Raw Material Storage - AS9100 Requirements for 'Securing' Bar Stock Steel

[Cari Spears]

I've heard that we need to "secure" our raw material - which for us is bar stock, steel. I don't see that requirement in AS9100. Is it a common customer specific requirement in the aerospace industry?

[Mike S.]

Sounds like you need to get some more info. from whomever told you that you needed to do it. Was it a customer? If so, can they supply their requirement in writing? I'd be curious to see what it is they're after and why.

[Cari Spears]

Hi Mike,

Nah - it wasn't a customer. We are doing a "clean sweep" and a little rearranging back in the saw department where we store our raw bar stock. We want to designate some racks for aircraft quality steel and others for other stuff. Anyway - someone piped up that the certified AQ material had to be totally segregated and "secured".

I didn't think this was true, but I wanted to check it out because I don't have prior aerospace experience and he does. Perhaps that was just the practice wherever he worked before.

I also emailed a customer SQA that I deal with regularly (and he is a pleasure to deal with - no kidding) - he said they don't require this, nor does he know of anyone who does.

[Sidney Vianna]

This is probably a throw back to the old mind set. Remember the old ISO 9001 required (under 4.15.3) "... The supplier shall use designated storage areas or stock rooms.... Appropriate methods for authorizing receipt and dispatch to and from such areas shall be stipulated...."

Many people in Aerospace still think that you have to have a LOCKED MRB crib/room.

Old habits are hard to die. I am not aware of any Aerospace Customer or FAR or other regulatory requirement that requires you to "secure" raw material.

[Cari Spears]

Thank you, Sidney. That clinches it for me.

I think you are correct about the old mind set. I was soooo hoping this was the case. What a PITA that would have been were it required.

[SteelMaiden]

As long as you can show that you use the appropriate "raw material" for the job, and that you do this by plan, not accident , all should be good. When dealing with something like steel, it is not always easy to set up warehousing to totally segregate material physically. Most of the systems I've seen, or worked with, did this by allocating raw material to appropriate "jobs" or orders when it was received.

[Cari Spears]

Originally Posted by Sidney Vianna

This is probably a throw back to the old mind set...
...Many people in Aerospace still think that you have to have a LOCKED MRB crib/room...
...Old habits are hard to die...

The FAA Inspector that will be handling our certification said he is really looking forward to seeing how we novices will approach a lot of things compared to some of the organizations that have "always done it this way".

[Cari Spears]

Originally Posted by SteelMaiden

Most of the systems I've seen, or worked with, did this by allocating raw material to appropriate "jobs" or orders when it was received.

Yep - this is what we do right now - when I order the steel, I use our internal job number for the PO number. That way the saw operator knows I ordered that bar for that job. We also have a minimum inventory of commonly used sizes and types that we always keep on the rack - so we keep the bronzes together on one rack, the Thomson Shafting has it's own rack, etc - however, we've always been pretty lax about what's on what rack because it is all identified by color code or tag and you could still see everything.

We're doing the reorganizing because we are starting to buy steel in larger quantities than just what the job requires - so we need to enforce the rack designations now that there is so much more steel back there.