November 21, 2019 Industry Forum Blog The AESQ held its most recent bi-annual supplier forum in Toulouse, France on the 9th October, 2019. The AESQ is a group of Aerospace engine manufacturers joined together to create the Aerospace Engine Supplier Quality group. The objective of the group is to discuss and identify opportunities to develop joint requirements for the Aerospace engine supply chain. Meet the AESQ The event was attended by 140 representatives from suppliers to AESQ member companies and other interested parties, such as Airbus. SMMT Industry Forum was represented by Richard Hammond, Principal Consultant Aerospace Management Systems. During the day, a number of key themes were developed. The first message was very clear and was led by Airbus: “Safety first” should be the policy of all organisations within the aerospace sector. The message was very stark. Air traffic doubles every 15 years. In 2016, there were 23,000 active aircraft and by 2036 this number will be 45,000. The current accident rate, whilst very low, cannot rise in line with the rise in active aircraft. To put this into perspective, there were 7,100 billion passenger kilometres flown in 2016. This will be 17,000 billion in 2036. Based on these numbers, in 2036, unless there are improvements in reliability, there would be two aircraft crashes every week. This is obviously not acceptable to the end user or the industry. The second theme was that to support safety first, the whole industry from prime organisations such as Airbus, through to the supply chain, will need to focus on Quality, with Zero Defects being the goal. The AESQ message for zero defects was reinforced. The overall Quality Management System framework to support this, and underpinned by AESQ standards, is still evolving as the work of the AESQ continues, but for the moment looks like this: To emphasise the importance of this framework, the AESQ sponsored 4 case studies: • AS13004 Process Failure Modes and Effects analysis was presented by FACC, a supplier to Rolls-Royce. • AS13003 Measurement System Analysis was presented by Mechachrome, a supplier to MTU Aero Engine. • AS13006 Process Control Methods was presented by Pratt & Whitney Kalisz, a supplier to Pratt & Whitney. • AS13000 Problem Solving was presented by Meggit, a supplier to Safrane Aircraft Engines. It was clear that the focus of the AESQ was moving away from just agreeing and publishing aero engine supply chain standards, to now wanting to drive deployment within the industry. Without deployment, there can be no improvements. It was recognised that the AESQ could only go so far with this. Each of the founding AESQ members now mandate supplier compliance to these standards and AS9145 APQP/PPAP within their supplier requirements documents. These are Rolls-Royce SABRe, GE S-1000, P&W ASQR-01 and Safrane SAFe. It was recognised that more is needed and the AESQ set a challenge to the industry regarding deployment of the standards created to date. The challenge took the form of a simple question set, which strikes at the very core of implementation and deployment: Mind Set • Does your organisation have a clear strategy and vision in place to drive your defect prevention journey? • Is your senior leadership fully committed to lead and drive your defect prevention strategy across your organisation? • Do you believe your organisation’s defect prevention strategy is clear and understood by everyone across your organisation? • Has your organisation identified the biggest things in the way of your defect prevention journey and developed a plan to resolve them? • Are all of your business functions actively engaged in the execution of the defect prevention strategy? Execution • How well does your organisation understand the defect prevention tools and methods? • How is your organisation strengthening the skills of both your leaders and technical staff in the use of the defect prevention tools? • Is your training program for the AS13XXX standards adequate to ensure that your organisation understands the requirements and knows how to apply them? • Has your organisation embedded the standards into your Quality Management system? • Has your organisation identified people across the business that are fully dedicated to deploy and execute your defect prevention plan? If your organisation is seeking support to address the questions above then Industry Forum, an approved AESQ training provider can help. We can provide assistance with: • strategy development • gaps analysis • training • implementation support. – November 2019 authored by Richard Hammond To find out more about how Industry Forum can support your journey of improvement and achieving zero defects, visit our website, email us or phone +44 121 717 6600 to talk to our expert practitioners. A Bit More About Richard Richard Hammond has over 30 years of auditing and consulting experience within automotive and aerospace sectors. He began his career at Rolls Royce Motors Plc, where he graduated to the role of Maintenance and Installation Engineer, before progressing to his current position as Principal Consultant at Industry Forum via Industrial Robotics and Certification Body Auditing. As a qualified SMMT trainer, Richard delivers the recognised International Automotive Task Force (IATF) ISO/TS16949 Certification Body Auditor training and evaluation. Richard is an approved IATF Witness Auditor and delivers Core Tools training (APQP, PPAP, SPC, MSA, FMEA and Control Plan) into major aerospace and automotive OEMs and tier 1 suppliers. Click here to contact Richard.
