Becoming a Quality Supplier

To become a Quality Supplier, a supplier must be able to implement requirements of LANL’s Exhibit H form, which is included in quality subcontracts.

About Exhibit H

Exhibit H establishes quality assurance program requirements and flows them down to our quality suppliers.

The standard Exhibit H consists of two parts:

1. Part 1 consists of quality deliverable (QD) clauses. QD clauses require specific documents or actions from the subcontractor and minimum content for each QD.
2. Part 2 consists of quality assurance (QC) program clauses. QC clauses specify requirements for the programs/processes/procedures subcontractors use to perform work for the subcontract. QC clauses are presented for each quality level (QL) in a separate document. Each document contains a different level of requirements depending on the level of rigor associated with each QL, explained in more detail, below.

Graded Approach to Requirements (QLs)

There are some areas of work that require us to apply additional controls to ensure delivery of the goods and services that meet our mission needs.  We use a scale called Quality Levels (QLs) to assign controls based on identified risk.

We use a graded system of QLs to apply these controls. These QLs cover the following areas of work: 

	QL 1	QL 2	QL 3	No QL
Areas of Work	Nuclear safety / highest risk	Important to Safety / elevated risk	Applying industry standards / low risk	None or negligible risk
Level of Control	Highest	Moderate	Low	None
Quality Program Requirements	QL-1 Exhibit H – based on NQA-1	QL-2 Exhibit H – based on DOE O 414.1 and 10 CFR 830.A	QL-3 Exhibit H – based on graded DOE O 414.1	None
Supplier Evaluation Method	Direct evaluation of supplier’s facilities and QA program (on-site audit)	Review of supplier’s QA program documents and records (desktop evaluation)	Must be able to register in Ariba	No additional QA evaluation

Help in becoming a LANL quality supplier 

LANL’s Institutional Quality Supplier Development team is here to answer any questions regarding quality supplier requirements. If you can’t find information in the resources linked below, please email us at supplier_qa_support@lanl.gov.