Quality Certification Program
Sparks Controversy The National Aerospace and Defense Contractors Accreditation Program (NADCAP), a manufacturing quality standard required of a growing number of
suppliers to the aerospace and other industries, has some of those suppliers very eager to debate the program's merits with their sizable customers.
Current and Future NADCAP Subscribers
- Alfa Romeo
- Boeing Aircraft Missile Systems
- Boeing Commercial Aircraft Div.
- Cessna Aircraft Co.
- Embraer S.A.
- Fiatavio
- GE Aircraft Engines
- General Services Administration
- Hamilton Sunstrand
- Honeywell
- Lockheed Martin
- Northrop Grumman--Military Aircraft Div.
- Pratt & Whitney
- Pratt & Whitney Canada
- Raytheon/Beech
- Rolls-Royce Corp.
- Rolls-Royce PLC
- Sikorsky Aircraft
- Southwest Airlines
- U.S. Air Force, WPAFB
- US Airways
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When the Engines and Systems Division of Honeywell, the world's largest supplier of aircraft engines, equipment, systems and services, embraced the NADCAP program
and sent letters informing its suppliers that NADCAP certification would soon become a requirement of doing business with the formidable manufacturer, some suppliers saw the
move as little more than a shift of audit expense. "Honeywell's decision was solid: If you're not NADCAP-approved by 2000, you can't proceed," says
Rebecca Green, the director of quality at D-Velco, a Honeywell supplier. "In the past, a Honeywell auditor or a third party would do site visits to ensure quality once every
year or two, depending on your quality rating. Our final expense for our first NADCAP audits far exceeded our projected cost expectations, but to continue to do business with
Honeywell, a key customer of ours, the company had little choice but to comply." Indeed, NADCAP audits can exceed $15,000.
Those who complain about the present state of the NADCAP program point to a lack of competition among certifying bodies as a possible cause.
However, Jim Borczyk of Performance Review Institute (PRI), a not-for-profit trade association affiliated with the Society of Automotive Engineers and the
only organization approved to certify companies to NADCAP, takes exception to those claims, adding that many are happy with the program. "At
least 30 percent of the hundreds of suppliers we've surveyed agree that the NADCAP technical audits are an improvement over the audits performed before the program," he explains.
"Cost is always going to be an issue, whether we charge $1 or $20,000 for an audit," adds Borczyk. "But the average cost of an audit has decreased 33
percent in the last five years. And suppliers can decrease cost through our merit program, where the interval between audits might be extended from one
year to two if their audit results warrant it. So suppliers are in the driver's seat with regard to cost."
Another concern of some that might be attributed to lack of competition is the competence of the auditors employed by PRI. "I think that because Honeywell
and General Electric are cracking down and making NADCAP a requirement, PRI's need for auditors is spiking," notes Ed Ryan, an owner of Kachina
Testing of Phoenix, Arizona. "They may be being less selective than they once were, or maybe the labor pool is just sparse."
Green confirms that the three PRI auditors that visited D-Velco's site were of varying qualification levels. "Of my three auditors, the only common
denominator was the NADCAP checklists," she says. To address these and other issues, Ray Pfeffer of the Quality, Engineering &
Manufacturing Association, a Phoenix, Arizona, member organization dedicated to aerospace, military, automotive and commercial companies,
attempted to facilitate a meeting between suppliers and Honeywell after the aerospace manufacturer decided in 1999 to make NADCAP a supplier
requirement. However, such a meeting has yet to take place. Borczyk, however, comments that communication is open. "NADCAP task
meetings are held three times a year, where suppliers can discuss any concerns," he explains. "Additionally, we have a supplier support committee
consisting of one member supplier from each subscriber, and a major supplier group whose meetings all suppliers are welcome to attend."
Honeywell representatives declined to be quoted for this article but did confirm that the company is planning on extending the scope of its NADCAP
supplier requirement, which currently encompasses only "special processes" (e.g., welding, nondestructive testing and chemical processes).
Whether the unhappy suppliers and NADCAP subscribers will work out their differences is unknown. What is known, however, is that with the number of
U.S. accredited companies surpassing 1,000, the number of NADCAP subscribers supporting the program approaching two dozen and the planned
expansion of the program's scope, the NADCAP program isn't going to simply fade away quietly. More information about NADCAP is available from PRI's Web site at www.pri.sae.org . 
ISO 9000 Revisions Move Closer to Completion
The national standards bodies that comprise the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) have
returned a positive vote on the draft international standard (DIS) versions of the ISO 9000 revisions currently being developed.
The DIS versions of ISO 9000, ISO 9001 and ISO 9004 will now undergo further revision before their scheduled release as final draft international
standards (FDIS) in September 2000 for a two-month ballot by ISO's members. If the FDISs are approved at that stage, the ISO 9000 revisions will
be published as fully fledged international standards before the end of the year. The ISO 9000 family of standards on quality management is the most
successful of the more than 12,700 standards developed by ISO. An estimated 350,000 quality systems based on ISO 9000 standards have been
implemented by organizations of all types in at least 150 countries. All ISO standards are reviewed at least every five years. The current revision
of the ISO 9000 standards is the second since they were first published in 1987. The revisions are being administered by ISO technical committee (TC) 176, in
which national delegations of experts from 74 countries participate. Consensus among the experts is required on the revisions to the texts before the drafts can be elevated to the FDIS stage. ISO/TC 176 is now processing the comments that were submitted by ISO members along with their DIS votes. This work will continue at the
committee's meeting planned for July 38 in Kyoto, Japan, where agreement for elevating the revised texts to FDIS status will be sought.
Information about the ISO 9000 revisions, including answers to frequently asked questions and transition-planning guidance, is posted on ISO's Web site at
www.iso.ch . Labor-Management Resource Published I
n good economic times with tight labor markets such as we have, it's difficult for many government organizations to retain good employees. As such,
providing quality service to the public and meeting the needs of its other "customers," the employees, becomes an issue of particular concern.
Labor-management cooperation is one tool that can help human resource managers and labor relations professionals meet the needs of their federal,
state and local government employees, according to the International Personnel Management Association (IPMA) and the National Public Employer Labor Relations Association (NPELRA).
Rather than trying to balance competing interests, cooperation allows labor and management to reduce the cost of services while increasing employee
satisfaction, which can lead to improved customer satisfaction. IPMA and NPELRA recently published Labor Management Cooperation in the Public Sector,
which includes case studies that illustrate how labor-management cooperation has taken shape in five different jurisdictions.
Also included are many ideas that may work in other sectors. Following the case studies is a chapter outlining common principles of labor-management
cooperation. The last chapter contains a list of resources, including must-reads for anyone involved in labor-management cooperation. To order
Labor Management Cooperation in the Public Sector, contact IPMA by telephone at (703) 549-7100, by fax at (703) 684-0948 or by e-mail at
publications@ipma-hr.org . The book can also be ordered from NPELRA by telephone at (202) 296-2230, by fax at (202) 293-2352 or by e-mail at
npelra@aol.com . Its price is $20.
ISO/TS 16949-Accredited Registrars
Grow in NumberIn a previous issue,
Quality Digest published a list of the registrars originally accredited to ISO/TS 16949. Although that list represented the most complete
information available at that time, the number of accredited registrars has continued to grow since the story first ran.
What follows is a complete list of all such accredited organizations according to the press-time version of the International Automotive Oversight Bureau Web site, www.iaob.com , which is also a good source of information about the new standard. Please note that some of the companies with headquarters
outside of the United States have U.S. offices and clients. Contact them to determine the scope of their service offerings.
- ABS Quality Evaluations (ABS)--U.S.
- American Quality Assessors (AQA)--U.S.
- AQSR International (AQSR)--U.S.
- Asociación española de normalización y certificación--Spain
- Association francaise pour l'assurance de la Qualite (APAQ)--France
- British Standards Institution (BSI)--U.K.
- BVQI (Holding) SA--U.K.
- CERTO S.r.l--Italy
- CISQ Automotive--Italy
- Det Norske Veritas Certification (DNV)--U.S.
- Deutsche Gesellschaft zür Zertifi-zierung von Managmentsystemen (DQS)--Germany
- Entela--U.S.
- ITS/Intertek Services Corp.--U.S.
- Japan Quality Assurance Organization (JQA)--Japan
- Korean Standards Association--Korea
- KPMG--U.S.
- Lloyds Register Quality Assurance (LRQA)--U.K.
- Osterreichische Vereinigung fur Qualitat-und Management-Systeme (OQS)--Austria
- Quality Assurance Services Pty. Ltd. (QAS)--Australia
- Quality Management Institute (QMI)--Canada
- SGS-ICS Gesellschaft fur Zertizierungen (SGS)--Germany
- Smithers Quality Assessments--U.S.
- South African Bureau of Standards (SABS)--South Africa
- Steel Related Industries (SRI)--U.S.
- TÜV CERT (RWTÜV)--Germany
- TÜV Management Service (TÜV-Management)--Germany
- TÜV-NORD--Germany
- TÜV Rheinland (TÜV)--Germany
- Underwriter's Laboratories (UL)--U.S.
- Union technique de l'automobile, du motocycle et du cycle (UTAC)--France
- Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA --U.K.
First ISO/TS 16949 Certificate Issued  E
ntela Inc.'s Quality Systems Registration Division, one of 31 registrars approved to grant certification to the automotive quality standard ISO/TS 16949,
has recently issued the first North American certification to Clarion Technologies Inc.'s Greenville, Michigan, plant.
 The ISO/TS 16949 standard is a pilot program of international standards for automotive suppliers.
The standard is based on ISO 9001:1994, AVSQ (Italian), EAQF (French), QS-9000 (U.S.) and VDA 6.1 (German). It was developed by members of the International
Automotive Task Force (IATF) to benefit suppliers by providing confidence for global sourcing, improving product and process quality, reducing variation
and waste, creating consistency in supplier/subcontractor development, and providing a worldwide quality system specification.
"This system is designed to help global suppliers meet tough standards without having to go through certifications one at a time," explains William Vosburg,
Entela's vice president of registration services. "The IATF issued a report announcing that ISO/TS 16949 will be accepted as the international equivalent
of a host of other standards now being used. The IATF said they do not intend to replace these other standards, but want to eliminate multiple registrations wherever possible."
Clarion Technologies is a full-service supplier of injection-molded plastic products to the heavy truck, automotive, furniture and consumer goods
industries. As such, Clarion provides capabilities ranging from product ideation, engineering and tooling to the manufacturing and assembly of the final product.
"Clarion is pleased to be a leader in the accomplishment of ISO/TS 16949," comments Clarion President Bill Beckman, who confirms that his company
plans to pursue ISO/TS 16949 certification for its other manufacturing locations. "Qualifying for ISO/TS 16949 allows us to be more efficient and
effective in providing products and services not only for the automotive industry, but for our other customers as well."
"We congratulate Clarion Technologies for the accomplishment," says Margaret Jenkins of Entela. "Clarion had a strong QS-9000-based quality
system in place, which made the transition to ISO/TS 16949 certification an easy one."  University Offers Online
Quality Masters Program
California State University at Dominguez Hills (CSUDH) has offered a master's degree in quality
assurance since 1986, but only recently has that offering been available wholly online. The more than 200 students currently enrolled in the fully accredited program are not
required to visit the Southern California campus. Contained within the CSUDH formal mission statement is the commitment to
"offer programs at times and places accessible to the populations" served by the school on campus, off campus and at those sites best served by
state-of-the-art technologies. Indeed, while most of the program's participants are from the United States, others hail from South Korea, Finland, Brazil,
Germany, Spain and Greenland, according to William H. Trappen, one of the program's faculty members and a retired director of product assurance for the Magnavox Corp.
More than a dozen people have graduated from the program with options in manufacturing, service or health care. Taking just one class per term (fall,
spring and summer), students can complete the required 33 units in three and a half years, paying a very competitive tuition of only $430 per class.
"Most courses consist of weekly readings and discussion questions, a midterm and a final," says Trappen. "The weekly work is not graded, and only the final
is required to be proctored, usually by a local ASQ [American Society for Quality] representative or the like."
Students submit work using the Internet through software titled "Blackboard." From the browser-based application, students can view others' work, submit
and retrieve comments, check grades, join online chat rooms and link to articles posted by professors.
A candidate for the Internet master's degree in quality assurance must meet CSUDH graduate admission requirements. To obtain a CSUDH application
and graduate admission requirements, call (310) 243-3300, or send your request to info@dhvx20.csudh.edu
. Candidates for the degree must have a bachelor's degree in a technical field from an accredited institution or, if in a nontechnical field, receive approval from the Quality Assurance Academic
Program Committee. Applicants should have backgrounds that include preparation in both college-level mathematics and computer concepts. 
Best Practices Information Best Practices LLC, a premier provider of best practice information, offers an
online database that provides customers quick and easy access to intelligence that makes them more successful. Access to database documents helps users
close performance gaps and eclipse competition. Membership is not required to use the database; simply click the areas of interest to perform a search. The
database includes business operations, customer service, human resources, sales and marketing, Internet e-business, knowledge management, samples and free reports.
www.practicedatabase.com Public Relations BSI Inc. has launched a new Web site, complete with a mini-course on how to develop public relations and launch an ad campaign, as a value-added vehicle
for customers. The site offers in-depth information about quality standards implementation and registration. Customers and others can explore topics such
as how to promote registration, with details on everything from developing public relations to the importance of community affairs and building brand awareness.
www.bsiamericas.com Internet Testing Standard Testengine.com is a network-based exam-delivery system that creates third-party exams and is an outsourcing agent for exam-delivery and analysis
systems. The company's mission is to dominate the computer-delivered testing market by making the Socrates Web-enabled Analytical Test-engine (SWAT)
the preferred method of Internet-based testing. SWAT is an automated and scaleable system architecture for all aspects of the exam delivery process. It
includes guidelines for exam design and quality assurance and is capable of supporting millions of examinees. SWAT provides a low-cost and low-maintenance approach to high-volume delivery.
www.testengine.com Multi-Lingual CAM2 Web Site FARO Technologies Inc., a leading provider of computer-aided manufacturing measurement, has announced the release of its five-language Web site with an
interactive electronic product catalog. Fully functional in English, German, Spanish, French and Japanese, the site appeals to engineering, manufacturing
and quality control personnel who use dimensional measurements to inspect, report and control processes within their design and manufacturing parameters.
FARO's products play a key role in the worldwide trend toward CAD-based total quality management for shortened production cycles and for the reduction in scrap and rework.
www.faro.com To submit your Web site for consideration, e-mail a description of its content to contact_us .
Because of space constraints, not all submissions can be published. |
