The AS9100 standard is about to undergo a major revision in keeping with the changes being made to the ISO 9001 standard. Since the AS9100 standards have been and will continue to be based on the latest version of ISO 9001, this revision will be in lock step, though lag by a few months the expected release of ISO 9001:2015 in the fall of this year.
As of today, it is expected that the AS9100:2016 (and AS9110 and AS9120 standards) will be released in the second quarter of 2016. The gap between the published release of the ISO 9001:2015 and the AS9100:2016 standards will create a shorter time period for AS registered organizations to transition to this new standard.
The aerospace standards will have the same deadline to complete the transition to the newest version of the AS91XX standards as the ISO 9001:2015 standard which is the fall of 2018. Because the AS standards are being released approximately eight months after the ISO 9001:2015 standard, the “three year” transition is actually a little over two years for aerospace companies. This all is based on the assumption that the aerospace standards are published in April of 2016. If that deadline is not met, the transition period will be even shorter.
An aerospace company should not transition any aspect or process of their quality system to the ISO 9001:2015 requirements prior to the release of AS91XX:2016 without a word of caution. The new ISO 9001:2015 alters, or all together eliminates some of the requirements of the current version of AS9100. This means that by changing your quality system over to the ISO 9001:2015 standard prior to the release of AS9100:2016, you may inadvertently make your quality system in violation of AS9100C.
In short, we are recommending that all of our aerospace customers maintain their quality system in accordance with AS9100C until it undergoes a successful audit by your Assurance Consulting auditor to the 2016 version, which of course cannot take place until its release in 2016 at the earliest.
As for the AS9100:2016 standard itself, it is in the draft stages and therefore still undergoing change. But what is known is that it will mirror the new ten-clause format of the ISO 9001:2015 standard. In addition, it is expected that the following areas will be added or enhanced:
• Product Safety
• Human Factors
• Risk
• Preventive Action
• Counterfeit Parts
• Configuration Management
• Product Realization and Planning
• Post Delivery Support
• Project Management
• Design Development and Supplier Management
• Quality Manual
• Management Representative
As these standards work their way through the various committees and stakeholders, it is expected that there will continue to be changes from their current draft forms. Watch future Assurance Consulting news posts for more information and analysis of these changes and the potential impact on your quality system.
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