Table of Contents
Extent of Implementation pf AS9100 Certification by SME in Asia 1
1 Instruction 1634 3
1.1 The Research Background 3
1.2 The Research Problem 4
1.3 The Purpose of the Study 4
1.4 The Significance of the Study 5
1.5 Summary 5
2 The Review of Literature 2886 7
2.1 History of Research 7
2.1.1 The Phase of Quality Inspection 7
2.1.2 The Phase of Statistical Quality Control 7
2.1.3 The Phase of Total Quality Management 8
2.1.4 The Phase of Quality Management Standard 8
2.1.5 The Phase of Quality Management Standard of Specific Trade 9
2.2 Review of Key Studies 9
2.2.1 The Study of Deming 10
2.2.2 The Study of Juran 10
2.2.3 The Study of Crosby 10
2.2.4 The Study of AS9100 12
2.3 Evaluation of Key Studies 12
2.3.1 Evaluation of Quality Inspection 12
2.3.2 Evaluation of Statistical Quality Control 12
2.3.3 Evaluation of TQM 13
2.3.4 Evaluation of ISO 9000 and AS 9100 13
2.4 Summary 14
3 Theoretical Framework Relevant to AS 9100 and Research Methodology 2500 15
3.1 Theoretical Framework Relevant to AS 9100 1035 15
3.1.1 Content and Applicable Extent of AS 9100 15
3.1.2 Significance of AS9100 16
3.1.3 Steps of Implementation of AS 9100 16
3.2 Research Methodology and Subjects 17
3.2.1 Research Methodology 17
3.2.2 Research Subjects 18
3.2.3 Research Approach 19
4 Present situation 19
5 Necessity and feasibility 19
6 Strategy 19
7 References 20
1 Instruction 1634
This Study was intended to discuss ’extent of implementation of AS9100 certification by SME in Asia’ and this chapter will introduce some basic information, such as background and significance.
1.1 The Research Background
Aerospace industry is a typically industry whose space continually expands. At one hand, it benefits from the constant expansion of the civil application of aerospace industry. The civil application means the more customers, as well as wider and wider market share of aerospace industry. At the other hand, as the financial strength of the government enhances, investment to the aerospace industry also experiences a corresponding growth. The constant expansion of aerospace industry provides a broad market space for the rapid growth of the enterprises in this trade. At present, in Asia, aerospace industry has developed rapidly. China, as the representative of Asia, has created a lot aerospace miracles. In the future, the governments of China and the whole Asia will continue to dramatically increase investment to the aerospace sphere so as to enhance the technical capabilities of Asia space industry to and to accelerate the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements. The industry chain formed by China's aerospace industry will reach a scale of 120 billion Yuan.
AS 9100 is a set of aerospace quality management system which is specifically studied and promulgated for aerospace manufacturers. In the early 1990s, ISO 9001:1987 was emerging globally as the commercial equivalent QMS requirement for most industries. ISO 9001 is the standard of quality assurance developed by the organization of international standardization and it is the worldwide definitive standard of quality assurance. However, the rapid development of aerospace industry caused many weaknesses in the application process of ISO9100 certification. the aerospace industry has to serve different customers with differing requirements, from the military to NASA to commercial, business and private aviation, so one of important problems is that both sides of certification aerospace industry need to build up a huge system and bear the higher cost of the follow-up audit in order to implement a quality management certification. Therefore, the aerospace industry wanted to eliminate dual or redundant quality systems and adopt a single definition for QMS requirements. Aerospace industry needs a specialized certification system and AS9100 also develops rapidly. Considering the requirements of particularity, complexity and strict control of the aviation industry, AS9100 makes complementarities to ISO9001, highlighting controlling the key characteristics and meeting internal and external requirements and regulations. In summer of 1995, Aerospace department of American Society of Automotive Engineers began to study and formulate the standards of aerospace quality system. In October 1996, the first draft of standard- SAE ARD 9100 was promulgated. After development of ten years, this system rapidly improved, and in 2004, the standard of AS9100: 2004, a more mature edition, was promulgated. AS9100 adapts to the complex and unique requirements from civil industry to aerospace industry of national defence. This standard certification is applicable to all the aerospace fields, including design and manufacturing of aircraft and its parts and accessories, operation of Airport and airline, the supply of aviation spare parts, the maintenance and repair of aircraft and its annex, operation of flight and handling of cargo, etc.
The rapid development of Asian aerospace industry brings along development of a large number of small- middle enterprises (SME). They fill the blank in the fields of many details which are ignored by large enterprises, so large and small enterprises form a very good complementary relationship and develop in phase in the field of aerospace. SME has a rare development space but do not have a corresponding pace of development. One of the important reasons is behindhand management. In the early period of SME establishment, its business is not much and the importance of management is not significant, so it is not necessary to put in a lot of funds for the construction of quality management system (QMS). However, due to the constant improvement of the market, the different demands of consumer groups and the special requirements of aerospace towards high quality, it is essential for SME to strengthen internal management and improve the quality level in order to survive and sustain development. The standard system of AS9100 provides a set of advanced management mode for enterprise management and it is an effective tool for SME to compete in the market. At the same time, implementation of quality management system of AS9100 is often the requirements of the mainstream manufacturers in the aviation industry. Therefore, more and more SEMs are beginning to try to use a series of standards of AS9100 to manage the enterprise.
1.2 The Research Problem
Since June 1999, after the issuance of the final draft of AS9100 standard, in Asia, more and more enterprises have gradually started to manage according to AS9100 standard. In China, especially after joining in the WTO, the certification centres of AS9100 set up one by one, aerospace manufacturers have also started to implement AS9100 certification. As for the AS9100 researchers of theory and practice, they hope to know in the aerospace industry, what percentage of SME passes the AS9100 certification, whether these enterprises experience a significant development or not, whether other enterprises should rapidly apply to AS9100. Therefore, the study object of this paper is extent of implementation of AS9100 certification by small- middle enterprise in Asia, mainly facing Chinese aerospace SME and touching upon Asian SME. This paper makes an investigation about the ratio of SME which have obtained AS9100 certification and the situation of AS9100 implementation, analyzes whether their management improves or not, as well as discusses the ways to better implement AS9100 certification in China and Asia.
1.3 The Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to investigate and assess extent of implement AS9100 in SME of Asia and identify ways in which companies implement AS9100. Concretely, there are three intentions:
The first objective is to survey the Asia market perception of AS9100 Certification. Especially make sampling inquiry and statistical inquiry in SME of China and then touch upon companies in Asia.
The second one is to clear up the reasons why these SMEs implement AS9100 successfully or unsuccessfully. This needs to refer to a lot literature and consult experts about the professional knowledge to analyse this current situation.
The third one is to identify the ways that would facilitate increased AS9100 implementation in SME in Asia. This is the most significant purpose, because all of the surveys of status and analysis of reasons are to solve the problems and make AS9100 better accelerate development of SME.
1.4 The Significance of the Study
AS9100 is a new product in the era of quality management. Therefore, analysis and discussion of application status of AS9100 in SME of China and the Asian is of great significance for the theoretical and practical fields that.
In the aspect of theory research, this study provides basic materials for the improvement of AS9100. After all, not all the requirements of the aerospace establishment are contained in AS9100, especially towards small- middle enterprises. Therefore, by meticulous analysis of application of AS9100, this paper can disclose the shortage of AS9100 and it is helpful for the scholars to further improve AS9100.
In the aspect of practice, this study is beneficial to small- middle enterprises to better apply AS9100. At one hand, to those which have applies AS9100, this paper can point error and weakness of application, so they can make corrections. At the other hand, to those which are ready to apply AS9100, they can see a lot of experiences of others. Therefore, they can make use of their successful ways and avoid making the same mistakes. Moreover, added the measures that this paper proposes, these small- middle enterprises have a correct direction and instruction of application of AS9100.
In the aspect of practice, this study is also good for certification institutions. Through the investigation of the market, they are clear about potential of their market. At the same time, they can consummate their service, because they have known the requirement of those small- middle enterprises.
1.5 Summary
The research content of this paper is extent of implementation of AS9100 certification by small- middle enterprise in Asia and is organized as follows:
The first chapter is introduction. This part introduces the background of the study and points out the significances in the fields of both theory and practice. Furthermore, the structure and main methods of the research are illustrated.
The second chapter is the review of literature. First this part provides a brief history of the empirical research on the subject. Then the key empirical studies are selected to give a summary. Finally, the findings of the studies are evaluated. It is certain that the research of this paper takes the previous studies as the basis and further study the part which have not be done or solved.
The second chapter is the theory of this paper. This part gives a presentation of the theory related to AS9100 certification, such as its content, development, function. This is a theoretical basis of the latter study.
The third chapter is the analysis of current market. This part investigates the market of small- middle enterprise in aerospace field and analyzes the extension of implementation of AS9100, the potential of market of the small- middle enterprise, as well as the situation and effect of the application of AS9100.
The fourth chapter is the exploration of the reasons of the status. This part analyzes the features of small- middle enterprise and why the implementation of AS9100 certification has so many benefits and also many problems happen.
The fifth chapter is the discussion of countermeasures. According to the features of small- middle enterprise and the reasons of situation of AS9100 implementation, this part brings forward some measures about the better application of AS9100 in small- middle enterprise.
2 The Review of Literature 2886
This chapter provides a summary of literature about quality management system in all of fields, aerospace industry included. This part will conclude the strengths and weaknesses of previous researches, as well as give a research direction of future study.
2.1 History of Research
The constant requirement for quality of the society gives an impetus to the development of quality management. According to the features of quality management in the practice of developed countries, it can be divided into four phases.
2.1.1 The Phase of Quality Inspection
From the beginning to 1930s in the 20th century, quality management belongs to the phase of quality inspection. The feature of this period is the functions of fabrication and checkout is separated. Before, inspection of the products was done by the workers themselves, so the functions of fabrication and testing were centralized in the same person. F. W. Taylor, the founder of scientific management, proposed that this centralization had a lot of defects and operators and managers must be parted. With progress of science and technology and growth of productivity, the scale of the enterprise continually expanded, so the concept of management division was brought forward. Gradually, in factory, there were special member of quality inspection, the position of quality inspection and the department of quality inspection.
The theory of quality inspection is the theory of interchangeability and the concept of tolerance under the condition of mass production. These are basis of the introduction and development of this theory. The practical knowledge is various inspected methods. These skills are actual practice and the application of the theory.
2.1.2 The Phase of Statistical Quality Control
The period of statistical quality control is from 1940s to 1950s. Its characteristic is the development from mere post-mortem testing to working procedure control and it focuses the management mode associating precautionary control with post-mortem testing. Because of the defects of quality inspection, such as post-mortem inspection and total inspection, some experts of quality management and mathematics paid attention to these weaknesses and tried to use the statistical principles to solve these problems. The doctor W. A. Shewhart who lead the group of process control and the doctor H. F. Dodge who guided the group of product control in American Bell laboratory contributed a lot to the development of statistical quality control.
The important theory is statistics. In 1924, W. A. Shewhart proposed the concept of “beforehand control and preventing wasters” and invented usable “figure of quality control” using statistic principles so as to solve the weakness of post- mortem inspection. In 1931, H. F. Dodge and H. G. Roming advanced the concept of sampling and the way of sampling, as well as designed a practicable “sampling inspection” in order to solve the avoid the questions brought by total inspection and devastating inspection. These research results have so far-reaching influence that until now, they have been applied.
2.1.3 The Phase of Total Quality Management
The period from 1960s until now is the phase of total quality management (TQM). The features of TQM are total objects, total procedure and total employees. At the end of 1950s, in the aspect of technology, it advanced rapidly, large scale system began to come forth and artificial satellite and computer of integrated circuit came out. In the aspect of international trade, with the changes of international situation, competition of international trade became drastic and the quality of products demanded to further increase. In the facet of science, systematic science which emphasizes the opinion of general complexion appeared. All these promoted the birth of TQM. TQM requires the products and service supported by corporations are of high quality. In addition, management system is required of high grade, including producing, designing, purchasing, repairing, personnel, accounting and administration.
In the growth of TQM, there appeared many theories. L. D. Deming, J. M. Juran and Philip Crosby made much contribution and had their distinctive theories. Deming claimed to eliminate the slogan, but Crosby protested the slogan of “zero quality defect”. Deming affirmed to implement TQM from the high level to grass roots, but Juran believed that TQC should begin from middle-level management.
Until now, the theory and practice of TQM is still improving. It stresses high quality, demands of customer, precautionary control, quantitative analysis and collaboration. It is a set of scientific management system and well satisfies the requirements of modern production.
2.1.4 The Phase of Quality Management Standard
The phase of quality management standard is about from 1980s to now. Its feature is the appearance of standard of quality management and ISO 9000 is its typical representative. Growth of trade needs product’s quality to comply with the uniform standard so as to facilitate comparing between different products and companies. Ceaseless improvement of TQC theory and extensive practice of many enterprises give a theoretical and practical basis to emergence of quality management standard. As a result, many nations and regional organizations issue a series of quality assurance standards to be certification foundation and evaluation rules between suppliers and demanders. However, development of international trade and globalization of international economy further demands quality management system of enterprises international unification, because the shortage of unification brings a great deal of difficulty to the companies of different countries in technical collaboration, quality certification and trade come-and-go. Therefore, in 1979, international organization for standardization (ISO) established committee of quality assurance technics (ISO, TC176) to study unification in the field of quality assurance and take charge to constitute international standards of quality system. In 1987, the first edition of ISO 9000 system of standards was published. It meets quality management demands in the aspects o production, communication and collaboration in the whole world. In 1994, ISO 9000 is emended and ISO 9000: 1994 was published and applied in mane countries and districts.
It is a fact that ISO 9000 and TQM are developed at the same time, so it is impossible to divide them into two periods. The reason why maturation of ISO 9000 is called the fourth phase is that it is later than the appearance of TQM. In new era, the essential feature of quality management is correct combination of TQM and ISO9000, because quality management must be solved in two facets. One is that the action of people must be controlled and standardized by standards. The other is that quality management must be centred by people and exert people’s initiative. Accordingly, ISO9000 is quality management centred by the standard and TQM is one taking people as the center. ISO9000 focuses criterion management and TQM pays attention to continual improvement. People can organize the activities by TQM to impulse group to set up quality system according to ISO9000, and then solidify results of the TQM activities by ISO9000 standards.
2.1.5 The Phase of Quality Management Standard of Specific Trade
In order to magnify the extent of ISO 9000, ISO, TC176 enlarged the collaboration with relevant technical committees and trades to constitute international quality management system of specific trade.Based on ISO9000, some industries associated their own features to create new quality management systems. For example, American the three largest automobile corporations establish QS9000 system, the field of communication sets up TL9000 system and aerospace industry establishes AS9100.
Because this paper mainly discusses AS9100, this part briefly introduces the history of AS9100. Because of quality system requirements for aerospace industry, AS9000 was issued by SAE in May 1997. In order to constitute quality management system standard of aerospace industry, aerospace technology committee of international standardization group (ISO, TC20) established the WG11 group. The group took AS9000 as chief source and constituted quality management system standard of aerospace industry according to the frame of ISO standard. Then, AS9100 became available in November 1999 and superceded AS9000. In December, 1998, international aerospace quality group (IAQG) was set up and it superseded WG11 of ISO, TC20 to constitute the standard. After that, AS9100: 2001 was issued in August, 2001, in which section 1 is based on ISO 9001 : 2000 and section 2 is based on ISO 9001 : 1994. Finally, AS9100: 2004, revision B was published in Jan 2004.
2.2 Review of Key Studies
This part will choose the key studies that have a bearing on the research of quality management and make a summary about them. Pertinent information of the subjects is cited in the table 2-1.
Then the theories about TQM and relevant international standards are detailedly introduced, because they have a close relation with the research object of this paper.
2.2.1 The Study of Deming
In the field of TQM, the most contributions of Deming are “Deming cycle” and “Deming's 14 Points”. Here, Deming cycle is mainly explained.
Deming cycle is a model of ceaseless quality improvement and it is also called Deming wheel and PDCA cycle. It includes four steps- plan, do, check and act. Concretely, firstly, plan to transform and analyse and predict the result. Secondly, do the plan and progress with small extent in the controllable environment. Thirdly, check the result of the second step. Fourthly, take some actions to standardize and improve the process. Therefore quality management is upgrading. Its advantages are manifested in the two points. One is that it is adapted for daily management of individuals and group, as well as management of the project. The other is that it is beneficial to continual development, the growth of suppliers, human resource and R&D of new products and process inspection.
2.2.2 The Study of Juran
Quality management theory of Juran is mainly famous “Juran three steps”. Its essential idea is that quality management is realized through three basic quality processes of internal relevance and ordinal arrangement. They are respectively quality scheme, quality control and quality improvement. Every process has its own specific intention and they are compared in table 2-2.
2.2.3 The Study of Crosby
Philip Crosby addressed the method of “zero defects” in quality management. It takes 100% zero defects as its purpose, for the reason that establishment of acceptable defect has to lead to self- satisfaction to this level and this defect level will become the standard. Its core demand is that every employee must concisely complete the mission ay the first time. It is concluded four theorems of quality management. The first one is that definition of quality must apply with demands. The second one is that nipping in the bud is the rule of quality management. The third one is that the executive standards must be “zero defects”, not “almost zero defects”. The fourth one is the object of scaling is cost of not conforming to standards.
Tab. 2-1 Review of key studies of quality management
Tab. 2-2 Comparison between Juran three steps
................| Time | Leading exponents | Issue | Theories | Finding |
| Early 1900s | F. W. Taylor | Quality inspection | interchangeability and tolerance | The functions of operation and inspection were separated. |
| 1924 | W. A. Shewhart | Quality control | Statistics | “Beforehand control” was advanced and “chart of quality control” was invented. |
| 1931 | H. F. Dodge & H. G. Roming | Quality control | Statistics | “Sampling” was proposed and “table of sampling test” was designed. |
| 1924 | W. A. Shewhart | TQM | Probability & statistics | “Chart of process control” was bought forward. |
| 1920s | L. D. Deming, | TQM | Kaizen, just- in- time and quality management. | “Deming cycle” and “Deming's 14 Points” was invented. |
| 1920s | J. M. Juran | TQM | Pareto efficiency & quality management | “Juran three steps” was raised. |
| 1960s | Philip Crosby | TQM | Quality management | “Zero Defects” was put forward. |
| 1987 | ISO | International quality standard | Eight principles of quality management | The first edition of ISO 9000 system of standards was published |
| 1994 | ISO | International quality standard | Eight principles of quality management | ISO 9000: 1994 was published. |
| 1997 | SAE | International quality standard in aerospace industry | The theories of quality management and aerospace industry | AS9000 was issued. |
| 1999 | SAE | AS9100 | The theories of quality management and aerospace industry | AS9100 became available. |
| 2001 | SAE | AS9100: 2001 | The theories of quality management and aerospace industry | AS9100: 2001 was issued. |
| 2004 | SAE | AS9100: 2004 | The theories of quality management and aerospace industry | AS9100: 2004, revision B was published |
Tab. 2-2 Comparison between Juran three steps
| Three steps | Process | Results |
| Quality scheme | Preparative process | Develop a process which can satisfy quality destination. |
| Quality control | Executive process | Implement a plan |
| Quality improvement | A process of attaining a new level | Work in the level better than before |
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