For those of you who manufacture or supply goods to the U.S. federal government (including the Dept. of Defense), I’m sure you’re familiar with QPL’s (Qualified Products Lists). But since the federal government (and in particular the DoD) embraced the Internet for the dissemination of procurement information, something has changed. This may have you asking “Whatever happened to QPL’s?”
Let’s review what the QPL is. First, it can also be known as a QML (Qualified Manufacturers List). It was developed to link specification requirements to actual products. This type of publication was originally given the same number as a specification (for example, MIL-PRF-19500 covers semiconductors, so it’s corresponding QPL is QML-19500 — originally numbered QPL-19500). The publication listed the document’s products by the government designation with a corresponding manufacturer’s number for item’s certified as meeting the requirements of the spec. At the end, contact information for each manufacturer was supplied.
Why would you use a QPL? You’ll use this information to find component parts to include in your products. Since all materials supplied to the U.S. federal government have contractual obligations to meet certain specifications and standards, components do need to comply with requirements as well. Using the QPL system allows you to purchase component parts for contractual work secure in the knowledge that the components meet the necessary specs.
But now we’re in the modern era and republishing a document like this each time the requirements, contact or certification information changes is no longer necessary. Instead, a database of information has been set up. This allows for constant updating of the information without resorting to issuing new revisions of the QPL’s involved.
Still, it takes time to migrate the information from the old paper-based system into the new online database. So as each QPL is moved into the new system, a transformation notice is released. This means that the data in the QPL has now been “transformed” into the online database format.
The next thing you’ll want to know is how you can access this new system. Here’s the link for the Qualified Products Database, http://qpldocs.dla.mil. In order to use this service, you’ll need to know the number of the specification in question. You’ll just put the number into the search page. Click return and all documents with QPL information for that number will appear as your results. Choose your spec and it will give you a list of all products that fall under the jurisdiction of that QPL. You’ll also see any available NSN number (National Stock Numbers) and other information.
In order to find all available sources, you’ll use the report function. This will provide you with the information you’re used to seeing on the old paper-based QPL documents. You’ll have a drop down menu of the various ways reports can be generated. And you’ll need to choose which document number you need QPL information for. It may take some time for your report to display, but you should be able to find the information you need here.
So when you’re at Document Center’s webstore, www.document-center.com, and you’re looking for a QPL, if you see an entry “transformation notice,” you’ll know that the paper QPL is no longer applicable. Just go to the new system and get your information from the database.
Meantime, if you need specifications and standards, you’ll want to purchase them from us. We’ve been providing documents from sources around the world since 1982. We’re your Standards Experts!
