs and phases of the product life cycle.

With the implementation of Acquisition Reform in the mid-nineties, STANDARD Missile (SM) Document, MD- 57104, became outdated, and needed revision to reflect the new acquisition approaches. The new revised document, MD-57104A, was generated to state what the Directorate expected from the contractors without specifying the “how- to” in meeting those expectations. It was written to allow contractors to deliver products with maximum flexibility.

The Acquisition Reform Initiative canceled many conventional “how-to” military Specifications and Standards. It encouraged contractors to use industry best practices and commercial standards, as well as the performance based specifications when contracts are issued. MD-57104 was revised to reflect these changes. When updating MD- 57104, an additional objective was to reduce the need for interpretation of requirements, and make it easier to understand and implement. The revision made it easy to flow-down to suppliers and clearly stated the customer’s expectations.

MD-57104A is formatted to follow different phases of the acquisition life cycle, and a life cycle matrix reference is included in the document. MD-57104A encourages the use of commercial standards and best practices, and incorporates producibility, process Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages (DMSMS), traceability, and stockpile reliability surveillance. MD-57104A focuses in the areas of systems engineering, and quality and reliability requirements. Systems engineering requirements cover the Systems Engineering Program, Systems Engineering Master Plan (SEMP), interface management, risk management (the use of the Technical Risk Identification and Mitigation System [TRIMS] is suggested), cost as an independent variable (CAIV), and other essential systems engineering elements. The quality requirements detail the quality expectations in design and development, transition from development to production, and production to deployment phases. The reliability requirements cover reliability aspects in design and development, transition from development to production, and production phases of the program. Some of the requirements that address the transition to production phase are risk management, production quality, environmental stress screening, and random vibration.

MD-57104A is a stand-alone, comprehensive document that consolidates PEO TSC-M/L’s systems engineering, quality, and reliability requirements, and can be tailored for different programs and different phases of the product life cycle. If properly implemented, it is a very cost-effective approach to sound systems engineering. When it is called out in contracts, it simplifies the Statement of Work and provides a single reference for consistent requirements in systems engineering, quality, and reliability for programs.

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