Qualified Products List (QPL)

A Qualified Products List (QPL) is a list of products that have been tested and qualified as complying with the requirements of a specified standard or specification. The testing happens before a procurement and independently of it. Once a product passes, it is entered on the list, and the list is then used when those products are purchased. The Government of Canada's historical documentation uses the plural form, Qualified Products Lists (QPL), and describes them as used in procurement by the Government, or for the Government by its contractors.

The key idea is timing. Qualification is not a test report requested after a bid is submitted. The product itself has already gone through an advance qualification process and is recorded on the applicable list. A buyer can therefore rely on the list instead of evaluating each product from scratch every time it buys.

How advance qualification works

Qualification means testing a product for compliance with a specification in advance of, and independently of, a procurement action. Products that pass those tests are placed on the QPL. The list is tied to a specification, so each QPL identifies the standard that its products were qualified against.

This approach suits products with stable designs or compositions that will stay available for an extended period. The U.S. Defense Logistics Agency makes the same point in its qualification guidance: a product that meets the established qualification requirements is listed on a QPL, and QPLs are normally appropriate where the product will be available over time. A product that changes often would need to be requalified often, which defeats the purpose of the list.

The Department of National Defence qualified products lists

The CanadaBuys Buyer's Portal states that the Department of National Defence (DND) maintains qualified products lists for various categories of goods. According to the CanadaBuys page on defence contracts and defence supplies, these listing programs are intended to expedite procurement. They do so by establishing, in advance and independently of a specific purchase, a list of products or services that comply with recognized performance standards or specifications.

The DND categories named on CanadaBuys include:

• batteries
• military-identification decals
• active and passive electronic components
• fire-fighting agents and chemicals
• flux and solder
• gaskets and hose fittings
• hydraulics
• insulation and packing materials
• marine and industrial coatings
• mechanical hardware
• petroleum products
• printed-wiring boards
• rubber hoses, tires and tubes
• wire and cable

QPLs in the U.S. defence system

Many Canadian defence suppliers also work with U.S. military specifications. The Defense Logistics Agency's ASSIST system gives access to defence specifications, standards and QPLs, and identifies QPL data as drawn from the Qualified Products Database (QPD). The ASSIST QuickSearch overview describes this system. Individual QPL documents name the specification under which their products are qualified, so a supplier can see exactly which standard a listing covers.

A QPL is related to terms such as qualification testing and the Qualified Products Database, but these are not the same thing. The QPL is the list of qualified products. Qualification is the testing that earns a product a place on it, and the QPD is the database from which U.S. QPL data is drawn.

What a QPL means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

If your product falls in a category covered by a DND qualified products list, qualification is something to settle before a solicitation is issued. A purchase for a listed product category can call for an offered product that is already qualified and listed, or that otherwise complies with the applicable qualification procedure and specification. CanadaBuys explains the existence and purpose of DND's lists, but the exact requirement is set out in each solicitation, so read the bid documents for the specification and the qualification wording.

Because the concept covers purchasing by government contractors as well as by government directly, it can also affect you as a subcontractor or component supplier. Identify the governing specification for your product, confirm whether a QPL exists for it, and check your product's listing status early. Your bid team can then respond to qualification requirements with confidence instead of discovering them near the closing date.