Identify the requirements at each tier
Begin with the program and move down only as far as the decision requires. For each handoff, record the supplier’s role, the work it performs, information and system conditions, the contract term at issue, and the relationship owner.
An aggregator coordinating several machine shops raises a different question from a subprime operating a shared engineering environment. The first may need clear requests and permitted response routes across several firms. The second may need a decision about the systems and information that support the work.
DFARS 252.204-7012 sets conditions for its flow-down. DFARS 252.204-7020 contains separate NIST assessment provisions and subcontract conditions. Those clauses establish relationship-specific duties. They do not make the prime universally liable for every downstream act. Your contracts team should establish which provisions govern the relationship in front of you.
Moog Avionics’ April 2025 purchase terms illustrate the buyer role within a supply chain. Section 55 allows an annual security questionnaire on request and requires the section’s substance to reach lower-tier parties with access to the buyer’s confidential information. These are Moog’s terms. Use the agreement governing your own relationship. Moog purchase terms, pages 13–14.
See where the supply chain needs attention
A program view and supplier detail serve different decisions.
Program view
Ask which delivery milestones depend on suppliers with open assurance work. Prioritize gaps that could affect those milestones.
Relationship view
Ask whether the supplier meets the requirements for its work. Check the required response and relevant dates, then record anything that needs follow-up.
Lower-tier view
Ask whether the responsible subprime has a defined request and escalation path for the suppliers it manages. The prime doesn’t need unrestricted lower-tier information to ask that question.
Supporting-detail view
Ask for supporting detail when the terms require it, the answer does not cover the work, facts conflict, or an open gap needs review. Keep any permitted record connected to the specific relationship and decision.
Consider a prime relying on a subprime for a subsystem. The subprime depends on a test lab and two component suppliers. Before a purchase-order decision, the subprime reports a lower-tier gap affecting test work. The useful summary identifies the work, the requirement source, the gap, the person who owns the next action, and the date for review.
Give each tier a workable path
Deep Fathom supports the same operating pattern for primes and subprimes. Requirements connect to the relationship where they apply. Suppliers use the platform to carry out compliance work and maintain supporting evidence. The party with review authority evaluates the response and records follow-up.
A prime can use that pattern to recommend Deep Fathom, coordinate a defined supplier group, or fund access where the program depends on supplier capability. Agree participation, review, and sharing arrangements for the program. They do not create automatic data sharing or replace a supplier’s duty to meet the terms that govern its work.
Bring one multi-tier dependency and one decision your team cannot make with confidence today. We’ll map the supplier answers, the open exceptions, the work needed to resolve them, and the program path Deep Fathom could support.
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