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AS/EN9100 Accreditation with zero non-conformance
Posted: May 2009
Air Covers design, manufacture and install bespoke fabric helicopter covers for expeditions, exploration companies, military supply and private owners. From the blistering heat and abrasive sands of the Middle East to the frozen wastes of Antarctica the covers are in use 24-hours a day for outside protection or in covered hangar storage and are designed to be packed away in the aircraft.
With increasing interest from the world’s helicopter manufactures and the MoD Air Covers realised that business expansion could be held back because of the need for third-part certification. “We have been delivering quality products for many years and have an enviable collection of customer testimonials” said John Pattinson (Director). “Increasingly customer procurement departments were requesting certification so we decided to leap frog ISO 9001 and opt for AS/EN9100 from scratch”.
Air Covers contacted Cliff Johnson at MAS-WM and were introduced to TEC who are an SC21 Strategic Partner and acknowledged specialists in AS/EN9100 implementation and training.
“It was accepted that implementing such a stringent standard as AS/EN9100 in a very small company would present difficulties not only in devising and documenting the system but in ensuring that we kept to the formal working practices all of the time” said John Pattinson. “The need to integrate our ‘bespoke’ design service also presented a unique challenge!”
TEC delivered the necessary guidance and specialist training to fit around the company’s business activities. “We particularly welcomed the extensive use of visual aids and flow-charts that are now at the heart of our AS/EN9100 aerospace quality management system” said John Pattinson.
Following the assessment audit, Air Covers attained AS/EN9100 certification first time, with no nonconformances in 6-months. As SC21 signatories this is considered to be the first major step in working towards their Bronze recognition Award.
