Contractor Assurance at Hanford Site (DOE)

The Contractor Assurance Challenge at Hanford Site

The Department of Energy (DOE) contracts with commercial organizations, universities, and others to run a broad range of programs including nuclear security and nuclear waste cleanup. The relationships between DOE sites, prime contractors, and subcontractors can get extremely complicated.

Oversight Policy DOE P 226.1B establishes expectations for contractor oversight to enable DOE’s “mission to be accomplished effectively and efficiently while maintaining the highest standard of performance for safety and security.” Order DOE 226.1B requires that oversight processes and contractor assurance systems (CAS) must:

• Assure DOE that site workers, the public, and the environment are protected while mission objectives are met; contract requirements are fulfilled; and operations, facilities, and systems are effectively run and continuously improved.
• Establish metrics and targets for assessing performance and holding managers accountable for achieving their targets.
• Improve efficiency and effectiveness of DOE oversight programs by leveraging processes and outcomes of contractors’ assurance systems.

Hanford Site, the largest U.S. nuclear clean-up site, is operated by two DOE field offices — Richland Operations Office (RL) and Office of River Protection (ORP) — and multiple contractors. Each contractor is a unique operating entity that must adhere to DOE operating practices for Quality Assurance, Safety, and Regulatory Compliance in accordance with DOE O 226.1B and DOE P 226.2. Spreadsheets were insufficient to manage Contractor Assurance.

In addition, each contractor is responsible for securing critical data, administering users and access levels, and sharing key information directly with the DOE.

Data source: www.hanford.goe/page.cfm/Contracting (February 2021)

DevonWay CAS Software for Contractor Assurance

DevonWay CAS (Contractor Assurance System) software supports Quality Assurance, Safety, and Regulatory Compliance for Hanford contractors and DOE sitewide on a unified platform. Each contractor controls its own data and can configure its own workflows, as well as add additional DevonWay modules. Contractor and DOE users can access only the data they are authorized to access.

DevonWay CAS provides secure access and visibility to the DOE, prime contractors, and subcontractors through a unified database — a “single source of truth”— that makes data visible only to authorized users on a user and/or role basis at the record level, with full support for OUO (official use only) and UCNI (unclassified nuclear information) record types.

Results: Operational Excellence, Compliance, and Safety

The Hanford-DevonWay sitewide system promotes operational excellence, contract compliance, and safety for DOE and multiple contractors. Robust tracking, workflow, and reporting support operational excellence and continuous improvement, while the rollout of easy-to-use mobile apps in 2021 will ensure ongoing broad usage by letting authorized users easily and quickly enter non-compliance and other issues from their mobile devices (online and off). Automated, configurable condition-report review and resolution processes, as appropriate to risk and severity, ensure timely follow-up and continuous improvement.

Finally, the DOE has gained operational awareness and improved issues management. They can manage oversight activities across the entire Hanford complex with direct system access, where required, instead of having to submit record requests and wait for them.

DevonWay CAS is the market leader

DevonWay is the recognized market leader in Contractor Assurance System and Work Management software within the DOE Complex. DevonWay CAS includes:

• Audits & Assessments
• Compliance Tracking
• DOE Compliance Flow Down
• Corrective & Preventive Actions
• Correspondence Tracking
• Enterprise Risk Management
• Issues Management
• Lessons Learned
• Metrics & KPIs
• Mobile Observations
• Operating Experiences
• Trending