The 2016 Quality Leadership Forum (QLF), sponsored by NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance, took place in March in Cape Canaveral, Florida. One hundred and forty five attendees from NASA and other government agencies — including the Missile Defense Agency, Department of Defense, Army, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and Defense Contract Management Agency — as well as suppliers and distributors discussed a wide range of topics that provided insight into Quality lessons learned, risks, best practices and updates to industry standards.

Presentations included a Culture of Quality, NAVSEA Supplier Product Quality — It’s All About the Ships, Human Error Beyond Aerospace, Additive Manufacturing — Turning Unknowns into Knowns, Counterfeit Avoidance Technologies, Extravehicular Activity Helmet Water Leak Lessons Learned, Dissenting Opinions, and Growing a Great Quality Assurance Team Rooted in a Healthy Culture.

“QLF feedback forms provided uniformly high marks for the great relevance of the topics and the outstanding speakers,” noted Brian Hughitt, NASA Quality program executive.

A few examples of feedback include

• “Top-shelf speakers. NASA and commercial perspectives — open and respectful.”
• “This was an excellent QLF. The speakers and topics on the whole were uniformly good, thoughtfully grouped and timely.”
• “These presentations were outstanding and thought provoking.”

To learn more about the QLF and see presentations from this year’s meeting, visit the QLF website at https://sma.nasa.gov/sma-disciplines/quality/qlf.