What Does Quality Management Mean in Aerospace Industry

Summary:

This article explains the significance of a quality management system in the aerospace industry, which comprises of aviation, space, and defense aircraft manufacturing.

Quality management is integral in the aerospace industry, just like any other industry, for ensuring customer satisfaction. Aerospace manufacturers need to assure their customers that their products, parts, or equipment are safe and high-quality. AS9100 certification is the discrete quality management certification formed in 1999 by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and the European Association of Aerospace Industries (EAAI) for the aerospace sector. It specifies the regulatory, safety, and quality requirements that every manufacturer and supplier of aviation, space, and defense craft need to fulfill every time. In short, the AS9100 standard determines the requirements for their quality management system (QMS) which will help them to ensure the reliability of the products and meet the varying demands/expectations of customers. Customers of the aerospace industry suppliers are airline companies, space research institutions, and defense organizations, all of which are associated with offering services of high public and national interest. Therefore, ensuring the quality of aerospace products must be a top concern of manufacturers and suppliers.

This article will explain how AS9100 certification helps aerospace businesses have a uniform QMS and meet the highest quality standards for customer satisfaction.

Leads to Implementation of a Definite QMS

AS9100 defines the key requirements for quality assurance in addition to the ISO 9001 general quality requirements. To get your manufacturing unit certified, the first step is to design a robust QMS that considers the AS9100 requirements and implement it to ensure it aligns with your processes. If you are not sure about the requirements or if you lack clarity on the process of designing and implementation, premium consulting with expert quality assurance experts can be of great help. They are industry-specific experts and representatives of the certification who know about the small details of the standard. They can help you form your QMS and integrate it into your processes, products, and services.

Helps Maintaining Consistency in Products

The AS9100 standard provides a strict framework for quality assessment that helps in preventing variations in key attributes of products or parts. The key attributes can be related to anything, such as material type or features, a particular process influencing the product fit, or a unique product feature. QMS helps to prevent any variation in these specific characteristics of the products by establishing a strong configuration management process. As such, an inconsistency in the concerned attributes of the products will be immediately brought to the notice of the manufacturer and it can be rectified.

Helps Planning for Product Verification

With their QMS implemented according to the regulations of AS9100 standard, the manufacturers can also maintain a planned product realization process. It helps in the effective and flawless processing of the products. The standard demands the assessment of products with in-process verification, which means that products will be assessed at different points when their production is underway. It implies that no product will be left to be verified at the last stage where any fault or defects identified cannot be reversed and the entire product needs to be discarded and remanufactured. When this happens, it substantially raises the overall costs of production.

Manages Suppliers to Ensure Quality Materials

Managing the suppliers providing materials, equipment, and different production assemblies is one of the biggest challenges to aerospace manufacturers. However, AS9100 helps with supplier management by managing the quality of products supplied by them. The standard includes numerous requirements for identifying quality and reliable suppliers. They define the regulations for supply chain management for the manufacturers such as accepted engineering requirements, specific test specimens, fixed timeline for deliveries, and evaluation of suppliers' facilities.

No doubt, AS9100 certification brought extensive requirements for procuring, developing, and supplying aerospace products and parts that are in line with customer expectations. Owing to the complexities of aviation, spacecraft, and defense products, it is important that customers seek for first-rate manufacturers who can ensure the safe and reliable performance of the products. A robust QMS that complies with the regulations of the AS9100 standard will help manufacturers address their customers’ concerns and deliver products that are both reliable and safe for operations.

Author Bio:

Damon Anderson is an expert AS9100 certification consultant who provides advisory to manufacturers in the aerospace sector to implement QMS and maintains the quality and consistency of their products. He is at present heading the premium consulting team of a certification compliance agency that helps businesses in various sectors with their respective QMS certifications.

Contact Details:
Business Name: Compliancehelp Consulting, LLC
Email Id: info@quality-assurance.com
Phone No: 877 238 5855

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Created on Jan 5th 2021 05:16. Viewed 303 times.

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