Following aerospace quality standards accreditation approval from ANAB earlier in 2020 for TQCSI to certify manufacturers in the aviation, space and defence industries to AS 9100, and stockists and distributors to AS 9120, TQCSI has now progressed AS 9110 accreditation to certify companies in the aviation maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) market.

For TQCSI, this is an important milestone to gain accreditation to certify companies to the full suite of all three quality standards for aviation, space and defence, in response to demand from new and potential customers.

As well as audits of TQCSIs key processes and systems, accreditation also involved independent witnessed audits of TQCSI auditors conducting audits with our clients, witnessed by qualified aerospace auditors from ANAB, our accreditation body.

The final witnessed audit took place at Adelaide-based Aerobond in December. Due to ongoing Covid restrictions on interstate travel, TQCSI deployed the new AIQG remote Audit feasibility assessment (RAFA) tool, which is a risk-based assessment tool to determine the feasibility of conducting the audit remotely.

With appropriate controls in place, this was approved, and the audit was conducted using Microsoft Teams, with both the audit lead and the ANAB auditor dialling-in remotely. For added pressure, the audit was also witnessed by an experienced aerospace auditor and quality manager from the aerospace industry!

Sean Bates, Accreditation Manager at TQCSI, observed that “The technology worked well, and the audit was successfully completed, with very positive feedback received both from ANAB and the aerospace industry assessor, with no nonconformances found in the audit process”.

Final approval from the ANAB Board is now imminent, and discussions are underway with clients to schedule audits in the coming months, both for clients with existing certification to the AS9100-series standards, and existing companies in the aviation, space and defence markets who are now looking to demonstrate their quality and safety performance meets the exacting standards required by these safety critical sectors.

Sean Moules, Program Director at TQCSI, said “TQCSI and our team of auditors are now very experienced in conducting both on-site and remote audits using a range of ICT platforms, and it remains an important tool as Covid restrictions come and go at short notice, to enable our clients to obtain and retain their key quality, safety and other international standard certifications”.

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