The Quality Program Office is responsible for correct procedure alignment to nuclear weapon customer requirements, and the Nuclear Weapon Design Agency staff are responsible for adherence to the procedures. Attaining quality is ultimately the responsibility of every employee.
Quality is defined as the degree to which customer requirements are met. Quality assurance refers to all the activities, or “controls” implemented in a quality system that provide assurance that quality is achieved. A quality management program formally documents all those controls and establishes written instructions and provides for training, monitoring and assessment/improvement that ultimately are intended to assure product quality.
In the context of the LANL Design Agency, the quality management program is defined in ADW-Q-0001, the LANL Design Agency Weapons Quality Assurance Program, and implemented through a set of procedures that meet the requirements of the Nuclear Security Enterprise.