Help with SCAR - Not all sub-assemblies had properly received a First Article

[msr0143]

My company provides third party inspection services, including first article approval. We have received a Supplier Corrective Action Request from a customer due to misses in a first article an inspector approved 14 months ago. In short the customer found a problem with a part. During their review they looked at the first article and found that not all sub-assemblies had properly received a first article.
I'm at a loss on what other than more training can be done. I understand that short-comings to training as a corrective action, but in this instance it seems to be the best course of action. 5-Whys will also be a challenge. The customer insists on 5-Why and, there must be at least 5....

Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[Project Man]

You need to focus on the quality system. What does your quality system require? Did all the requirements get met? How do you document that the requirements are met? Do you verify the requirements were met?
Now, this doesn't necessarily mean the answer is to follow the system (as written). You need to find out why the requirements weren't met. Is the system too cumbersome/time consuming? Does the system need to be simplified/clarified/modified?
Maybe just start with this question: Was the quality system effective?
This should take you down at least one good 5Why path.

 

[msr0143]

The inspector reviews the FAI to the customer requirements, in this case AS9102. They also complete a customer provided checklist/approval report. Unfortunately on this one, there were ~45-50 parts/sub-assemblies listed on Form 1. Most of them are COTS or SCH, however 4 of them were not. He verified 3 sub-assembly FAIs, but missed one. The one that was missed turned out to only be a partial and subsequently failed.
I'm at a loss to find 5-whys on why this was missed. Unfortunately, it was 15 months ago and has just come to light....