efficient quality management

Our response to a request about starting a QMS from scratch.

We have antiquated systems, primarily in our heads and are basically starting from scratch again. What it the most modern system? What is the difference between AS9003 and AS9100? Were your forms created as an ISO system that would make a company ISO Certification Ready? If not, do you have such a system?

The AS9003 QMS is known as “Less than AS9100″ and was very popular but Boeing has deleted it from their Supplier flowdown and replaced it with AS9100. Boeing required their Appendix A Suppliers to get registered by June 2007 and their Appendix B Suppliers to get registered by June 2008. Find Boeing’s Supplier requirements at: http://www.boeing.com/companyoffices/doingbiz/supplier/

The most modern QMS is AS9100 - we hear through the grapevine that AS9003 will be abandoned this year by its sponsor SAE.org.

The Manufacturing Company Kit you mentioned in your email is a commercial-grade kit that does not contain the documents necessary to become certified to ISO 9001. Many of the forms in the kit can be used in an ISO QMS but the manuals and procedures are based upon MIL-Q-9858, which do not comply with ISO 9001:2000. The kit is intended to provide businesses that need a comprehensive management system today but no certification to ISO 9001 and to eventually transition to ISO 9001.
Click on the following link to find a matrix that describes how MIL-I-45208 and MIL-Q-9858 complies with ISO 9001:1994 and how ISO 9001: 1994 complies with ISO 9001:2000.
http://www.quality-control-plan.com/cart/catalogue.php?cat=3#qualitysystemscrossreferencematrix

The QMS for AS9120 contains all the forms for compliance to ISO 9001. All the ASxxxx type standards are based upon ISO 9001 and include additional requirements to comply with the aerospace industry. When you elect to certify your QMS you will receive two certificates - one for ISO 9001 and one for the aerospace standard. The Aerospace Suppliers Association provides certification to their standard through certified registrars but they are not as widely known as the ASxxxx series of standards.

If you are starting your QMS from scratch and you want the most comprehensive system then AS9120 is a good choice; however, it is intended for a Stockist Distributor so you will need to add some manufacturing requirements to the manual. You could easily integrate MIL-I-45208 into the QMS but if you want the most comprehensive QMS you should consider integrating the manufacturing provisions from AS9100. That’s easy to do by purchasing the procedure for manufacturing from our AS9100 Kit. Our AS9100 kit for $397 is located at:
http://as9100.quality-plan.com/index-1.htm

Of course, any aerospace QMS will cause your business culture to go through a paradigm but that is a decision only you can make based upon your business plan. Are you seeking business with the primes, such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop, NASA, etc - they all require certification to an aerospace standard but they’ll work with you if you’re a sole-source.

Since we’re an open-book website you can evaluate the impact of complying with an aerospace standard by browsing through the applicable conformance checklist or internal quality audit, such as AS9101 for AS9100 or AS9121 for AS9120 respectively. You will quickly find the decision to become certified is a life-changing event.

We’ve learned from the school-of-hard-knocks that all QMS standards require a business to make their records easy to collect and review. After you’ve implemented a QMS standard, the collection and management of records is the most costly part of compliance to the standard because those records are the only means you have to prove your compliance to the standard. Since you’re starting from scratch, have you considered using your internal network or your website as a tool to interact with your employees and Customers?

We suggest Efficient QMS™ to make all the effective QMS standards into efficient standards. None of the standards or Customers that flowdown the standards care much about how much pain and expense small businesses suffer to meet their requirements. The standards are designed to be effective and the User is supposed to figure-out how to make them efficient. We’ve done that with eQMS - see for yourself at: www.efficient-quality-program.com

Our most comprehensive Distributor Kit for $297 is based upon AS9120 Stockist Distributor, which can be used to achieve registration to AS9120 and ISO 9001 - evaluate the kit at:
http://as9120.quality-plan.com/index-1.htm

A less comprehensive but up-to-date Distributor kit for $197 is based upon ASA-100 Aerospace Suppliers Association - evaluate the kit at:
http://www.quality-control-plan.com/distributor-qualitymanagementsystem-kits.htm#distributorqualitysystemkit

A little more comprehensive and name-brand Distributor AND Manufacturer kit for $247 is based upon ASA-100 and MIL-I-45208 Inspection System - evaluate the kit at:
http://www.quality-control-plan.com/distributor-qualitymanagementsystem-kits.htm#distributorandmanufacturerqualitysystemkit

Hope this information helps your project.