AS9100 is the International Quality Management System standard for the Aviation, Space and Defense (AS&D) industry, created by the IAQG. AS9100 Rev D (2016) is the most recent version. The standard provides suppliers with requirements for creating and maintaining a comprehensive quality system for providing safe and reliable products to the ASD industry, as well as civil & military aviation requirements. Many major AS&D manufacturers require that their direct suppliers be AS certified and recommend that all of the AS&D supply chain be AS certified.
Why is AS9100 important?
The aerospace community has specific requirements that need to be taken into account, and the QMS needs to incorporate these critical requirements. AS9100 is for aerospace suppliers, and our customers want to know that we are taking the steps necessary not only to meet these aerospace-specific requirements, but to improve the quality of our products and services and to enhance customer satisfaction, and implementing a QMS according to the requirements of AS9100 can do just that. By managing, controlling, and auditing our own processes, as well as having an outside certification body verifying that our QMS meets the requirements, our customers can know that everything is well in hand.
One of the biggest benefits of AS9100 certification is that every certified company must be included on the Online Aerospace Supplier Information System (OASIS) maintained by the IAQG. This is a searchable database that is available to any company in the aerospace industry that is looking at supplier selection and surveillance, and includes not only information about each company, but also contact information for purchasing. Since OASIS is used by the industry to find suppliers, it is like a free marketing tool for your company, used throughout the aerospace industry.
What is 9100 audit and certification?
The AS9100 audit is a critical part of the Quality Management System processes. In general, an audit is collecting evidence of what is happening in the processes, and then comparing this to the planned arrangements for the process. The intent of the audit is to verify conformance when the actual activities match the planned activities. The audit process uses interviews, observation, and review of documentation to collect this audit evidence.
Part of the QMS is to include internal audits, where the organization hires people to conduct this audit of the processes and report back to the company how well the processes are performing against the plans. Many companies will also hire independent third-party certification auditors to compare their processes against the AS9100 standard and issue a certification that all the standard requirements are met. This is called AS9100 certification. 3CEMS Group just hired an independent third-party certification auditor to help audit and issue AS9100 certification.
