1. Quality Assurance Intern NT-2 Benjamin Burdick Friendswood High School ABSTRACT As an intern I have been working on many different tasks in order to fully understand all aspects of quality and mission assurance. Throughout the experience, I have been working on a variety of projects and short-term assignments with different specialists to learn about their tasks or consider their roles in the operation of the Quality Assurance Branch. These specialties included procurement quality assurance, audit management, and on-site quality assurance. In procurement quality assurance, I learned the various aspects of quality control with prospective NASA vendors and suppliers. I was assigned to work on process improvements in order to facilitate processing of flight hardware procurements. In the area of on-site assurance I supported quality reviews of on-site testing at various laboratories. Most of my time has been centered on work at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) where I learned quality processes that directly affect crew members. I have also learned the auditing process from my time at the NBL and worked to create audit documentation efficiencies. Onsite Quality Assurance In the field of on-site assurance I have been specializing in operations at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory. My responsibilities at the NBL include: In-pool quality assurance Auditing laboratories and facilities Audit process and reporting Audit reporting process improvements Transition to the Process Based System (PBS) Astronaut and crew safety Daily debriefings Discrepancy reporting Safety walkthroughs General safety procedures Process Improvements Throughout the internship, I have been working on various process improvements. The work I have done is to facilitate processing of documents and procedures. These improvements have served to increase the efficiency of our organization in many ways. The process improvements have also worked to reduce the number of documents needed to complete one task by merging multiple documents into one single reformatted document. Onsite Quality Assurance Procedures While supporting the Audit Management Office, I designed surveillance checklists for use by the On- site Quality Assurance Group. The Group had many procedures for auditing and inspections that were very lengthy, so I integrated multiple documents into streamlined checklists for increased efficiency and functionality. Audit Reporting Procurement Quality Assurance Acknowledgements There are many forms to ensure the safety and conformance of all flight hardware procured items in the Procurement Quality Assurance (PQA) Group. While supporting the PQA Group, I redesigned two of the Team’s pivotal forms for processing flight hardware procurements. Although these forms were fully functional, the PQA Team wanted to increase the utility and ease of use of the documents. The forms were revised to :Increase the electronic processing capabilities Contain selectable fields with specifications for Q codes and R codes. Each field has description of specification After an audit is completed, there are many forms that must be completed in order for the audit to be completely documented and for all sources of error to be identified and fixed. Although this may be true, there are many forms that have duplicate information, increasing the time and paper spent on reporting audits. My facilitation in implementing the PBS database incorporated the desired traits which include: Avoiding duplicate information on multiple forms Faster report processing Ease of audit review Reduction of paper waste I would like to thank my various mentors that have guided me through various assignments, including Linda Riviera, Steve Holmes, Karen Smith, Valle Kauniste, Carl Strayhorn, and Linda Lewallen.