Using AS9120 Accreditation to Further Unmask Counterfeits in Stock (Demo)

A company that manufactures large objects such as ground and air vehicles will make a supreme effort to bring OEM parts into a whole working package. However, some monkey wrenches may be thrown in the mix, as Stanley Salot Jr and Julia Kocs explains in their joint article for Quality Digest magazine:

“Every time a missile misses its target, a train derails, or a faulty airbag fails to save a life, we wonder whether these failures, which can sometimes reach catastrophic proportions, are caused by a counterfeit part that may have infiltrated the supply chain. Every time we buy a fake Rolex watch or Gucci purse, do we think about the reasons behind the “affordable” price? Are we contributing to the unprecedented increase of counterfeit parts and products without even knowing it?”

The danger of counterfeits ending up in the assembly line and onto the finished product is already one instance too dreadful for any manufacturer to think about. Considering that the authorities are running into some hurdles to shut down the flow of counterfeit goods before they enter the country, the challenge to comb inventory for bad seeds makes for wasted time among manufacturer personnel. When your firm is also worried about fakes mixed with stuff from legitimate vendors, you must ramp up your quality controls with help from AS9120 accreditors like the International Standards Authority, Inc. (ISA). In preparing your company for a review of its AS9120-certified quality management system (QMS), there are associated factors to account for. Two particular elements – traceability and records management – are prime tenets as they can help quality controllers track down sources of any counterfeit parts that appear on the production line. Salot and Kocs cited the case of a Florida-based defense contractor who filed purchase orders, for components to be used in capacitors of another firm’s radar system, with a parts supplier in Singapore. An AS9120 QMS also places greater emphasis on rigorous product testing before it can be certified as airworthy. However, they noted that the defense contractor never got a chance to fully test the parts. A quality engineer inspected the materials and judged they were fake. A manufacturing company that stays the course in maintaining AS9120 certification will be in a better position in the industry. Making it possible with help from specialists like ISA is icing on the cake. (Source: Tiny Parts with Massive Lethal Power, Quality Digest)