Grading Based on Facility Remaining Lifetime

DOE-STD-1073-2003

Configuration Management

The different expectations for each facility type may be considered to determine what

types of implementation actions would be technically appropriate for the facility when

the configuration management process is fully implemented. The general process criteria

should be reviewed in light of the facility type and technical characteristics to determine

which configuration management process criteria are appropriate for the specific facility

type, which criteria need to be adapted, and if any criteria are not applicable. Typically,

however, the program type has less influence on the grading of the configuration

management process than on the grading of other technical programs, such as accident

analysis.

3.10.4 Grading Based on Facility Remaining Lifetime

The facility remaining lifetime is the period of time that the facility is expected to

continue to perform its intended functions. This consideration is pertinent if DOE has

formally notified the contractor that the facility is to be operated for only a specified

period, or that the facility is to be shut down at a specified date and there is no intent to

resume operations.

The facility remaining lifetime is most important in determining the level of effort to

expend to develop a new configuration management process for an existing facility. It is

easy to establish and document the design requirements for a new facility or activity as it

is being designed and constructed or initiated. It is more difficult to reconstruct the

design requirements for an existing facility or activity where the documentation on design

requirements is not complete or the configuration has not been managed to ensure the

documentation reflects the physical configuration of the facility as it currently exists.

The resources required by a contractor to establish the design requirements and a

configuration management process for an existing facility can be substantial and may

take considerable time. It is easy to see that if a facility has a remaining lifetime of

twelve months and the time required to establish the configuration management process

is eleven months, that the value added from the configuration management process may

not be commensurate with the cost. In such cases, contractors should propose graded

configuration management processes that provide some measure of control during the

short period of operation, but do not require extensive resources.

It is not essential for the contractor to have exact estimates of the remaining facility

lifetime to use the remaining lifetime as a grading factor. Contractors may estimate the

remaining facility lifetime only to the extent of determining which of the following

categories is applicable:

more than 10 years

between 5 and 10 years

between 2 and 5 years

less than 2 years

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