Overview:

The role of Product Assurance (PA) is to assure the ultimate success of space and ground based scientific instrumentation from design inception through fabrication, test, deployment, and operation. This is accomplished by PA participation in all of these phases of a program, to ensure that program requirements are met and to apply lessons learned from all prior programs.

The Product Assurance Group is located administratively within the Central Engineering Cost Center, but to prevent any conflict of interest, Product Assurance staff are programmatically responsible to the Associate Director of the CfA scientific division in which the project to which they are assigned originates.

The Product Assurance Group provides expertise in all areas relevant to the quality and reliability of scientific instrumentation starting with:

• Proposal preparation
• Development of Quality, Safety and Reliability program plans and procedures
• Management and implementation of contract Quality Assurance, Safety, and Reliability requirements

The areas of support detailed below are implemented at a level that is commensurate with the specific requirements and plans of a given project

• Quality Assurance Engineering
• Safety Engineering
• Reliability Engineering
• In-house QA Resources

Additional Expertise:

Members of the Product Assurance Group also have extensive experience in manufacturing to both military and commercial product standards in areas that include the following:

• Coatings for space and commercial applications
• Supplier evaluation
• Machining and machine shop evaluation
• Semiconductor manufacturing
• Printed wiring board manufacturing and assembly

Product Assurance Point of Contact: