Digicom receives AS9100:2016 and ISO 9001:2015 certifications

Prepared by the International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG), with representatives from aviation, space, and defense companies in the Americas, Asia/Pacific and Europe, AS9100:2016 (RevD) standardises quality management system requirements.

Requirements for AS9100:2016 (RevD) are specific to the context of the organisation, leadership, planning, support, operation, performance evaluation, and improvement. It indicates that a company is dedicated to improved quality, cost, delivery, and performance. This standard includes ISO 9001:2015 quality management system requirements and specifies additional aviation, space, and defense industry requirements and definitions. Digicom's quality management system certification is applicable to the manufacture and test of printed circuit boards and electro-mechanical assemblies/system integration in accordance with customer specifications.

"This certification doesn't just indicate that Digicom has a quality management system. It involves so much more," explained Douglas Sutherland, President & CEO of NeXsys Group, the professional services company that assisted Digicom in achieving AS9100 and ISO certifications. "It also involves top management's commitment and leadership to define their strategic business vision as it is influenced by those applicable interested party's requirements. It shows a company is committed to carrying out an efficient and productive business process management system. Especially for an EMS company, it demonstrates that they have a design and development process for how to build something and a methodology to weed out and mitigate potential problems or failures."

"AS9100:2016 (RevD) is a new certification and we are excited to be one of the first to achieve it," said Mo Ohady, General Manager for Digicom Electronics. "The Society of Aerospace Engineers (SAE) maintains a database of companies with AS9100:2016 (RevD) certification, and we are one of a very small group of EMS companies listed. Digicom also has ISO 13485:2003 certification for medical device quality. With AS9100:2016, ITAR, and ISO 9001:2015 we will now have access to aerospace and military as well as defense contract work. We'd like to thank Doug Sutherland of NeXsys for his guidance, coaching, and support in helping us to achieve these certifications. It is a daunting task to fulfill the requirements for certification, but his knowledge and understanding of the process were an integral part of our success."

AS9100:2016 (RevD) includes new requirements above and beyond those specified in the previous revision AS9100C. They address risk-based thinking, make it more explicit, and build it into the whole management system. It ensures that risk is considered from the beginning and throughout and makes prevention part of strategic and operational planning. It provides a framework to enable organisations to adapt to their changing environments or circumstances, involves organisational knowledge, product safety, counterfeit parts prevention, awareness by employees of their contribution, and to consider human factors in the root cause analysis for nonconformities. Obsolescence must also be considered in the planning process.