AQA International provides Third-Party assessment and registration
of a customer's management system to standards such as the ISO
9001 series, ISO 14001, QS-9000, AS9000/AS9100, and TS 16949.
ISO 9001
ISO 16949
ISO 14001
AS 9000
ISO 9001
After it's introduction in 1987, the ISO 9001 series have gone
through two revisions: one in 1994, and last, major one in December
of 2000. First revision (1994) updated terminology and confirmed
an equal status of production and service industries. Second,
major revision (2000), restructured QMS requirements, introduced
eight management principles, including process approach, defined
customer focused organization and continuous improvement. Nowadays,
over 150 countries world-wide have accepted the ISO 9001 standards
as their national standards. All these activities have resulted
in a so called "world-wide ISO boom" that started in 1993 (27,816
ISO 9001 certificates all around the world) with more than 670,000
certificates by the end of 2004 (670,399 in 154 countries).
ISO TS 16949
The "Big Three" (Chrysler Corporation, Ford Motor Company, General
Motors Corporation) Suppliers Quality Requirements Task Force
as well as some truck manufacturers (Freightliner, Mack Trucks,
Navistar International - Transportation, PACCAR, and Volvo BM
Heavy) have published "Quality System Requirements QS-9000" -
standards for automotive industry. The goal was to provide a common
path and synchronization in terminology, product development,
realization and reporting through out the industry. Big Three,
various truck manufacturers and other subscribing companies require
their first and second tier suppliers to be QS 9000 registered,
and third tier to comply with QS-9000 requirements. QS-9000 standard
applies to internal and external suppliers of production materials,
production and service parts, heat treating, painting, plating
and/or other finishing services provided to the automotive industry.
QS-9000 standard have been initially published in August 1994.
Since the initial publication, it has been revised two times:
in February 1995 (Second Edition) and in April 1998 (Third Edition).
The suppliers have been mandated to implement the Third Edition's
requirements by January 1st 1999. This standard is based on ISO
9001:1994 which expired on December 15, 2003. Transition period
to TS 16949 was extended to the end of 2006.
ISO/TS 16949 - Quality Systems Application of ISO 9001 is based
on the process aproach outlined in zear 2000 revision and integrates
QS 9000 with the French, German and Italian standards for automotive
industry (VDA 6.1, AVSQ and EAQF). The objective of this standard
is to enhance quality system in promoting continual improvement,
defect prevention and reduction of variation and waste.
General Motors, Ford Motor Company and DaimlerChrysler have announced
that they began requiring their suppliers to implement EMS (Environmental
Management Systems). Ford is requiring all production and nonproduction
suppliers to certify one manufacturing site to ISO 14001 by December
31, 2001 with all supplier sites to be certified to the ISO 14001
standard by July 1, 2003. General Motors stated that by end of
2002, suppliers must certify EMS in their operations. DaimlerChrysler
is requiring its suppliers to be third-party registered to an
EMS based on ISO 14001 by January 1, 2003.
The total number of certificates awarded by the end of 2004 was
10.056 in 62 countries.
ISO 14001
In January 1993, ISO created Technical Committee 207 which is
charged with the development of the ISO 14001 series of standards.
ISO 14001 is a set of international standards considering environmental
issues. The first of the ISO 14001 family of standards for environmental
management were published in September 1996 and are now rapidly
becoming well known world-wide.
Certification started in 1995 with 257 certified organizations
to ISO 14001. The total number of certificates awarded by the
end of 2004 was 90,569 in 127 countries.
Currently registration for ISO 14001 is provided according to 2004 standard revision.
AS 9000
AS9000, Aerospace Basic Quality System, is the aerospace version
of ISO 9000. AS9000 contains ISO 9001 in its entirety with the
addition of 27 clarifications or qualifiers and 8 notes to the
existing twenty elements of ISO 9001. The document was developed
by a consortium of aerospace prime contractors operating as a
subcommittee (AAQG) under the Aerospace and Defence Division of
the American Society for Quality Control - with input from ANSI-RAB
and the Independent Association of Accredited Registrars (IAAR).
The concepts of AS9000 have been endorsed by Boeing, Lockheed-Martin,
McDonnell Douglas, GEAE, Pratt & Whitney, AlliedSignal, and Allison
Engine Company. These seven prime contractors have stated their
intention to pursue the goals and objectives embodied within AS9000.
Standard was finally developed by: AlliedSignal, Allison Engine,
Boeing, General Electric Aircraft Engines, Lockheed-Martin, McDonnell
Douglas, Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney, Rockwell-Collins,
Sikorsky, and Sunstrand.
