From Mike Witherell

9/5/24

Colleagues,

I’m pleased to share with you that following a national search, Roberta Leftwich-Vann, the current ALS-U principal project manager, has been selected as Berkeley Lab’s Institutional Contract Assurance Officer*, effective September 1.

In this role, Robbie will oversee the Lab’s Contractor Assurance System, which provides DOE, the University of California, and Berkeley Lab with confidence that the Lab is achieving its scientific mission within the DOE requirements and its stewardship responsibilities. The Institutional Contract Assurance Office* team supports the administration of the UC/DOE Prime Contract, manages and addresses risk and issues, assesses our institutional processes to ensure quality assurance is built into our systems, shares lessons learned, and monitors and analyzes performance metrics. As head of this office, Robbie reports to me, with a dotted line to Michael Brandt.

Robbie brings excellent leadership, strategic planning, and project management skills to this role, gained from the last six years on the ALS-U project and from her time in other government and industry positions. Prior to joining Berkeley Lab, she was the program leader for NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) Science and Mission Operations. In the private sector, she worked for both Hewlett Packard and Booz Allen Hamilton, where she partnered with federal government civilian agency clients including the Department of Homeland Security and was program manager for the $700M Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Systems Engineering 2020 contract. She spent her early career years at the FAA, including as Director of Safety Management, where she developed and implemented their Safety Management System.

Throughout her career, Robbie has advocated for diversity and inclusion. At Booz Allen Hamilton, she served as the executive sponsor of the LGBT Employee Resource Group, providing senior-level advocacy and support. Since joining the Lab in 2018, she has been involved in a wide range of IDEA activities, including serving in the Lab Ambassador Program and as a mentor for several years.

She has a BA in Business Administration from California Southern University; an MPA from City University, Seattle, WA; and an MS in Engineering Management from CSU Northridge. She is certified in program management (Project Management Institute), finance (Cornell), and construction engineering and management (University of Michigan, Ann Arbor).

I also want to take this opportunity to recognize the outgoing head of OIAI, Theresa Triplett, whose last day with us is October 4. Theresa’s accomplished career at the Lab has spanned nearly 15 years and caps a long list of achievements in both private and public organizations. Please join me in a warm “thank you” to Theresa for all that she has done for the Lab.

I look forward to working with Robbie. Please join me in congratulating her on her promotion.

Best regards,

Mike

*Institutional Contractor Assurance Office (ICAO) as of 10/14.

The CATS Database is the official LBNL Issues and Corrective Action tracking system. The database enables LBNL employees to document, track, and formally close Issues and their associated corrective actions. The database is the central repository for issues management information, which includes retrieval and reporting capabilities to gauge the implementation and effectiveness of corrective actions and to monitor and trend adverse conditions. 

The CATS Database has three core functions: 

• Issues and Corrective Action Management
  The database supports the documentation workflow of the issues management process. The workflow includes entry, review and approval, tracking and closure of issues, and associated corrective action(s) based on risk severity levels.

• Records Management / Data Warehouse
  The database supports electronic documentation and retrieval of issue, corrective action and objective evidence data. This includes the capability to upload multiple documents and file types and URLs to demonstrate issue resolution/corrective action implementation.

• Ongoing Performance Analysis
  The database supports trending and analysis of issues, with various search and reporting capabilities. This aids in monitoring, analyzing, and identifying recurring issues/trends and areas of improvement for quality, efficiency and reliability. 

Who can enter Issues and Corrective Actions in CATS?

Anyone with a Berkeley Lab Identity password (LDAP) can access CATS, and enter Issues and Corrective Actions in it.

The following are requirements for CATS Database documentation, tracking and monitoring: 

• Issues and risks pertaining to injury, damage, loss, noncompliance, safety, or operational deficiencies (Refer to section 1.0 of the Issues Management program manual) and associated corrective actions, regardless of risk level, are entered into the CATS Database. The entry of observations or recommendations in the database is at management’s discretion. Personnel performance (human resources) issues and associated corrective actions are not entered in the CATS Database. 
• Documenting immediately corrected issues/fixed upon identification (“on-the-spot”) in the CATS Database is recommended to demonstrate assurance of issues management. However, the decision to document these issues in the database is at management’s discretion based on risk severity and administrative burden. 
• An issue should be entered into the CATS database as soon as it is characterized and compensatory and/or corrective actions are identified. For high and medium risk issues, issues should be entered in the CATS Database following the CAP development/corrective action development process to enable a more comprehensive and collaborative approach to managing and resolving the issue.

Exceptions:

Immediately corrected issues, service requests, such as Information Technology (IT) help desk tickets and Facilities general, preventive, and corrective maintenance work requests are not entered in the CATS Database. Similarly, ethical/integrity, health issues, employee concerns, traffic incidents, security breaches, and ergonomics evaluation issues are not required to be entered into the CATS Database.

Training & help:

Anyone needing help with learning more about CATS can reach out at Issues-Management@lbl.gov

The Institutional Contractor Assurance Office (ICAO) has developed the Lab’s first Institutional Approved Supplier List (ASL), which identifies items, services and suppliers that have been evaluated by the Institutional Quality Assurance (QA) office; It is designed to help end users plan procurements and buyers to process purchase requisitions (PRs) more efficiently by leveraging prior QA Reviews; and identifying items, services and suppliers that need a QA Review.  A pilot of the automated Institutional ASL will take place during FY25 1st Quarter to identify improvement opportunities.

The Institutional ASL includes a number of process efficiencies as well as provides a “One-Stop-Shop” for data warehousing, analytics and reporting. Key improvements:

• Ensure all data is consistently entered;
• Allow faster processing of PRs by:
  • Reducing the number of emails between the buyers, OIAI, end users and the EHS electrical inspection group through automatic notifications;
  • Allowing the End User Risk Assessment Questionnaire to be tailored based on how the end user responds to questions; and
  • Leveraging prior QA reviews so that future purchases of items/services from the same supplier for the same end use won’t need to be reviewed again; and 
  • Ensuring current data is reflected on the ASL in real time.

Additionally, the Institutional ASL and will be published in real-time and available to Lab community 24/7 on the QA Website and Quick Links.

Are you an owner or a division coordinator of institutional policies in the Requirements and Policies Manual (RPM)? Do you have questions regarding the process for revising policies or considering introducing a new policy in the RPM? Schedule a virtual or an in-person appointment with the Requirements Management Program Manager to discuss your questions or concerns July 31 – August 1st. Those interested in reserving a 15-minute time slot, should click on the following link:  

The Institutional Contractor Assurance Office’s (ICAO) Institutional Assessment Process (IAP) Owner is now hosting weekly Office Hours for Assessments. Need to modify the Integrated Assessment Schedule (IAS) and have a question about change control? Need a second set of eyes to look over your assessment plan? Discuss any questions related to assessments during an individual 15-minute office hours session. Those interested in reserving a 15-minute time slot, should click on the following link to discuss any questions.

This brief introductory overview (CAS 0101) will provide the participants with a general understanding of CAS, it’s value and high level application at the Lab. Regardless of your role, this overview will help participants understand why CAS is a crucial element in the Lab’s continued success and how you play an important role in its implementation.

The presentation is expected to be 30-40 minutes in length including a Q&A session over Zoom. There will be 2 separate sessions on July 26th at 10:00 and August 1st at 1:00.

As part of the DOE Contract 31, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) maintains a Contractor Assurance System (CAS) which includes an LBNL Issues Management Program (IMP) as documented in the PUB 5519 LBNL Issues Management Program Manual. In accordance with the Lab’s Institutional Issues Management Policy 04.02.003.000, an Apparent Cause Analysis (ACA) is required for any Medium risk event/issue occurring at the Laboratory. An ACA is a straightforward/basic analytical process that is used to determine the dominant plausible cause(s) of an issue by analyzing the events and conditions leading up to the issue occurrence.

To help the Laboratory Community perform quality ACAs, there is a new ACA template which replaces the current report as required in the PUB 5519. This new all-inclusive template captures various steps of the ACA process, has process guidance within the template, and serves as a final report for the ACA. This template introduces rigor, consistency and thoroughness to the ACA process. It guides the ACA team to consider aspects of an ACA which are critical for a comprehensive and quality ACA.

The new template can be found on the of Institutional Contractor Assurance Office (ICAO) website’s Templates page as Getting Started with Apparent Cause Analysis Toolkit. Over the coming months, OIAI will be organizing ACA trainings which will include:

• Overview of the Apparent Cause Analysis Process
• When is an ACA required or recommended
• How to effectively conduct an ACA
• Participants will undertake practical examples of how to conduct an ACA using this new template.

This training is expected to be 3 hrs long, and in-person would be preferred mode of delivery although zoom sessions can be organized for those who cannot make it on site. If you or any of your colleagues are interested in this training, please fill out the Google form and we will reach out to you based on interest, mode of delivery preferences, and availability of other participants.

As part of the Lab-wide effort, the Information Technology Division has updated the Requirements and Policies Manual (RPM) Confluence space. This update features a new, refreshed look, enhanced security, and a simplified process to edit RPM content.

View the RPM update