STANREC 4747 preferred methods for acceptance of product

What it is

A recommendation, not an obligation

STANREC 4747 is a NATO Standardization Recommendation for accepting product using sampling inspection. The distinction that matters most is in its name: unlike a STANAG, a STANREC does not commit a nation to ratify anything. NATO's own text is explicit that "Nations are invited to use the Allied standard(s) covered by the STANREC and to provide feedback to the NSO on the use of the covered Allied standard(s)" - an invitation, not a ratification obligation. Nothing in this document creates a duty for a supplier to sign up to directly.

What it recommends

The stated aim lists an alternate process to accept product based on sampling inspection, recommended for use "on end items, components or supplies in storage with significant quantity." Its principal purpose is to check that a Supplier's lots are "at, or better than, a mutually agreed level" of quality. The recommendation names three standards built on common sampling parameters - statistical sampling, Accept-Zero and Acceptable Quality Level (AQL): MIL-STD-1916 (the DOD's own preferred methods for acceptance of product), ISO 2859-1 (sampling plans indexed by AQL for lot-by-lot inspection) and ISO 28594 (combined accept-zero sampling systems and process control procedures for product acceptance). MIL-STD-1916 and ISO 28594 are also noted for the value of pairing process controls with the sampling plan, not sampling alone.

Responsibility stays with the Supplier

STANREC 4747 asks acquiring organisations to "encourage their suppliers to use these process control concepts and sampling procedures to demonstrate acceptable quality," and to ensure a system is devised that "clearly places responsibility for quality with the Supplier." It then closes off a specific misreading directly: government quality assurance applied to a Supplier "does not absolve the Supplier of their responsibility for quality." A customer's or a national representative's presence under a contract is not a substitute for the Supplier's own quality system, and this STANREC says so in its own words rather than leaving it implied.

Edition 2, and what it replaced

This edition "supersedes the following document: STANREC 4747, Edition 1, dated 21 October 2013." Both editions cover the same subject; the recommendation itself, and which sampling standards it names, is what changed between them.

Where the actual requirements live

STANREC 4747 has no sampling procedure of its own to audit against - it names MIL-STD-1916, ISO 2859-1 and ISO 28594 and leaves the accept/reject mathematics to them. Its "other related documents" separately name STANAG 4728 (System Life Cycle Management, alongside AAP-20 and AAP-48) as adjacent reading, not content this recommendation depends on. The document is reviewed periodically in accordance with AAP-03, with the result recorded in the NATO Standardization Document Database; nations and NATO bodies are separately asked to report their own experience using the standards it covers.

Standards it references

• STANAG 4728Background
• AAP-20Background
• AAP-48Background