As we enter a new century we are confronted with another new sector specific Aerospace Quality Standard, namely the newly released SAE AS 9100. The title of this new standard is: Quality Systems -Aerospace, Model for Quality Assurance in Design, Development, Production, Installation and Servicing. The International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG) with representation from Aerospace companies in America, Asia and Europe sponsored by the SAE, have agreed to take responsibility for the technical contents of this standard.

How far the responsibility goes is questionable since a tiny footnote at the bottom of the standard provides the following comment: " This report is published by the SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) to advance the state of technical and engineering sciences. The use of this report is entirely voluntary, and its applicability and suitability for any particular use, including any patent infringement arising there from, is the sole responsibility of the user".

You can draw your own conclusions upon reading this statement, particularly to the "voluntary aspects" since we all know that the aerospace industry will have to directly impose these requirements to its suppliers. This new standard can be purchased directly from the SAE or other standard sources that we have listed at the end of this article.

What are some of the significant changes and new requirements that make that standard different from the previous AS 9000 quality standard?

The first thing to note is that aerospace suppliers had to cope with three sector specific quality standards in a period of three years. The ARD 9000 was replaced in 1997 by the AS 9000 standard, which has now been replaced with the current AS 9100 standard. All three standards have one thing in common, it has used the contents of the ISO 9001 quality standard in its entirety as a basis. In addition, supplemental requirements and clarifications which are unique to the aerospace and manufacturing industry have been added. The current AS 9100 standard contains approximately 150 or so additional requirements over the AS 9000, plus 21 notes and clarifications. Most of these additional requirements have been taken from the previous Boeing D1-9000 standard.

A checklist which helps to assess and identify each requirement is in the making and will be released soon by the SAE. Accredited third party certification against this standard is not yet available but the RAB (Registrar Accreditation Board for the USA) is working on it.

Here are some of the more significant changes which are not difficult to implement but will require diligence and effort:

Section 4.17-Internal Quality Audits: You are now required to develop internal self audit checklists which will help to measure compliance to the system as a whole but also will provide evidence of a flow down of the standard requirements. What does this mean? It requires you to address your quality policies and system procedures in the form of audit checklists and a standard matrix or flow chart, indicating how your quality policies and system procedures flow down to your working level procedures in the form of work instructions and/or control forms all the way to the subcontractor. Finally you should show objective evidence of actual implementation and compliance. The audit checklists should show whether the system conforms or not, a simple rating system should be part of each checklist. Some form of formal training in performing internal auditing should be evident which ties nicely into section 4.18-Training.

Statistical Techniques in Section 4.20- This section provides now a mixture of applications of previously identified statistical techniques applicable to in house processes. For example it states the requirement of the selection and inspection of key characteristics and process capability measurements, it states that statistical techniques should support design verification, it recommends design of experiment, failure mode and effects analysis and similar techniques.

Acceptance sampling-which is part of section 4.20 is also addressed in that section but it does not indicate or require the now widely accepted zero defect concept, as for example as outlined in the new MIL Std. 1916, and in the Boeing D-8007 document which was previously used to comply to the D1-9000 section one requirements. Instead it states that the sampling plan shall be statistically valid and appropriate? This "shall requirement" seems to be highly unspecific considering the level of safety and the application aerospace products are involved in.

Section 4.10-Inspection and Testing- A number of inspection documentation requirement have been added to this section. One is the identification of production inspection instruments. Another requirement is the inclusion of documentation which shall indicate the design, the manufacture, validation and maintenance records as it pertains to specific inspection instruments and the design thereof. Material and test certification reports are to be acceptable per specification requirements and need to show some form of validation. Documented "First Article Inspection" is now a formal "shall requirement".

Section 4.8-Product Identification and Traceability -As expected, the level of traceability has now been more specifically addressed. When applicable identification is to be maintained throughout the product life, including the traceability of products manufactured from the same raw material batch or from the same manufacturing batch. A recorded sequence of process operations is required to be maintained.

As we all know, quality standards undergo scheduled revisions every five years and it is so stated in this new standard. Companies need time to adjust and get familiar with the new standard and its additional requirements. The next step of action is to make the appropriate documentation changes by developing new or by adding additional system procedures and work instructions. Then one needs to follow up and implement these changes. Finally after carrying out internal audits against the newly developed procedures, approval and /or certification by either the customer or by independent registrars if required needs to be initiated.

The first notable company to embrace this standard is the Boeing Company. It has reached a consensus to adapt a single ISO 9001 quality management system for its own operating groups as well as for its suppliers. The company will utilize and require of its suppliers to comply to either the AS 9100 as a whole, or utilize the ISO 9001 based quality management system, tailored specifically for suppliers requiring only an inspection and test quality system. In addition where applicable and/or necessary an addendum to either the quality management or the inspection and test quality systems containing key characteristics, process controls and variability management, (which was previously contained in section 2 of the D1-9000 Boeing quality standard) will be applied.

The bottom line for all machine shop owners and manufacturers is that in order to implement the new standard it will require great effort, training and human resources, which in simple terms translates into additional costs. How many excellent suppliers will be willing to go the extra mile once again? For more then 25 years I have had the privilege to talk to machine shop owners day in day out, and I must honestly report, that the mood out there in the real world is grim. There's a Nation of outstanding suppliers that have state of the art equipment, possess rare machining skills and can expertly manufacture precision aerospace products which are now beginning seriously to question the constant changes imposed by new standards every few short years.

Standardization is good as long as there is visible added value, but the time for trial and error should be over. Compliance should be made easy, clear and affordable for all, otherwise only the larger businesses will survive in the long run. This would certainly not be in the best interest of our Nation, it would hurt our competitive spirit which made this country the envy of the industrialized world.

In the next upcoming articles we will dissect each section of this new standard to help you implement each requirement more easily.

The author Gunther B. Gumpp is the President of Quality Control Systems which assists companies to achieve quality system certification, in addition we provide a full spectrum of quality related books, how to implement guidelines, EC/directives, standards and specifications, quality manuals and QC accessories. The author has over the years assisted numerous Boeing suppliers to achieve approval and acceptable compliance ratings based on the D1-9000 and related ISO 9000 standards.

You can order the standard by calling QCSS at (949) 388-7686, or directly from the SAE at (412) 776-4970. For more information please visit our web page: www.qcss.com. Questions and comments on this article please mail to: qcss@qcss.com Copyright (c) 2000, Gunther B. Gumpp, QCSS.