Using Electronic Data Interchange to Report Product Quality

Abstract : The Product Quality Deficiency Report (PQDR) is a Department of Defense form that identifies deficiencies in the manufacture, repair, or procurement of materiel. It may be used by DoD employees or contractors to identify defects at any point in the item's life. DoD generates nearly 75,000 such deficiency reports each year. In most cases when a defect is identified, Standard Form (SF) 368 is completed and sent to the activity managing the contract under which the materiel was procured. That activity, usually in conjunction with the contractor, investigates the complaint, attempts to determine a cause and a corrective action, and must make some disposition of the defective materiel. The process is labor- and paper-intensive and time- consuming. Technology can reduce the costs of the process and at the same time improve timeliness by electronically exchanging discrepancy data between activities. Electronic data interchange (EDI) is one technology for electronically passing PQDR data. It is widely used in industry and increasingly within DoD. DMRD 941 defines DoD's commitment to use EDI and cites the PQDR and other discrepancy reports as early candidates for EDI. In this report, we describe how EDI can be linked to changes in PQDR processing practices to provide further improvements. EDI, Product quality deficiencies.