NASA’s programs rely on robust supply chains to achieve mission success, resulting in many complex relationships that often cross between not only disciplines and projects, but contracts and suppliers. To ensure success, Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) professionals must look at the supply chain through a Risk Management perspective to help leaders make risk-informed decisions about the products and services that go into building the spacecraft, payloads and ground systems for the agency’s projects.
This October, at the 9th NASA Supply Chain Quality Assurance Conference, representatives from NASA, other federal agencies, the space industry and related suppliers, European Space Agency (ESA), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and universities met to focus on the emerging discipline of Supply Chain Risk Management and related topics.
“We are SMA — we aren’t managing suppliers directly,” explained Jonathan Root, conference director and program manager within the Management Systems Branch at Goddard Space Flight Center. “It’s our job to identify, anticipate and mitigate risk wherever we can.”
“Supply Chain 2018,” this year’s conference, was a part of a conference series managed by Goddard’s SMA Directorate, which focuses on a multidisciplinary approach to fostering successful space missions. By bringing in multidisciplinary experts from industry, as well as organizations including ESA, the Missile Defense Agency and Naval Sea Logistics Center, attendees could learn from one another and collaborate on common interests.
“It isn’t effective if everyone is in their own foxhole focused just on their own part of the equation — it has to be brought together to get a more holistic understanding of what it takes to be successful and a more holistic understanding of risk to a project,” said Root.
NASA relies heavily on multitiered supply chains to develop systems and subsystems in support of its programs and projects, but there are many factors that could disrupt the supply chain, from cyber threats to counterfeit parts to changing business operations and market conditions to quality and production issues. Further complicating the dynamics is the fact that various NASA projects often have suppliers in common, so a delay or risk event could affect multiple missions.
“Risk Management is strong at the project level throughout the agency, but we need to address it in a more holistic way that cuts across projects and across the enterprise,” said Root. “We’re taking a more systematic approach to how we’re understanding these various kinds of risk beyond the traditional disciplines of SMA and how they may affect the project. Ultimately, we need to proactively manage an array of technical, business, market and security risks that may threaten projects and protect our space assets.”
In addition to discussions on specific risks, like cybersecurity and counterfeit parts, the conference looked at supply chain risks associated with Printed Circuit Boards (critical to NASA systems and missions) and CubeSats (a newer, dynamic space with a lot of entrepreneurism). Beyond the risks, speakers and attendees also looked at what to do with the information they do have about risks.
“You have to have a way to manage and aggregate information and data in useful ways, so we had speakers talk about approaches,” said Root. “Ultimately, we want to do predictive analysis.”
To further explore the risks at play within the supply chain, the conference featured NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). TESS is a recently launched science mission, and because it’s a medium-class mission, it made a good case example of how a project is managed and the challenges faced, including those related to supply chains. According to Root, this type of case-specific, real-life scenario is not a perspective often heard by many suppliers, so it helps everyone involved understand not only the mission, but the system and supply chain complexity involved in an “average” case.
This feeds into what Root considers the overall purpose of the conference: increasing awareness and management of supply chain risks. He uses an iceberg analogy to explain risk:
“We know what’s above the waterline, but then it gets murky.”
Visibility into supply chains and the associated risks below the “waterline” increases by sharing illustrative stories, knowledge and information across disciplines and organizations.
“We’re working to further develop our capabilities for successful missions,” said Root.
Questions about the Supply Chain Conference can be directed to Root. Conference presentations are available on the conference website.