AS9100 Certification: What You Need to Know

The aerospace manufacturing sector is perhaps the most regulated sector because of the nature of their products used for public services and national security interests. Aviation, space, and defense products manufacturing comes under aerospace sector. There is a need for some standards to drive quality and consistency of products to ensure safe use. Since the sector is a highly regulated one, any manufacturers of parts as well as whole aircraft, spacecraft, or defense craft need supplier contractors that follow a set of regulations. On the whole, every individual manufacturer and their contractors can use AS9100 certification as a prerequisite to establish a strong quality management system (QMS).

There are many reasons for pursuing the AS9100 standard as it is very useful for every aerospace manufacturer or producer. It helps to have complete control of every procedure for quality products. Besides, it also results in the involvement of top-level management’s ability to institute a culture of quality at the core of their production units.

Things You Need to Know About AS9100 Certification

Fuller Commitment to Quality Culture

To obtain AS9100 standard, an aerospace manufacturer needs a credible QMS to control every aspect of its production and processes. It will help them to be able to identify any problems, irregularities in inputs/materials or production equipment, and correct them immediately. A QMS will help staff in all these tasks—from removing any inconsistencies in processes, assessing supplier’s materials, and identifying any defects in end products. Furthermore, AS9100 is based on the ISO 9001 certification of quality management, so an aerospace production unit should also abide with general requirements that it specifies—such as customer focus, uniform leadership, evidence-based decision making, employee engagement, supplier relationship management, and continual improvement of processes. All of these emphasize improving the products with a persistent quality culture that embraces diverse aspects of management.

AS9100 Certification Can Open up Market Opportunities

One of the key advantages of obtaining AS9100 standard is that it can provide a huge number of new opportunities for the manufacturer in international as well as local regional markets. It opens up their access to globally reputed suppliers and distributors, so they can get equipment, materials, or parts for manufacturing from quality-oriented large suppliers. Similarly, they can distribute their manufactured end products to reliable distributors worldwide and expand their sales. Needless to say, achieving the certification will help the manufacturers to demonstrate their quality assurance efforts and successively speed up growth and profitability.

Independent Auditors will Assess Conformance to Quality Standard

When an organization achieves a standard for quality management, it is important for them to maintain compliance with that standard year after year. For an aerospace manufacturing unit, maintaining compliance with the AS9100 standard is a necessary condition. Any standard is updated after a certain time period and that is why checking for compliance and improving it to meet all new requirements of the standard’s latest version is essential. For ensuring compliance, the role of internal independent auditors is crucial. Having professional expertise and in-depth knowledge of the standard, they can ensure the aerospace manufacturer’s conformance to every specific requirement of AS9100.

Quality Certification Ensures Supply Chain Efficiency

Establishment of a comprehensive and standardized QMS is very useful in assessing all operations in the supply chain of manufacturing firms and preventing any counterfeit products. As a regulation of their QMS, they need to have an appropriate program for counterfeit parts/products prevention. A few designated staff would engage in executing the program and assessing products/parts thoroughly before they are prepared for shipment to sellers or customers. The staff should be adequately trained regarding benchmarks of quality, high-graded products/parts so that they can identify any defective ones which are unfit for use.

Quality Certification Leads to Better Relationships

By focusing on the production of only quality and consistent products, an aerospace manufacturer will not only be able to develop better relationships with its customers but also with suppliers and other contractors. Materials suppliers, services providers, investing partners and distributors will find themselves in a mutually beneficial position when they contract with a certified manufacturer. It builds confidence in them that their products, services or support to manufacturers help them deliver aerospace products that assure maximum customer satisfaction. Thus, they work better altogether to further improve their supplies and make your delivery faster, quality-driven and efficient. With such mutually benefitting relationships, a manufacturer can look forward to developing long-term agreements with their suppliers and other partners and save money.

With all these above facts, it is clear that AS9100 certification is a necessity tool for aerospace manufacturers to design and deliver quality products. Each of these points explains that achieving the certification is worth the effort and investments of a manufacturer. Besides helping a manufacturer to focus on quality enhancement, it also helps them to have systems for risk analysis and suppliers’ relationship management.