QIC Guru

AS9100 is based on ISO9001:2008 and is main­tained and administered by the International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG), which started its revision in 2005. AS9100Cwas released early this year.

  AS9100C includes defini­tions for three important new terms: risk, special require­ments, and critical items. Other critical changes to the standard involve quality manual relationships, cus­tomer satisfaction, project management, recognition of supplier quality data, and approval status of suppliers.

There are three new terms in the updated standard that are important to understand during the implemen­tation phase:

• Risk. An undesirable situation or circumstance that has the likeli­hood of occurring and a potentially negative outcome. Understanding risk is important in developing a proactive aerospace quality management system.

• Special requirements. Those re­quirements that have a high risk of being achieved, thus requiring their inclusion into the risk-management process. Factors used to determine special requirements are product or process com­plexity, past experience, and/or product or process maturity. It will be important to understand the potential flow from special requirements to critical items and/or key characteristics. CIS Software has a special requirments module which helps to orgainize and track key supplier special requirments.

• Critical items. Those items hav­ing significant effect on product realization and the use of products that require specific management. Organizations will need to under­stand critical items coming from special requirements and ensure they are systematically addressed and linked to risk management.