: Mark Hammar
: Applying AS9100 Rev D The Hassle-Free Approach to Implementing an Aerospace QMS for Small Businesses
: Advisera Expert Solutions Ltd
: 9789538155178
: 1
: CHF 31.00
:
: Management
: English
: 266
: DRM
: PC/MAC/eReader/Tablet
: ePUB

Mark Hammar is an experienced Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence through the American Society for Quality. He has written this book to provide a comprehensive, step-by-step guide for AS9100 implementation, written in plain language, which can be understood by beginners with no prior knowledge of the standard. The main goal of the book is to provide a systematic picture of what AS9100 Rev D is all about, and how to make sure you didn't forget something in your implementation. This book will explain how to use AS9100 Rev D as a framework, and to become fully compliant with this standard.


This book is written primarily for beginners in the field of QMS, and for people with moderate knowledge about AS9100. It is structured in such a way that someone with no prior experience or knowledge in the implementation of an aerospace QMS can quickly understand what it is about, and how to implement the whole project. If you do have experience with the standard but feel that you still have gaps in your knowledge, you'll also find this book very helpful. This book provides implementation examples in small- and medium-sized organizations (i.e. companies with up to 500 employees). All the principles described here, however, are also applicable to larger organizations. That means, if you work for a larger company, you might also find this book useful.


So, if you are a quality manager, a quality management professional, head of the quality department or a project manager who is tasked with implementing AS9100 Rev D in a small- or mid-sized company, this book is perfect for you. This book will also be quite useful for consultants, since it makes an effort to present information in the most logical way to implement an aerospace QMS. By carefully reading this book, you will gain the know-how for your future consulting engagements.


 


However, what you may find most helpful in this book is the practical examples and answers to real-life questions that come up when implementing AS9100. These bits of advice come from the author's experience both implementing AS9100, and from questions that he has been asked on a daily basis. After reading this book, you'll be able to implement the standard yourself, since it will provide you with enough knowledge and tips to implement the requirements in a small or mid-sized company.

1. INTRODUCTION


 

Why design a QMS specifically for the aerospace industry? What makes AS9100 Rev D particularly useful if you are in the aviation, space or defense industry? Is this book the right choice for you?

 

1.1 Why is AS9100 Rev D important within aerospace?


Companies that don’t meet the needs of their customers when providing their products and services don’t last long, that is just a fact. In order to be a profitable company you need to give your customers what they want, while still balancing the overall cost to provide your product or service.

However, there is more to running a business than just making and delivering products. Many different processes need to come together to make this happen, from the identification of requirements through to the delivery and post-delivery of the product or service. These processes ensure that your customer is satisfied with what you have delivered. With so many balls in the air at one time, it can be difficult to manage the juggling without dropping any, so it is best to have some sort of system in place to ensure that everyone knows what needs to happen – what balls need to be juggled – and how the balls are supposed to interact.

Take, for instance, the identification of requirements for your products and services. This may sound like an easy task – so easy that you could have anyone assigned to it, but is it really? Not only will you get requirements from your customer contracts, but there will also be legal requirements that you will have to meet. You may also have aerospace industry standards as well as internal limitations that need to be considered, not to mention the needs of other stakeholders. Looking at it in this way, this is a bigger job than at first glance.

In order to ensure that all of these different processes and tasks are managed in a consistent way companies have taken to implementing a QMS. When implemented properly, the QMS will ensure that all of the interrelated processes of the business are controlled so that no problems occur when the output of one process leads to the next. In many cases, this structure becomes more of a business management system as it identifies and controls all of the processes in your business.

This is where AS9100 comes into play. If you are to design a business management system to control your processes, you will want a structure that is proven to work. AS9100 provides this structure for aerospace organizations. As you will see later in this book, AS9100 is a standard set of requirements for implementing the process of a QMS. It is based on best practices that are recognized world-wide, and tailored to the aerospace industry. This gives you a framework that can be tailored to your company’s unique needs, and promotes continual internal improvement of your processes to help ensure your company remains viable into the future.

So, the point is: AS9100 implementation should not be just another bureaucratic piece of overhead. If implemented properly, it can be a beneficial tool to not only help you to maintain control over what you do now, but to also find improvements and gain some business benefits.

 

1.2 How is aerospace different?


“That’s all well and good,” I hear you say, “but what’s so special about aerospace? Why can’t we use the same QMS as everyone else?”

While it is true that many of the processes of a QMS are the same for an aerospace company as they are for any other company, there are some additions that are needed.

Or course, the reason for the additions is that the product and service requirements of aerospace are much more stringent than many other industries. The reason behind this is the usage of the products in question. The aerospace industry is comprised of companies that supply products and services for the aviation, space and defense sector. For these products and services, reliability and safety is of the utmost importance. If a problem happens in an aircraft, there could be a fatal crash; if a satellite fails after launch, there is no way to get it back for repairs; if a defense warning system fails, lives could be in danger.

Because of the above factors, the standard requirements for a QMS, although very good, are not enough. As I will explain in section2.2, AS9100 uses internationally recognized QMS (ISO 9001:2015) requirements, and adds components specific to, and determined by the aerospace industry. That is why, on top of the standard requirements for quality management processes, there are requirements for s