TOBYHANNA ARMY DEPOT, Pa. - A facility tailor-made for quality assurance (QA) specialists to perform first article testing recently opened for business here.
The new Quality Assurance Lab, located in Building 1C, Bay 1, pulls together all the resources needed to test equipment and perform root cause analysis on systems experiencing problems after fielding. Employees have been installing various test equipment needed to perform the mission since May.
"The new Quality Assurance Lab will change the way we work and think when it comes to quality," said Joe Zurcher, lead QA specialist. "The lab is not only important to employees in the Quality Management Division (QMD), but to everyone at Tobyhanna and our customers."
The lab is centrally located and houses all the necessary tools for inspectors to do their job. Prior to opening the facility, inspectors and QA specialists would go to the tool crib to retrieve their tools before travelling to sites around the depot to perform first article testing.
First article inspections are performed on the first item off the production line during the overhaul or production of a piece of equipment such as helmet brackets and components. The practice ensures the accuracy of the work performed on subsequent items moving through the line. Big items such as a shelter are still inspected on site.
Once a QA specialist checks the first item and gives the go-ahead, the inspectors from the Quality Improvement Division will inspect all the other pieces. The lab started accepting items for inspection in June.
"We needed a space that is conducive to performing inspections and analysis," said Larry Bulanda, division chief. "It's the first item off the line that needs to be inspected thoroughly to make sure it complies with the blueprints or other customer requirements."
Even while setting up the facility, employees were performing root cause analysis.
"If a customer wants us to fix a problem with a system that we fielded, we bring it back here to determine what went wrong," Bulanda said. "We use the tools in the lab to come up with a plan for how to get to the root cause, then prove whether our theory is correct before writing up a report explaining what happened, what caused the problem and any corrective action to take to fix the problem."
There are 18 QA specialists and four engineers who will use the lab to go over equipment with a fine-tooth comb. In addition to state-of-the-art equipment, the lab boasts a new conference room with computer, map board and private entrance.
"The new facility allows us to upgrade our measuring equipment and techniques to assure a better product reaches the Soldier in the field," Zurcher said, explaining that they have access to machines that let inspectors measure parts within very tight tolerances.
For instance, an optical comparator can compare angles and different surface planes, and a CORDAX measuring machine uses interchangeable stylus tips and probes to measure complex internal undercuts, grooves, thread depths and spherical shaped items. The facility also has a paint thickness gauge, paint adhesion test kit, weighing scale and a tester that tests the hardness of metals. New equipment includes a thermal imaging camera and digital microscope.
Although the facility has only been operational a few months, Bulanda noted everything is working well so far.
"This is the first time employees have had a facility such as this to work in," he said. "It provides the right environment to do this type of work-quality has a home."
Tobyhanna Army Depot is the largest full-service Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (C4ISR) maintenance and logistics support facility in the Department of Defense. Employees repair, overhaul and fabricate electronics systems and components, from tactical field radios to the ground terminals for the defense satellite communications network.
Tobyhanna's missions support all branches of the Armed Forces. The depot is the Army Center of Industrial and Technical Excellence (CITE) for Communications-Electronics, Avionics, and Missile Guidance and Control Systems and the Air Force Technology Repair Center (TRC) for ground communications and electronics.
About 5,700 personnel are employed at Tobyhanna, which is located in the Pocono Mountains of northeastern Pennsylvania.
Tobyhanna Army Depot is part of the U.S. Army CECOM Life Cycle Management Command. Headquartered at Fort Monmouth, N.J., the command's mission is to research, develop, acquire, field and sustain communications, command, control, computer, intelligence, electronic warfare and sensors capabilities for the Armed Forces.
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