General Application Notes for Required Standards

Note 1.  All crosscutting requirements within the Workmanship scope are now included in NASA-STD-8739.6.

Note 2.  Visual Acuity requirements are now found in NASA-STD-8739.6, Appendix A.  A new or renewal of visual acuity test results (pass/fail is sufficient) are a prerequisite for registering or applying for training or retraining.

Note 3.  A frequenty asked question is "What does my shop need to do to be certified to the Workmanship Standards?"  NASA doesn't certify suppliers for Workmanship.  A more relevant question is "What are the steps we should take in order to enable us to accept a contract which includes compliance with the Workmanship Standards?" The answer to this question is:

a.  Download the documents (click on Links to Required Workmanship Standards on left menu)

b. Read through the standards and notice:  operator and inspector training rules, material selection rules, process rules, and defect criteria.

c.  Update your processes and process documentation to ensure that when your operators and inspectors follow your documented procedures, all of the NASA requirements will be met.

d.  Send you operators and inspectors to someone who can perform the vision acuity exam.  Many businesses now offer basic visual exam services.

e.  Get your operators trained.  Contact the NASA Training Center nearest to you for course availability (Workmanship Standards Training link on left menu).  You can train operators and inspectors at a NASA training center or can get an instructor trained who can then come back to the company and train the operators.  Soldering training can be taken from any IPC-certified instructor, see the J-STD-001ES FAQ page.

f.  Training can be "partial" if only a limited number of processes are used by the supplier.  Ask the training center for these details if you believe they apply to your operators.

Now you are ready to negotiate NASA contracts or subcontracts which include producing Printed Wiring Assemblies, Cables, or Harnesses.

Note 4.  Can I or some other certification authority "extend" my Workmanship certification?  NASA no longer requires operator and inspector certification.  NASA now only requires that operators and inspectors must be retrained every two years.  Entities (companies, NASA Centers, DCMA, etc) who cannot comply with requirement are advised to seek waiver relief from the applicable requirement from their customer or other entity who has flowed down the requirement to them.  For soldering, IPC controls operator, inspector and instructor certifications.