AS9100 In A Subcontract Machine Shop: What The Records Have To Show

Most subcontract shops moving towards AS9100 already do the work correctly. What trips them is evidence: proving it afterwards from records made at the moment, rather than reconstructing it the fortnight before a surveillance audit.

This is about the operational records, not the quality manual. Your certification body cares about both; only one of them is a systems problem.

Material Provenance, In Both Directions

Record the material identification and provenance required by the customer, contract and applicable standard, tied to the supplier certificate, and carried forward through issue, production and despatch.

Two questions have to be answerable. Forwards: this cast was suspect, which jobs used it and where did they go? Backwards: this part came back from a customer, what went into it? A system that answers one and not the other will fail you on the day it matters.

The test worth running today: pick a despatch from six months ago and ask which cast is in it. Check whether the records provide a complete, reproducible link from despatch back to the required material provenance.

Authorised Release

AS9100 expects material to be released deliberately, not simply to become usable because somebody booked it in. Someone competent confirms the certificate matches what arrived, and records that they did.

This is the step most commonly missing in shops running on spreadsheets, because booking in and releasing look like the same act when both are a line on a card.

Nonconforming Material Has To Be Held, Not Just Noted

Raising a nonconformance is not enough. The affected material has to be physically and systemically prevented from reaching a job, which means quarantine as a real stock state rather than a note on a record.

Use-as-is needs a written concession before the material moves, with the authority recorded. A verbal agreement written up afterwards is the finding auditors write most often.

First Article Inspection

Review the applicable 9102 revision and customer requirements to determine when full or partial first article inspection is required, including changes that may affect fit, form or function.

The common failure is the second and third: a drawing revision arrives, production continues, and nobody treats it as a trigger. Whatever system you use has to notice a revision change and raise the requirement rather than rely on somebody remembering.

Change Control On Routings

Aerospace work runs to fixed processes. A routing cannot change between batches without a notice, an approval and a date from which it applies.

That also means the job needs to record the revision it was actually made to, rather than pointing at whatever is current. Six months later those are different answers.

Operation Sign-Off

Each operation — material, OP10, OP20, inspection — needs to show who signed it off. Booking time against an operation tells you who was there. Sign-off is a stronger claim: that somebody competent confirmed it was right.

Traceability From Receipt To Despatch

Keystone records heat and cast numbers against the stock lot with the certificate reference, carries them through issue and production, and prints the chain on a certificate of conformity. Nonconformances can be raised against a works order, operation, lot or purchase line, and use-as-is is refused without a written concession. Changes and corrections are recorded in the audit history. Confirm the required evidence and retention arrangements during implementation.

If you are certifying this year, bring your auditor’s checklist to a walkthrough and we will go through it against your own parts.

Aerospace supply chain · Quality and traceability in Keystone · Material traceability that survives an audit