As9100 For Small Businesses

By Author: Jamil
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As a small business with under 50 employees, quality managers tasked with implanting AS9100 may find themselves asking the question “Where do we start?” If the company already has an ISO 9001 management system in place then this will be easy as AS9100 is built upon the framework of ISO 9001. It contains all the requirements of ISO 9001 with the additional requirements for the aerospace industry as prescribed by SAE.
To start the system development, it is important to understand how the organizations interacts with the world outside. That is what is the business environment, and its inherent risks and opportunities, that the organization interacts within as well as who are its stakeholders and their needs. All these are assessed from the perspective of the needs of the customers within the scope of your AS9100 services and products to be certified.

The top management must be involved from the start as evidence of their commitment is vital to the success of the system. Their mission and vision must take direction in the policy and measurable objectives that connect to the policy. Leadership need to determine ...
... the key processes that are essential to the fulfillment of the policy. For each of the key processes listed, process owners will then be identified who will assist with capturing how the processes are currently operated. Beware the capture of fictional processes.

These processes documented, will show the sequence and interaction of the processes in meeting the policy. At a high level in the documentation structure will lie the procedures that describe the processes at a 30k foot level, the next level down being the instructions (in the weeds) followed by checklists and forms. Beware using canned templates as these will not capture how work in your organization is done and the system will soon fail. It is then tough to course correct once the employee morale is low from a failed system. This methodology ensures buy in at all levels for success of the AS9100 system.

Once the existing system is captured compare it to the requirements of AS9110 to determine any additional controls and resources that need to be in place. Also consider QMII’s AS9100 lead auditor training as this will be useful in understanding the requirements to interpret and apply to what your organization does. The trained candidate will also then be able to conduct value adding internal audits.

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