Gideon:
Re. Your question on going from Mil-Std-2000 to either ANSI/J-STD-001 or IPC-
A-610.  It sort of depends on who your military customer is and how well he
understands both his needs and today's technology.
- History - Once upon a time the military folks had tremendous problems with
the performance of a particular missile.  The technical people (I are/were
one) wrote a specification (WS-6536) for Hi-Reliability electronics, all the
problems went away, and the bureaucrats in Wash. Said - My, this is indeed
marvelous!  And the bureaucrats ordered that ALL military electronics be built
to that specification.  Mil-Std-2000 followed WS-6536 and the bureaucrats
smiled.  The point is - Some [but unfortunately certainly not ALL] military
purchasers realize that Mil-Std-2000 (and other Hi-Reliability specs.) are NOT
necessary for their product.  My personal (unsubstantiated) opinion is that
IPC Class 2 is suitable for perhaps 80% of the military electronics hardware
purchased.

Given that you have to use something other than Mil-Std-2000, you need to
discuss with your customer(s) what he/they want.  Most procurement
organizations are looking for companies to transition from Mil-Spec.
manufacturing to Industry-Spec. manufacturing.  In general, the military folks
want you to transition from whatever you are presently doing to a single set
of processes which meet their needs (that is referred to as Single Process
Initiative, or SPI).  When you have figured out how to do that, they want you
to work with your DSCC or DLA representatives to effect what is called a
"Block Change" and change all of your contracts at one-time from the old Mil-
Specs to the new SPI you have defined for yourself.  For additional
information on the military thinking about how this should be done, check at
some of these web sites:  Office of Secretary of Defense for Acquisition at
http://www.acq.osd.mil/es/std or the Defense Services Contract Center at
"http://www.dscc.dla.mil/v/va/"   Either of those sites should provide some
additional information on what the military wants.

Whether to go to J/STD-001 or A-610 will depend quite a bit on how your
customer feels.  In all probability they will want you to use J/STD-001
instead of A-610.

A-610 - Think of A-610 as a ruler (measuring stick, that is).  With A-610 the
customer has no information about how a product is assembled, only that when
assembly is finished the product looks a certain way.  A-610 has no process
control and no process criteria.

J/STD-001 has several little pieces of process control information, most of
which are included as advice (not requirements).  The J/STD-001 refers
frequently and loudly to statistical process control (SPC).  The presence of
the process control information and analytical cleanliness requirements in the
J/STD-001 will be more comforting to your customers than the complete lack of
information in the A-610.

An analogy might be:  Mil-Std-2000 was a jigsaw puzzle with 75 pieces,
J/STD-001 is a jigsaw puzzle with 6 pieces, and A-610 is a jigsaw puzzle with
one (1) piece.  That may be a little critical.

If additional information is needed please e-mail me at [log in to unmask]
Regards, Jim Moffitt, Moffitt Enterprises Consulting Services.

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