Re: AS9100:C PEAR's (Process Effectiveness Assessment Report)
A few months ago my company had our renewal audit to AS9100 rev C. We were written up (nonconformances) for not having "KPI's" (key process indicators) created for certain processes - contract review, planning, purchasing, production, calibration, and stock room/raw material accuracy. We were written up against section 4.1 c which states that the organization shall, "determine criteria and methods needed to ensure that both the operation and control of these processes are effective".
To pass our audit we created charts for these 6 processes and the auditor closed the nonconformances. However, I really do not understand how section 4.1 c requires charts for these 6 processes but especially the stock room/raw material accuracy part.
Is there anyone out there with some experience with this issue? Thank you in advance.
In the most strict sense, AS9100C does not require that. But there are several requirements all around that.
You do have to have a way to monitor AND WHERE APPLICABLE MEASURE your processes according to both 4.1 and 8.2.3. Where applicable, measurement isn't required. In those cases you still need a way to monitor them. This could lead into very gray areas.
The term KPI doesn't exist anywhere in AS9100C. It is easy to see that it is there though, at least in spirit. Not only is it in 4.1 and 8.2.3 as mentioned above, it is also mentined in 5.4 where in talking about quality objectives it says that they need to be measurable and established at relevant functions and levels within the organization. The common intrepretation is that KPI are a form of quality objectives and the relevant functions and levels are your core processes as shown on your interaction of processes chart.
8.4 also points out that you have to apply analysis of data (charts?, metrics?) concerning customer satisfaction, product quality, process performance (my paraphrasing, read 8.4c for yourself), and suppliers.
The use of KPI has been driven for the last few years by the accreditation bodies as part of their fulfilment of ISO 17021, the standard they have to live by and are audited to.
The aerospace world is behind ISO 9001 in doing this, at least in part due to their overdependence in using an audit checklist.
The transition to AS9100C includes a change in how AS9100 audits are performed. The standard for that was also revised, from AS9101C to AS9101D.
I suggest you get a copy of AS9101D and study it in preparation for your next audit and to better understand what happened on your last one. Pay particular attention to the appendix that discusses the use of the PEAR, a form that the auditor needs to fill out to determine if your organization is indeed making sure that their processes are effective.
What is somewhat sad is that it appears that AS9101D adds requirements that you will be evaluated by that are above and beyond AS9100C. The most egregious part of this is that no one from the certification body or the accrediation body warned you about that.
By the way, the correct terminology for KPI is key performance indicators, not key process indicators, not that it much matters as either way it pretty much means the same thing.
So if you indeed had a way of monitoring those processes that effectively monitored them and it did not entail the need to measure them, you may have been able to argue your way out of those, but since the auditors are trained that that is what they need to find, you likely would not have been successful.
The real take away here is that both ISO and AS now expect organizations to pay attention to their processes, as any good business should have been anyway.
In my opinion, the biggest shortfall of the overdependence on checklists is that they tend to make you focus on the little details and forget about flying the plane, or in other words, focusing on the leaves and forgetting about the rest of the tree, other trees, and the forest.
Using KPI helps you focus on the big picture.
