Transition Complete – Introduction: Launch Your Next Mission Series

NQA successfully transitioned all clients who wished to retain their certification and the scheme itself only lost less than 0.5% of certificates globally. This number is impressive given that there are almost 21,000 certificates in circulation.

As a scheme, the number of certificates is growing, there were around 600 additional certificates in 2018 globally. The growth in the UK is less, with less than 50 being added in 2018. China is probably the strongest growth market at the moment and they have added an additional 10% to their market but this is small in comparison to the USA who has almost 9000 certificates in circulation.

In essence, over 21,000 audits have been performed to the new requirements and auditors are now getting comfortable with the expectations of the scheme, clients have also become more accustomed to the new requirements but data is showing that some key areas are not being fully understood. What isn’t clear is if organizations are really good at the new requirements or auditors are not fully addressing the requirements during assessments, this is currently being investigated as industry Primes and regulators have issues in areas which aren’t being raised as findings in assessments. There is a large disparity between industry concerns and auditor concerns and findings.

When you think about the aerospace standard, all of the new requirements which have been added in are due to industry primes (Boeing, Airbus, MOD etc.) having supplier issues and they need third party assessments to address these concerns. They write the standard to plug these gaps and it’s up to the certification bodies such as NQA to ensure clients are meeting the requirements and expectations.

Recent data is showing however that having third party certification is of benefit to the industry which is good news for Certification Bodies and depending on how you see it, good news for certified clients. There is a reduction in the number of non-conformances being raised by the primes which is leading to more throughputs of new aircraft and with a backlog of around 4,000 aircraft that can only be a good thing.

To help client organizations meet the new requirements, we are rolling out a series of blogs and webinars aimed at addressing the areas of the standard which are maybe not being fully understood or implemented. Our auditors have recently gone through additional training to ensure they are equipped with the knowledge they require to audit effectively and we are going to pass on the same information to clients and consultants so there are no surprises when auditors start approaching the audit topics differently.

We have gained a lot of knowledge over the recent years and sit on a number of the forums and writing committees for the aerospace standard, it is time that we passed on that knowledge.

The topics to be covered in the series are:

• Key Process Identification and KPIs

• Risk Management

• Raw Material Testing

• Supply Chain Management

• Counterfeit Parts

• Obsolescence

As well as the above we will be holding a number of mini articles and webinars to help with the understanding of the scheme requirements and also giving updates on the standards and industry as a whole. 

In addition, we are going to hold a webinar very shortly on the OASIS database which will include its purpose, navigating around the system and some of the benefits which you may not be aware of.

If there are any specific topics you would like to know more about in addition to the above then please let us know and we will do our utmost to incorporate them into the content over the next twelve months.

Author: Michael Venner - NQA's Aerospace & Automotive Director

For information on Aerospace training click here.