NASA Supply Chain Under Attack
6th March 2009 by Alex Briggs
If the general public wants an example that makes ISO 28000 relevant, they need look no further than NASA. ISO 28000 is the global supply chain security standard that was issued in 2006 primarily to address the issues of counterfeiting and terrorist threats in the supply chain. In this Houston Chronicle article, the acting administrator of NASA told the US Congress yesterday that some of the cost overruns from the space agency stem from counterfeit parts inadvertently installed on space craft.
“We find out late they are counterfeit parts,’” Christopher Scolese, the space agency’s acting administrator, told a House Science and Technology subcommittee. “We find out about it while sitting atop a rocket or, worse, find out about it in space.”
The US government estimates that trade in counterfeit items has skyrocketed from $5.5 billion in 1982 to $600 billion in 2008, accounting for up to 7 percent of world trade.
Dubai Port World was awarded the world’s first ISO 28000 certificate in 2006 by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA).