The air and space industry demands quality products to a degree matched by few other industries. Standards are provided that contain part and product qualification procedures, which aid manufacturers in the production of products to save engineering time. Aerospace Standards are used extensively by the military and also the private sector. Currently, SAE International is the world’s largest producer of non-government aerospace standards, with over 2,300 SAE Aerospace Material Specifications that cover a large array of materials and processes, as well as over 2,100 documents on a variety of subjects.
AS 9100 is the quality management standard used today that was specifically written for the aerospace industry. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) considers the ISO 9000 series of standards as inadequate for ensuring quality and safety in the high-risk aerospace industry. AS 9000 was first published in 1997 with assistance from large contractors Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, GE Aircraft Engines and written against the clauses of ISO 9001:1994. In 1999, the first revision of AS 9100 was published by The Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE International) with input from the American Aerospace Quality Group (AAQG) and support from the International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG) and the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC). The current version of AS 9100 aligns the standard with ISO 9001:2008 and has extra requirements regarding Regulatory Compliance and many aerospace-sector specific requirements. These requirements include but are not limited to:
‣ Design phase, design verification, validation, and testing processes
‣ Reliability, maintainability, and safety
‣ Product documentation
‣ Control of production process changes
‣ Inspection and testing procedures
‣ Review of disposition of non conforming product
There are many subsections of the AS 9100 Standard that are applicable to different areas of the aerospace industry: AS 9101 (Quality System Assessment), AS 9102 (Aerospace First Article Inspection Requirements), AS 9104 (Standard for Overall Control of Aerospace Scheme), AS 9110 (Requirements for Maintenance Organizations), and AS 9120 (Requirements for Stockists and Distributors).