Niagara Specialty Metals Receives AS9100 Certification

Quality system certification is important for improving quality and attracting new customers. AS9100 is a widely adopted and standardized quality management system for the aerospace industry.

Learn how one Akron, NY company achieved AS9100 Certification through the combined efforts of Insyte Consulting and a committed internal team.

Niagara Specialty Metals (NSM) is a rolling mill that processes highly-alloyed steels into sheet and plate. They also provide conversion processing for titanium, temperature and corrosion-resistant metals, electronic alloys and other difficult to manufacture metals.

In business since 1982, NSM is an ESOP company, 100% employee-owned, with approximately 30 employees. A great workforce and management team have combined to create a culture where many employees of the company have been there for over 20 years.

NSM approached Insyte in December, 2008 to address the need for AS9100 certification. The reasons for this initiative were: (1) to make business operations repeatable and consistent with a solid infrastructure to support future growth, and (2) to allow the company to expand its business base. This included both new customers who required AS9100 certification as a prerequisite for doing business and existing customers who were establishing new requirements for their supplier base.

Although NSM already felt they had good quality procedures in place, they realized that a better process would further improve their current system. The goal was to achieve certification within a 12 month period. To underscore their commitment to meet their goal, a key employee was promoted to the full time position of Quality Manager to oversee the project as internal champion.

Insyte began working with NSM in January, 2009, breaking the project into two phases. The first phase included:

• Training the management team on the details of the AS9100 standard and establishing internal roles for the management of the system
• Providing an overview of the standard and expectations for all employees
• Drafting a quality manual
• Developing required procedures
• Establishing regular management review meetings to manage the implementation and ensure compliance with the system
• Establishing appropriate metrics
• Establishing a corrective and preventative action system
• Integrating the existing IT system to support the new quality system
• Developing a method for maintaining and sharing level 3 work instructions
• Auditor training and initiating internal audits
• Creating necessary forms to support required records

Phase two activities involved allowing the system to work through the cycle of establishing various practices, identifying improvements, and updating the system. During phase two, the focus of management review meetings changed to audit feedback and corrective actions to improve the system:

• Initiating the use of the quality system
• Reviewing audit findings and identification of improvements and needed changes to the system
• Establishing records to demonstrate functionality
• Training appropriate personnel on specific procedures
• Conducting a two day mock audit to identify any remaining gaps in the system
• Using findings from the mock audit to finalize the system and prepare for certification audit
• Support for the Company during the certification audit

Throughout the project, key internal team members were an integral part of the process to ensure long-term, sustainable improvements once the project was completed.