Technical support

Product assurance comprises safety, reliability, parts, materials and process control, quality assurance for hardware and software and configuration management.

The purpose is to control and support design development, production, qualification and final testing of projects and products in line with customer requirements. It also assures company and personnel certifications in compliance with national and agency rules and standards.

At the same time, product assurance oversees OHB's internal quality policy, manuals, procedures and facilities in compliance with DIN EN ISO 9001, DIN EN 9100 and AQAP 2110.

Safety assurance

Safety assurance includes the identification of safety requirements, the preparation of safety analyses, the implementation of safety precautions and controls in the design, the verification of safety functions and the execution of formal safety reviews with ESA and NASA. Further activities entail hazard analyses, lists of residual risks, error analyses and warning time analyses which form part of the safety data package.

Reliability, availability, maintainability assurance

The tasks of reliability assurance are to identify qualitative errors and to predict their quantitative probability. This necessitates a detailed design analysis which drills down to the component level by means of an FMECA (Failure Mode, Effects, and Criticality Analysis) as well as numerical analyses. Other tasks entail the evaluation of redundancy concepts, the identification of single point errors and a system for preventive and corrective maintenance. All critical elements relating to safety, reliability and structural analysis are taken into account.

Parts, materials and process control

This discipline specifies and monitors the component and material quality standards in compliance with the product operational life, including the selection, control and approval of electrical, electronic and electromagnetic components, metallic and non-metallic materials as well as allied production and inspection processes. One special task entails the identification of new technologies, testing of industrial parts and the preparation of testing procedures for offgassing, flammability, radiation and burn-in tests.

Quality assurance

Quality assurance monitors development and production processes throughout the hardware and software lifecycle including the review of project and product documentation before formal release for manufacturing, integration and testing. It entails all inspections during manufacturing, integration and testing up until the final acceptance and certification prior to delivery to the customer. Quality assurance is also responsible for the selection and approval of manufacturers and suppliers, dealing with deviations and non-compliance as well as change management. Beside these tasks, quality assurance maintains the OHB cleanroom facilities, equipment metrology and documentation library.

Configuration management

Configuration management oversees the compliance of the hardware and software based on the project product tree and its configuration elements. In addition, it supervises the design baseline, formal deviations, contractual changes and the hardware and software releases. This includes the check of data accuracy, completeness and compliance with product requirements and the definition of documentation for the project milestones.