PREPARING FOR AN AS9100 AUDIT: SOME TIPS ON TAKING THE EARLIEST STEPS (DEMO)
The coveted AS9100 revision C aerospace standard, also known as the AS9100:2009 Revision C standard, has been out for quite some time. To date, numerous companies have undertaken the process and successfully transitioned to the new standard—having conformed to new deadlines, rules and requirements presented within. If your company is looking to get accredited and an audit is in sight, you have to prepare for the processing ahead. Here are a few pointers to help you avoid mishaps and facilitate a smoother audit process.
Prior to the Stage 1 audit, you’ll have to ensure that your registrar has access to relevant information. For starters, you need to determine which percentage of your total revenue is from the aviation, space or defense industry as well as the number of your employees who work for such industries. You also have to name your top 5 customers from said industries and identify any customer specific approval status (i.e. limited approval, probation, or suspension).
Aside from keeping your registrar up to speed, you also have to perform a lot more relevant in-house tasks. First and foremost, you must completely familiarize yourself with all requirements for the AS9100C (then publish such requirements as a quality policy with guidelines on implementation); perform a gap analysis to know how revision C applies to your enterprise; establish a few quality goalposts; and ensure that all changes are appropriately communicated throughout the company.
As soon as the Stage 1 audit is underway, you must keep the information flowing. Providing a good, clear description of all your processes and interactions (not excluding third party processes) is one vital move. Aside from this, you’ll also have to secure and present hard stats—namely, performance measurements and trends from the previous year. If you’ve already implemented a new quality management system (QMS), you can instead use data that may have been collected from customers prior to implementing the new QMS.
Aside from heeding the aforementioned tips, you’ll also have to guard against various non-conformities. For one, failure to act on customer satisfaction data can spell trouble: the AS9100C standard precisely includes specific information which should be monitored and used for evaluating customer satisfaction data. An evident lack of understanding of the concepts of special requirements, critical items and key characteristics (the first two terms being new to the AS9100C standard) can also do you no good.
Although there are many more preparatory pointers that this article can’t cover, a reliable AS9100 registrar like the International Standards Authority, Inc. can help you with getting things ready. Trust them to ensure your business is a beacon of quality standards.
(Source: Getting Ready For An AS9100C Audit, Quality Digest, June 8, 2011)