Quality

A definition of the word is difficult to substantiate, however covering (or even exceeding) customer expectation comes close.

To deliver good quality a company needs to take measures to preclude that incidents and accidents disturb a continuous flow of production and deliver uniform products on time.

One makes a distinction between Product Quality and Organization Quality.

Product Quality:

Companies are usually capable of producing quality goods, however depend largely on the experience and the "now how" of their employees.

When for some reason the employee roster changes it may have a negative impact on the result of the production process.

Organization Quality:

The efforts to improve quality have initiated the need to describe all the processes within the organization.

Creating a quality handbook together with a set of procedures and structuring the company in such a way that quality is upgraded to the most important business goal is an element to come to organization quality.

It is furthermore proven to be essential that the (Sr.) management adopts this vision and shows by example that they are serious and consisted in this approach.

The aforementioned is of major importance for the success, acceptance and willingness of the other employees to comply with the quality system.

Examples of quality systems are laid down in specifications like the ISO 9000 series and for Aerospace manufacturing AS9100.

It is possible to have your quality system certified by an independent certifying body.

The advantage of this certification is that when qualified the need for your to test your system becomes obsolete.

Examples of certifying bodies are Lloyds, Bureau Veritas, Det Norske Veritas, SGS, Dekra etc.

In the aerospace industry one may need to have the system audited and certified by the local or international civil aviation authority to be able to deliver goods to the industry.

Samples of these certifications are:

- EASA or FAA part 21 for manufacturing of aircraft parts

- EASA or FAA part 145 for maintenance of aircraft parts

Other countries or customers may either accept your certification(s) or may require you to make cross reference listing(s) or develop Quality Plans for the purpose of identifying requirements are being met.

Samples are CAAC (China), NADCAP, CASE.