AS9100 8.4.1 Supplier Selection/Evaluation criteria and reevaluations

[Big Jim]

As one of our founding fathers said not all men are angels and as a result our government system had many checks and balances built into them.

If a company wants to cheat they will find a way and it may take a while for it to become known. Examples include Enron and Kolbe Metals. eventually their downfalls were horrendous. Their downfalls pulled others down with them who were were actually innocent bystanders.

What are some of the other ways to check them out? Providing samples to evaluate. A site visit with or without a customer audit. If that isn't practical then hire an independent auditor to go in and evaluate them. Check out their reputation from others that may be using them. Run A D & B report to get a good clue on their financial dealings. More closely monitor what you receive from them for a while until you feel comfortable with their product and with them. Have an outside company run NDT on what you are buying at least for a while. Have chemical analysis performed on critical raw material. I'm sure there are many more ways. Pick what seems appropriate for the circumstances. Be very wary when or if you start to think they are hiding things from you.

There are horror stories galore about companies that may seem great at first glance but are really rotten to the core.

On NADCAP keep in mind that all they are doing is assuring that they performed according to the checklists and that NADCAP doesn't actually confront that the product turns out right.

I call on a plating shop that can't get their act together to get registered to AS9100 but they can consistently provide much better product than their AS9100 & NADCAP competitors. Guess who gets the contract. A NADCAP Accreditation doesn't mean diddly if the final product is trash.

 

[CanadianQA]

What are some of the other ways to check them out? Providing samples to evaluate. A site visit with or without a customer audit. If that isn't practical then hire an independent auditor to go in and evaluate them. Check out their reputation from others that may be using them. Run A D & B report to get a good clue on their financial dealings. More closely monitor what you receive from them for a while until you feel comfortable with their product and with them. Have an outside company run NDT on what you are buying at least for a while. Have chemical analysis performed on critical raw material. I'm sure there are many more ways. Pick what seems appropriate for the circumstances. Be very wary when or if you start to think they are hiding things from you.

Thanks for these suggestions Big Jim. Very helpful.

I call on a plating shop that can't get their act together to get registered to AS9100 but they can consistently provide much better product than their AS9100 & NADCAP competitors. Guess who gets the contract. A NADCAP Accreditation doesn't mean diddly if the final product is trash.

I may be stating the obvious here, but I'm guessing you meant the non-accredited shop got the contract? I wish that more companies had this mentality. As far as I know though, you can't even tender a bid with Government, one of the primes or their 1st tier suppliers without holding that AS91XX or NADCAP certificate.

 

[outdoorsNW]

I have seen some bad ideas come out of customers requiring AS9100 certification. We are As9100 certified. In one case a customer asked us to do a first article on something designed and produced by a non AS9100 company. We are an electronics company. While we are qualified to evaluate the control box, the pumps and other items we are completely unqualified to evaluate. But to our customer, we were qualified and the manufacturer is not qualified. We turned the job down because a lot of it was outside our area of expertise. This was a ground support item for an aircraft that I don't think was even a core item for the project. I suspect the item was to support testing and qualification of something else.

 

[Big Jim]

Thanks for these suggestions Big Jim. Very helpful.

I may be stating the obvious here, but I'm guessing you meant the non-accredited shop got the contract? I wish that more companies had this mentality. As far as I know though, you can't even tender a bid with Government, one of the primes or their 1st tier suppliers without holding that AS91XX or NADCAP certificate.

The prime came to them.

What is sad here is that the prime would like to give them more business but won't until they get their act together on AS9100 certification.