Choosing an Aerospace Manufacturer with AS9100 Certification
While quality management is important in many industries, every aerospace manufacturer knows that having a reliable QMS is essential to ensure both the performance and safety of their final product. Though standards like ISO 9000 existed to provide companies throughout many industries the framework needed to build a reliable system, many Tier 1 aerospace contractors had additional requirements, such as Boeing’s D1-9000, which lead to many conflicting standards for suppliers serving multiple companies. To simplify this process, AS9100 was developed by the Society of Automotive Engineers and the European Association of Aerospace Industries alongside the International Organization for Standard’s revision of ISO 9000 to ISO 9001, so there could be a single aerospace manufacturing standard that every defense and aerospace manufacturer could agree on. So choosing an aerospace manufacturer with AS9100 certification is very important.
AS9100 is identical to ISO 9001 in many respects, but extra attention is given to customer/regulatory compliance, product traceability including through subcontractors, configuration management and other select aspects regarding the quality and safety assurances that aerospace companies need in the AS standard. The AS9100 standard also places a greater emphasis on an aerospace manufacturer being able to show improvement from and to their QMS during audits, which consequently make this certification more difficult to maintain. In fact, now nearly every Tier 1 aerospace manufacturer requires AS 9100 from all their suppliers, even those producing raw materials, and expects documentation that can prove these strict standards are maintained throughout the entire production process.
So whether your company designs hydraulic systems for airliners or fuel systems for multi-stage rockets, it’s crucial to ensure that every step of production is done by an AS9100 certified company like Intrex Aerospace. Not only are we both ISO 9001 and AS9100 certified for our multi-axis machining services, we can also manage a wide range of finishing processes while maintaining compliance with these standards. For more information on what make us the ideal aerospace manufacturer for a wide range of projects, contact Intrex Aerospace today.
