NASA's Counterfeit Problem

ABC News ran this story today:

NASA Satellites Get 'Counterfeit' Parts; Taxpayers Pay
Agency Chief Says Suppliers Sometimes Skip Safety Tests

Oh my!

The gist of the story is that some suppliers lied about running all the qualification tests NASA demanded, requiring NASA to do unplanned testing to ensure suitability.

[T]here have been cases in which [NASA] says companies have supplied it with parts or materials that were not what had been originally promised.

The most recent case involves NASA's Kepler probe [...] Engineers built Kepler to spend at least three years in solar orbit, with a powerful camera to look for evidence of Earth-like planets circling other stars.

Last fall, a supplier was indicted for selling falsely approved titanium to NASA and the U.S. Air Force -- including the metal for Kepler's camera mount. That did not necessarily mean the titanium was in danger of failing, but the company had allegedly falsified its records to say it had done all the necessary tests.

"We analyzed the mount for about three weeks," said J.D. Harrington, a spokesman for NASA, "and we found the titanium to be well within performance requirements."

I wonder how the fraud was uncovered.

Supplier management is a challenge for any company. The QA department is often a key line of defense, either through incoming inspection or source inspections. Continued vigilance after initial supplier qualification is required lest "shortcuts" subvert the established processes and invalidate the suppliers' product pedigree.