AS 9100

What is AS 9100?

AS 9100 is a sector scheme of ISO 9001. (See What is ISO 9001?) AS9100 applies to organizations in the aerospace and defense industries (or, “sectors”). AS9100 contains a set of sector-specific requirements germane to the aerospace and defense industries. Roughly, AS 9100 is ISO 9001 for aerospace and defense organizations and their suppliers.

AS9100 contains all of the requirements of ISO 9001, but has been expanded to include additional aerospace and defense sector-specific requirements.

Some aerospace and defense contractors insist that their suppliers adopt and register to AS9100 and so operating in these sectors without the formal qualification to AS is difficult.

Beyond the very basic requirements of ISO 9001, AS9100 requires organizations (and their suppliers) to have additional or enhanced controls over various facets of their operations, including:

  • Risk management is explicitly addressed in AS9100. Organizations pursuing AS9100 certification must demonstrate an effective process for managing risk throughout product realization processing.
  • Special requirements, critical items, and key characteristics are technical terms defined in AS9100. Adequate controls are required to accommodate special requirements, including enhanced quality planning to ensure conformity to requirements.
  • Whereas ISO 9001 requires organizations to establish measureable objectives, AS9100 specifies what those objectives must formally include: on-time delivery, product conformity, and customer satisfaction.
  • Beyond the production planning requirements of ISO 9001, AS9100 contains enhanced requirements for project management and product realization planning.
  • AS 9100 requires organizations to have effective controls over configuration management, to the degree that configuration management issues present an opportunity for error.
  • ISO 9001 requires organizations to exert appropriate controls over suppliers and supplied product. AS9100 specifies required controls, including:
    • A register (list) of approved suppliers complete with an indication of supply scope and an indication of approval status. Controls pertaining to personnel making status decisions are also required.
    • Adequate controls over communications with suppliers must be established, including communications of special requirements, flow-down requirements, corrective action requests, record retention requirements, etc.
  • Enhanced controls over nonconforming product are required of AS9100, including containment of nonconforming product, destruction of nonconforming product dispositioned as scrap, etc., and
  • Continual improvement is required of ISO 9001, but AS9100 contains enhanced requirements for formal assessment of improvement efforts.

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From SAE AS9100, FOREWARD

“To assure customer satisfaction, aviation, space and defense organizations must produce, and continually improve, safe, reliable products that meet or exceed customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements. The globalization of the industry and the resulting diversity of regional and national requirements and expectations have complicated this objective. Organizations have the challenge of purchasing products from suppliers throughout the world and at all levels of the supply chain. Suppliers have the challenge of delivering products to multiple customers having varying quality requirements and expectations.

Industry has established the International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG), with representatives from companies in the Americas, Asia/Pacific and Europe, to implement initiatives that make significant improvements in quality and reductions in cost throughout the value stream. This standard has been prepared by the IAQG.

This document standardizes quality management system requirements to the greatest extent possible and can be used at all levels of the supply chain by organizations around the world. Its use should result in improved quality, schedule and cost performance by the reduction or elimination of organization-unique requirements and wider application of good practice. While primarily developed for the aviation, space and defense industry, this standard can also be used in other industry sectors where a quality management system with additional requirements over an ISO 9001 system is needed.”