Category: Whatever happened to???

What ever happened to MIL-Q-9858?

One of our all-time best selling military specifications was MIL-Q-9858, “Quality Program Requirements.”  From 1958 to 1996, the document was a staple of the defense contracting system.  It provided guidance for a quality management system for thousands of companies, large and small, involved in defense work both as a prime contractors and subcontractors.

What happened to MIL-Q-9858?  The document was cancelled with the issuance of cancellation notice 2 on 10/1/1996 and left many companies in a quandary over what to do, since it was withdrawn without replacement.   This means that there is no guidance given regarding what document can be used instead.

In the main, the move has been to use the ISO 9000 series of quality standards in lieu of the old MIL-Q-9858.  ISO 9001 was adopted by the DoD in April 2001, as was the AS9100 in 2002 (for aerospace applications).  This resulted in a sharp uptick in ISO 9000 registrations in the U.S.

What’s the main impact of the cancellation of MIL-Q-9858?  This shift to industry quality standards has allowed the U.S. Department of Defense to move out of the business of certifying quality in it’s supply chain, leaving this work to third party auditors.

Military specifications and standards (both current and obsolete) and industry standards are all available from Document Center Inc.   Use our website, www.document-center.com, or contact us by phone (650-591-7600), fax (650-591-7617) or email (info@document-center.com).  We can assist you with all your standards questions and requirements.

Whatever happened to QQ-P-35, Passivation Treatments for Corrosion Resistant Steel?

QQ-P-35, “Passivation Treatments for Corrosion Resistant Steel,” is another government document that was cancelled due to the implementation of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act in the mid-1990’s.  The public law, known as NTTAA, directs Federal Agencies to use technical standards “that are developed or adopted by voluntary consensus standards bodies.”  Since QQ-P-35 was a Federal Specification it was an obvious candidate for replacement with a U.S. industry standard.

QQ-P-35 was originally issued in July 1963.  Revision C from 1988 was withdrawn by Cancellation Notice 3 on 9/11/1998.  The Cancellation Notice specifies that QQ-P-35 can be replaced by both ASTM A967 and AMS QQ-P-35.  This shows the use of two types of replacement documents:  1) a pre-existing standard (ASTM A967) and 2) a standard that is a republication of the withdrawn government to migrate the caretaking of the standard from a government organization to an industry one (AMS QQ-P-35).

The other interesting point about this particular superseding history is that seven years after the AMS republication of the specification, the document (AMS QQ-P-35) was itself cancelled in favor of another AMS standard, AMS 2700.  This actually was possible because of government participation in the committee that writes the AMS 2700 standard.  With the publication of Revision B in February 2004, issues in the previous edition of the document that made it unsuitable for government usage were resolved.  Thus the final migration to an industry standard was made possible.

So now, the current replacements for QQ-P-35 are the ASTM A967, “Standard Specification for Chemical Passivation Treatments for Stainless Steel Parts,” and AMS 2700, “Passivation of Corrosion Resistant Steels.”

In actuality, the number of government documents that were republished in this way in order to facilitate migration to industry-sponsored standards is relatively small.  It was certainly made possible because the federal level government documentation is not covered by copyright.  And by this time, many of those republications have been revised or withdrawn as well.

Should you have an obsolete document and need to know what it was replaced by, contact Document Center staff by phone (650-591-7600), fax (650-591-7617) or email (info@document-center.com).  We’ve been keeping records on standards since 1982 and for many items, our history information goes back much further.

All current Federal Specifications can be purchased at our website, www.document-center.com.  Many obsolete revisions are available, along with the documents that have replaced them.

Whatever happened to MIL-STD-105?

MIL-STD-105, “Sampling Procedures and Tables for Inspection by Attributes,” is another of those popular military standards that got cancelled during Mil Spec reform in the mid-1990’s.  The documents referenced in the cancellation notice can cause confusion for users, so some assistance with this can be helpful.

The last revision of the MIL-STD-105 was Revision E from 1989.  This last issue was cancelled three times, first in 1995, then in 2001 and finally in 2008.  Cancellation Notice 1 from 1995 simply replaced the standard with ASQC-Z1.4 (now ASQ-Z1.4).  This ASQ document is actually a reprint of the MIL-STD-105 and an obvious choice to use in lieu of the MIL Standard.

However, Notice 2 from 2001 really put a wrench in the works.  It stated “MIL-STD-105E … is hereby canceled without replacement.  Current DOD PREFERRED METHODS FOR ACCEPTANCE OF PRODUCTS are described in MIL-STD-1916… and should be considered for future acquisitions.”  However, MIL-STD-1916 is an administrative standard.

In fact, MIL-STD-1916 was developed to encourage defense contractors to submit process control (prevention) procedures instead of using prescribed sampling requirements like those detailed in ASQ-Z1.4.  In other words, the standard supports the DoD desire to change contractual requirements from a system of acceptable quality levels to one of continuous improvement.

Quality documents referenced by MIL-STD-1916 include ASQ-B1, B2, and B3, ISO-8402, and ISO-9000 (ASQ-Q9000) and ISO-9004 (ASQ-Q9004).  They are all quality standards, but do not address the issue of sampling by attributes, with the many tables that ASQ-Z1.4 contains.

Apparently, this approach got some push-back because in 2008, Cancellation Notice 3 again modified the replacement information.  It now allows for use of either the MIL-STD-1916 or the ASQ-Z1.4.

And while we’re on the topic of the ASQ-Z1.4, we should also mention the ASQ-Z1.9 standard, “Sampling Procedures and Tables for Inspection by Variables for Percent Non-conforming.”  It’s the replacement document for the cancelled MIL-STD-414 (with the same title).  The two ASQ documents are often purchased at the same time and can really be considered to be a set.

All the standards above can be purchased from Document Center Inc.  You can use our website, www.document-center.com, but if you need any of the obsolete documents, you’ll get a quote before you purchase.  That’s because we want to confirm that you understand you’re purchasing a withdrawn document prior to purchase.  Or you may prefer to contact us by phone (650-591-7600), fax (650-591-7617) or email (info@document-center.com).  We’re able to provide you with many obsolete standards, as well as help you determine what replacement documents are available.

What ever happened to MIL-STD-45662?

MIL-STD-45662 was one of Document Center’s all time best selling standards, bar none.  It was the quality standard for calibration until Mil Spec reform took over in the mid-90’s.  So what ever happened to the standard and what should you be using now?

MIL-STD-45662A was cancelled by Cancellation Notice 2 on Feb 27, 1995.  The cancellation notice provided superseding information for the standard, so there are 2 documents which can be used instead of the now obsolete MIL-STD-45662.

First is ISO-10012, “Measurement management systems — Requirements for measurement processes and measuring equipment.”  In 1995, the document was divided into 2 parts, ISO-10012-1 and ISO-10012-2.  The ISO-10012-1 was the first replacement for MIL-STD-45662, but is now obsolete due to the cancellation of this document in 2003 with the release of the replacement ISO-10012.

The story is much the same for the second replacement document, ANSI-Z540.1,” Calibration Laboratories and Measuring and Test Equipment – General Requirements.”  The document was revamped in 2006 as ANSI-Z540.3, “Requirements for the Calibration of Measuring and Test Equipment”, and officially superseded by the new standard in 2008.  So you’ll need to use ANSI-Z540.3 now.

One of the sad results of Mil Spec reform is the fact that expensive industry standards, like the two documents above, have replaced the inexpensive (or free) military documents that companies around the U.S. used to reference extensively.  Because of the high cost of industry standards, many of our customers have reduced or eliminated standards from their business practices.  We’re a big supporter of standards and the standards process, so if you have some suggestions on how to get these companies back into standards, please send me a comment!

The obsolete standards referenced above, and the current quality standards for calibration, can be purchased from Document Center Inc. at our website www.document-center.com.   Please note:  you’ll have to get a quote first for all obsolete documents so that we can confirm that you really want a cancelled item before the order is processed.

Feel free to contact us by phone (650-591-7600), fax (650-591-7617) or email (info@document-center.com) as well for ordering or any questions you might have about this posting.  We appreciate your feedback.