Questions (from our partners) and Answers (from the desk of our President)
HOW TO USE THIS SECTION
Our President posted an initial set of questions and answers based on questions he had received from clients. Dates will be added next to additional question and answer posts as they come in.
Do a search for the topic or clause if you are looking for something specific.
General Partner Questions
Use of Logos and Statements on Certification
Why did we get an NCR for using a logo that says that we are ISO 9001 and AS9100 certified, and for stating that we are an ISO 9001 and AS9100 certified company?
IAQG and ANAB do not allow use of generic logos for the ISO family of standards. Registrars have therefore passed down rules to their clients regarding the use of ISO 9001 and AS9100 logos and statements regarding these certifications. In most cases, you must include the revision of the standard to which you are certified and the name of your registrar, when applicable.
There is some question about whether the rules for the ISO family of standards also apply to AS9100. To be on the safe side, we recommend to our partners that they use the revision when mentioning the AS9100 standard, and it never hurts to mention the registrar whenever it is appropriate.
Following Procedures
Why did we get an NCR for using yellow tags to identify our nonconforming product since we had temporarily run out of our standard red tags?
Most likely this was due to your procedure requiring red tags, and your management not documenting their decision to temporarily authorize yellow tags in the interim. (See the Management Team Tips section and Secrets of World-Class Compliance section for more information on this.)
Questions by Topic and Clause
Interested Parties- 4.2
Why did we get an NCR for using a logo that says that we are ISO 9001 and AS9100 certified, and for stating that we are an ISO 9001 and AS9100 certified company?
AS9100 section 4.2 requires companies to understand the needs and expectations of interested parties. These interested parties include IAQG and ANAB (see under Industry questions below if you don’t recognize these acronyms), and your registrar.
IAQG and ANAB do not allow use of generic logos or statement for the ISO family of standards. Registrars have therefore passed down rules to their clients regarding the use of ISO 9001 and AS9100 logos and statements regarding these certifications. In most cases, you must include the revision of the standard to which you are certified and the name of your registrar, when applicable.
There is some question about whether the rules for the ISO family of standards also apply to AS9100, but we recommend to our partners that they include the revision of the AS9100 standard to which they are certified and the name of their registrar, just to be on the safe side.
(See the Secrets of World-Class Compliance section for more information on this.)
Customer Satisfaction 9.1.2
Why did we get an NCR for not having a method of monitoring customer satisfaction? We track on-time delivery and quality of the product delivered to the customer.
The standard requires organizations to monitor customer perception in addition to tracking on time delivery and quality performance to each customer. (see 9.1.2)
The reason for this is that even though the data may say one thing, the customer’s perception could be another thing, and customer perception is crucial to our business.
Managing customer perception not only helps us retain customers, but can lead us to make needed improvements.
Industry Questions
Who is IAQG and ANAB?
The short answer is:
The IAQG (International Aerospace Quality Group) is an international organization whose members are some of the leading aerospace companies, and this group sets the industry standards, such as AS9100.
ANAB (ANSI National Accreditation Board) is a non-governmental organization that provides accreditation services to companies such as the registrars that provide AS9100 certification. Your registrar gets audited every year by ANAB, just as you get audited every year by your registrar.
In summary, IAQG writes and releases AS9100, ANAB provides registrars with AS9100 accreditation that enables them to in turn, provide companies such as yours with AS9100 certification.