Guide to AS9100 Standard Documentation for Aerospace Businesses

Like every industry, aerospace engineering has a specific international standard that assures its quality management. AS9100 was issued by the International Organization for Standardization or ISO and ensures quality in aerospace businesses, such as aircraft and spacecraft manufacturers, and defense equipment manufacturers. To achieve AS9100 certification, the aerospace manufacturers need to follow every step, as required for any ISO certification. A manufacturer needs to understand the certification requirements, document the quality management system or QMS, plan the certification process, and establish the QMS to ensure all the requirements are successfully met. Owing to the vast number of requirements that aerospace manufacturers should fulfill, the process of documenting the certification can be tedious. This article is a useful guide to the process of documentation for the AS9100 standard.  

Just like the general QMS certification, ISO 9001 certification, AS9100 needs the aerospace manufacturers to abide by an array of requirements. As a result, there can be a huge list of documents with a particular hierarchy. The lower levels of documentation in the hierarchy are general and include basic aspects of quality management. The higher-level documents are more specific to an aerospace QMS and give proper regulations or policies so manufacturers can ensure quality and safety in their products. Manufacturers need to understand the hierarchy to properly prepare for the documentation.  

All the intended information for certification, such as quality policy and manuals, QMS procedures, work instructions, and records are mentioned in the hierarchy of documents. The structuring of documentation must include the following aspects: 

- Quality policy and manuals: The company’s strategy or policy to manufacture quality products that will ensure customer satisfaction; 

- Quality procedures: The specific plan of actions and responsibilities of members and authorities that are involved in the QMS;

- Work instructions: Each of the activities and procedures for QMS are to be followed by specific step-by-step instructions;

- Records: These are evidence that everything mentioned in the QMS, such as procedures and plan of actions, are performed as specified in the AS9100 standard. 

It is crucial to remember that the documentation of the QMS is needed to ensure that all requirements of the AS9100 standard are covered by the manufacturer. However, the manufacturers need to ensure that everything in the documentation is compliant with the standard. There should be an internal auditing team that will check the compliance of the AS9100 standard in the documentation and evaluate the QMS, ensuring that there are no further improvements needed. 

Aerospace manufacturers need to follow this checklist to ensure quick AS9100 certification. Documentation is the primary step to any international certification and a manufacturer should focus on documenting the QMS, considering the exact hierarchy of documents. However, it is a tedious task and manufacturers often need some external assistance from experienced ISO certification agencies to get through the documentation process smoothly. 

Damon Anderson is an expert AS9100 certification consultant who has helped many manufacturers in the aerospace industry get certified with his immense understanding of the standard and its clauses. He blogs about general ISO 9001 certification and other ISO certifications, guidelines to achieve them, and different ways to improve compliance. 

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