Newport News Shipbuilding will undergo a surveillance audit of its Quality Management System (QMS) Feb. 10-12. The American Bureau of Shipbuilding Quality Evaluations (ABS-QE) will conduct these audits.

Quality Management System Audit: The audit team will review work documents associated with many areas of the shipyard, including records for equipment calibration, training, production control, product testing, internal audits, and corrective and preventive actions.

Auditors may also request to randomly interview shipbuilders in both nuclear and non-nuclear work areas about work procedures to evaluate their work practices, overall awareness of Newport News’ quality management policies and shipbuilders’ knowledge of the impact of their work. Shipbuilders should answer questions about how they normally accomplish their work.

During previous audits, several people and departments were asked about their work processes. Managers, general foremen and supervisors should emphasize to shipbuilders the importance of having knowledge of their work procedures and working to authorized procedures and drawings.

A successful audit will maintain the shipyard’s ISO 9001 certificate for the Quality Management System. The shipyard was first certified to ISO 9001 in 1993 and has renewed the certification every three years since. For more information, contact Brent Ruffy (O04) at 757-688-1439.