AS 9100C Is Here, Are You Ready?
The International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG) released a revision to AS9100, the quality management system for the aviation, space and defense industries. But, unlike the recent release of ISO 9001:2008 (which was more of an amended version), Revision C will have noticeably more impact. Its benefits, however, far outweigh the impact of implementation. The new requirements are intended to make major improvements in quality and reductions in cost – throughout the supply chain.
The Standard includes several new requirements and clauses that focus on planning, project management, and risk management. It is intended to cover on-time delivery performance, the formal monitoring of customer satisfaction trends, and formal plans to ensure continual improvement – all of these new requirements are operation critical. IAQG’s mission is to radically raise the on-time, on-quality delivery (OTOQD) performance across aviation, space and defense industries.
So when should you begin to implement these new requirements? The answer is now. The IAQG has finally completed the training requirements for the registration auditors. Auditors will begin to be trained to AS9100C in May 2010. If your recertification is coming up soon you may want to consider integration of the new requirements now. Keep in mind those suppliers participating in the aviation, space and defense industries will be increasing required to become certified over the next five to ten years. Most, if not all of the primes will require participation from its suppliers and subcontracted service providers. If you want to be a player in these industries, at some point certification will be the only way to play. Are you ready?
