The AS9100 Standard and its Future

Understanding the Requirements:

The AS9100 standard contains significant changes from the 1998 revision.  Organizations must have a clear understanding and interpret the new requirements to gain a solid understanding of how the two revisions compare, yet focusing on changes to the aerospace industry to ensure customer satisfaction.

The system is based on the ISO9001: 2000 family of standards with the aerospace specific requirement strongly pointed out within its verbatim.  The aerospace elements include activities for 1st Article Inspection, Material Traceability, Material Accountability, Subcontractor (Supplier) Approval and Controls, Defining Key Characteristics, Foreign Object Detection and Damage, Positive Recall System, Stamp Control, Nonconforming Material Documentation, etc just to name a few.

In the future, we may see new initiative deployed, such as Bar Coding, Direct Delivery Authorization, Operator Self-Verifications, Qualifications and Approval of  NDT personnel, Supply chain Risk Management, Supplier Performance Metrics, etc…including one everyone would enjoy seeing - Standardizing Contract Clauses.

Changes over the years

The new standard supports the current aerospace initiatives and will remain unchanged until after the release of the ISO9001 revision in April 2008.  A strategy has been agreed upon to focus on six improvement areas; and may be reflected upon in the revision.

1) Requirements – develop standards and guides to improve the efficiency and effectiveness

2) Process capability – supplier development and product introduction initiatives that proactively influence product and process quality.

3) People capability – explore methodologies to eliminate workmanship errors and develop programs to assist the quality professional in transitioning to an expanded role.

4) Execution – Emphasizes the flawless implementation of standards and guides to improve the performance of the supply chain

5) Sub-tier control – deployment of standards, guides and methodology at all levels of the aerospace supply chain.

6) Evaluation – use quality performance metrics to monitor the health of the supply chain and identify opportunities for improvement.

As the strategy matures and implementation initiatives are deployed a synergy should develop with our customers, airworthiness authorities and other stakeholders involved in the aerospace supply chain.

We at Quality Systems Enhancement are asking our customer for their opinion and input in these areas, for the future development in our Aerospace Industry.

Phillip Rumple

QSE adopts a " Ten Step Approach "^TM to Registration. This approach, designed and perfected by QSE, addresses each element of the Standard in an easy to implement manner.  Various elements merge with each other seamlessly and so effortlessly that the end product is a top-notch quality system. 

We also provide training assistance and training in ISO 9000, ISO 14000, ISO/IEC 17025, QS 9000, AS 9100, TL 9000, TS 16949, ISO 13485, ISO 15189 and HACCP.

If you like, we can provide more information, please call us toll free at 866-577-4ISO, e-mail us at info@enhancequality.com or use the feedback form.

If you would like to request a proposal for our services, please submit a Proposal Request

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