QPD

The Qualified Products Database (QPD) contains qualification information regarding products and manufacturers, as compiled and maintained by the individual Qualifying Activities (QA). One of the primary goals of QPD is to create an on-line replacement for paper-based QPL/QML documents and provide buyers with the assurance that listed items currently comply with specified requirements. Information is more current more quickly when Haystack uses XML processing to draw from the QPD rather than published PDF documents. Once you view the document online in Haystack, you can still download a PDF, which is processed after the document is pulled from QPD.

The QPD database provides cross-references to the Haystack Master Cross-Reference List (MCRL) data by part number. Information on Standard Military Drawing (SMD) part numbers is also included.

The existing QML/QPL database in Haystack now provides access to historical QML/QPL documents, in PDF format.

The following subtopics explain and illustrate the search features you can use in the QPD database:

• Current and historical data
• Search fields
• Refining with search criteria
• Three search examples: QPL, NSN, and Manufacturer's Part Number with NSN refinement

Current and historical data

The Qualified Products Database (QPD) provides access to both current and historical QPD records. The search results provide access to the most current QPL/QML records that match your search criteria. When viewing a QPL/QML, click the View Historical/Archived link at the top of the record to display a list of historical versions, sorted by date.

The historical data in the QPD database does not include the older QML/QPL PDF documents that you can find in the QML/QPL database. To retrieve older PDF documents, please see the topic QML/QPL Database (Historical).

Search fields

The QPD search screen provides the following search fields:

To see a definition or description for each of the search fields, move your cursor over the field label in the Search page of the Haystack application.

Search Tip: If you do not know a particular FSC or CAGE code, the FSC and CAGE Code links allow you to perform a keyword search to find categories and companies. Click either of the links and in the search page that is presented to you, enter one or several words, separated by a space or comma. Press the Search button to retrieve a list of FSCs or CAGE Codes that meet the keyword criteria you entered. You can choose to modify your keyword(s), or select a specific item or items by clicking the check box next to each, and then pressing the Continue button.

If you enter a Manufacturer’s Name, enter entire words rather than wild cards. Otherwise, you may receive a message that the system has timed out.

Refining with search criteria

You can focus or center your QPD search results on a particular NSN/NIIN, Government Designation, or CAGE Code on the search page or the results page. For instance, if you search by NSN on the search page, Haystack displays a smaller set of results related to the NSN, rather than a list of all 700,000 records in that document.  

For more information about the refinement options, click the yellow boxes in the graphic below. You are presented with a pop-up window that provides more information. Click anywhere in the pop-up window to close it and return to this help topic.

If you want to clear the refinements, click the Clear All Refinements button, and the entire results list is displayed.

You can apply refinements on the QPD Display page by using the Government Designation, NIIN, Manufacturer’s Designation, Manufacturer’s Name, or CAGE Code fields. At any time, you can click the Clear All Refinements button to view the entire results list and use other refinements.

If there are no results for the refinement you have entered, a warning message is displayed:

“Warning: No Associated Products Found.
Suggestion: remove any unnecessary refinements.”

Three search examples: QPL, NSN, and Manufacturer's Part Number with NSN refinement

Three examples of a QPD search follow. The first example takes you through the steps and results when your search criteria is a QPL/QML number. The second example shows you the advantages of automatic refinement when you use a NSN/NIIN number for your search criteria. The third example illustrates automatic refinement with a Manufacturer’s Designation part number as your search criteria and how to further refine your search for part numbers with NSNs.

To perform a QPD search with a QPL/QML number

1. To access the QPD Search page, click the Database > Other Databases > QPD menu options.
2. On the QPD Search page, enter 18240 in the QPL/QML Number field, and then press the Search button.
   
   Search results are returned either as a QPD Display page for the designated QPD record, or as a table listing all of the records matching your search term(s).
   
   In this example, we matched one record, QPL-18240; therefore, the QPD Display page is returned.

The QPD Display page

For more information about the elements of the QPD Display page, click the yellow boxes on the graphic below. You are presented with a pop-up window that provides more information. Click anywhere in the pop-up window to close it and return to this help topic.

Key elements of the QPD Display page include

• A link to Historical/Archived QPD versions.
• The last update date for the governing specification.
• Access to a PDF version of the entire QPD record, for printing and saving locally. You can view and print a copy of the QPD record by clicking the PDF button. Unlike the QML/QPL database, where the official government documents originated in paper format and were then converted to PDF, the PDF copies in the QPD database have been created from the new XML record and are updated at the same frequency as the data (weekly).
• A secondary header bar that provides information about the Qualifying Activity (QA), Federal Supply Class (FSC), Document Date, QPL/QML Number, Governing Specification (Governing Spec), Document Status (Doc Status), Title, and QPL Notes. You can move your cursor over each of these headings to see definitions and descriptions for each particular heading.
• Document title and preamble information.
• Refinement options under a third header bar that allow you to filter results by Government Designation, NIIN, Manufacturer’s Designation, Manufacturer’s Name, or CAGE Code.
  
  Tip: It is more efficient to use the refinement process than to sort search results.
  
  
  Note: The Export Product List Data button exports your product list to a delimited text file or an Excel spreadsheet with an organized and readable layout and headers.
  
  For users with Excel 2007, you may see an alert pop-up when opening the file. Click Yes and continue.
  
  
• Links for the Government Designation and Manufacturer’s Designation part number in the results table take you to a list of Haystack databases where you can find more information about the part number.
  
  When you move your mouse over the information icon , you can view the particular attributes of an item. The and icons identify the information as Plant or Manufacturer.
  
  
• Links for CAGE Codes in the results table take you to the CAGE Code results at the bottom of the page where your selected CAGE Code is highlighted in red. When you click it, the link opens an Expanded Supplier Profile (ESP) that gives you a snapshot view of procurement history details. Click CAGE Code 71468 in the CAGE Code table to see an example of the ESP.
  
  

To perform a QPD search with a NSN/NIIN number

1. Access the QPD Search page by clicking Database > Other Databases > QPD in the menu.
2. On the QPD Search page, enter the NSN 015646748 in the NSN/NIIN field, and then press the Search button.
   
   Search results are returned either as a QPD Display page for the designated QPD record or as a table listing all of the records matching your search term(s). In this example, we matched one record, QPL-38999; therefore, the QPD Display page is returned.

The QPD Display page

The NSN/NIIN you entered on the Search page appears in the NIIN search field, and the results of the search consist of three items tied to the NSN/NIIN. If you want to see the entire set of 700,000 records for the QPD, you can click Clear All Refinements. You can then do refinements for Government Designation, NIIN, Manufacturer’s Designation, Manufacturer’s Name, and CAGE Code. If your attempts to refine by these fields do not yield results, the following message is displayed:

“Warning: No Associated Products Found.
Suggestion: remove any unnecessary refinements.”

To perform a QPD search with a Manufacturer's Part Number (Manufacturer's Designation)

1. Access the QPD Search page by clicking Database > Other Databases > QPD in the menu.
2. On the QPD Search page, enter the Manufacturer’s part number 38110% in the Manufacturer’s Designation field, and then press the Search button.
   
   Search results are returned either as a QPD Display page for the designated QPD record or as a table listing all of the records matching your search term(s). In this example, we matched one record, QPL-38999; therefore, the QPD Display page is returned.

The QPD Display page

The Manufacturer’s Designation part number you entered on the Search page appears in the Manufacturer’s Designation refinement field, and the results of the search show a list of part numbers that include your search criteria. The list of fields that will use the same behavior include Government Designation, NIIN, Manufacturer’s Designation, Manufacturer’s Name, and CAGE Code.

You can use the filter or refinement boxes above the columns in the result table to quickly search within a QPD result and narrow in on the items of specific interest to you. For example, if you searched by QPL number or title, the results are presented to you in their entirety, X records at a time. Using the filter boxes and then clicking on the Refine Products Within This QPL button focuses the results to the items you are looking for.

You can also search within results. For example, to find all manufacturer’s part numbers that contain NSNs, you can simply add 0* to your refinement, which will narrow the list down to records that contain a particular part number prefix and also have an NSN assigned to them.

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