Certification to AS9100 Rev. C Opens New Opportunities for ENSCO Avionics

ENSCO Avionics, Inc. has achieved certification to the AS9100 Revision C Aerospace Standard for the following scope:
Provision of aviation, space and defense software solutions including requirements analysis, design and development, system integration, verification and validation, quality assurance and customer support.

This is a significant achievement that has resulted from the dedication and hard work of the ENSCO Avionics management and staff at all levels with the assistance of the Alliance for Manufacturing and Technology (AM&T).

Background: ENSCO Avionics decided that it was necessary to expand its software development focus within the aerospace industry for continued business growth. Specifically, it decided to position itself as a development partner to major aerospace firms and to focus on global opportunities. It quickly recognized that in order to gain further legitimacy and success in the highly competitive aerospace industry, it was necessary to achieve certification to the AS9100 Aerospace Standard. In order to facilitate the definition and documentation of a certifiable Quality Management System (QMS) and to do so in a timeframe required to satisfy existing customers and meet its business objectives, ENSCO Avionics requested the assistance of AM&T in May of 2009.

Solution: ENSCO Avionics was already a recognized leading supplier of software services in conformance with RTCA’s DO-178B air worthiness guidelines and had also begun an initiative to incorporate best practice project management principles defined by the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) "Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK)." Therefore, it was decided that the ENSCO Avionics goal must be to seamlessly integrate the requirements of AS9100 Rev C/ ISO 9001:2008, the guidelines of RTCA DO-178B and the principles of the PMBoK into a comprehensive QMS. This would provide the company with a substantial competitive advantage in ensuring satisfaction of customer requirements on-time and within cost and in turn meet business goals of revenue, profit and employee development and morale.

In May of 2009, ENSCO Avionics and AM&T began what would become a two and a half year partnership taking full advantage of the synergy of the two organizations. The combination of ENSCO Avionics software systems and business area skills and AM&T’s AS9100 quality process and certification process skills successfully culminated in the definition of ENSCO Avionics’ QMS and its AS9100 Revision C certification.

This was AM&T’s first involvement in a project to develop a software engineering QMS and included the following:

ENSCO Avionics management and key technical personnel participated in a detailed half-day AM&T briefing in which they were introduced to the requirements of the AS9100 Standard and how those requirements might impact the company’s operations.

• The ENSCO Avionics AS9100 Management Representative and AM&T’s lead AS9100 consultant identified each of ENSCO’s processes and evaluated them in terms of their ability to meet the combined requirements of the AS9100 Standard, DO- 178B and the PMBoK.

• ENSCO Avionics and AM&T jointly developed a quality policy manual that addressed each clause of the AS9100 Standard and identified how each of ENSCO’s processes met the requirements.

• With AM&T’s support, a series of operating procedures that documented each of the ENSCO Avionics internal processes was developed, verified with internal users and implemented.

• Once the documented system was implemented, AM&T, with ENSCO Avionics assistance, began performing internal audits intended to ensure that the implemented system was functioning in agreement with the requirements of the defined QMS.

The original intent of this joint QMS development effort was to achieve certification to Revision C of the AS9100 Standard. All of the documentation was developed and implemented with that objective in mind. However, when ENSCO Avionics made its initial application for certification, it was informed that a new certification auditing standard (AS9101D), which had been written to guide registrars in their Revision C auditing activities, had not been approved for use and would not be ready within the ENSCO Avionics required timeframe. ENSCO Avionics had no choice but to modify its system to comply with the previous Revision B version of the standard and its audit checklist. This unexpected delay required several modifications to the documented QMS. Shortly after completion of this effort, the modified QMS was subjected to the registrar’s Revision B conformance audit and received Revision B certification on November 14, 2010. Subsequently, the revised AS9101D (for AS9100 Revision C) audit checklist was approved and the ENSCO Avionics Revision C QMS was audited and certified on December 16, 2011.

Results: ENSCO Avionics, whose partnership with AM&T resulted in the successful definition, implementation and certification of its QMS, has increased its competitiveness in the aerospace sector and has begun to produce additional revenue opportunities. The ENSCO Avionics management team has described specific benefits resulting from their certification as follows:

• "It is already a significant business enabler – ENSCO Avionics legitimacy in the eyes of potential customers has been enhanced; two new customers are already on board."

• "A major aerospace firm has designated ENSCO Avionics as a preferred software supplier."

• "We’ve experienced increased customer confidence in ENSCO Avionics quality assurance processes / practices."

• "Since we began capturing QMS quality metrics, we have seen consistently high levels of customer satisfaction."

• "Our implemented system provides for early identification of project and customer issues and risks requiring mitigation."

• "Our QMS has instilled consistency and stability into processes at both management and staff levels resulting in on-time deliveries to meet customer requirements."

• "With our AS9100C designation, we are seeing new business opportunities that we might not have been able to bid in the past."

ENSCO Avionics characterizes its partnership with AM&T as follows: "AM&T’s assistance has been invaluable. Without it, we would not have achieved AS9100 certification as early as we have. Their exceptional knowledge, ultimate professionalism and positive working relationship have contributed significantly to the success of this project. This significant joint accomplishment ideally positions both organizations to respond to future, expansive aerospace opportunities."

For information about how AM&T can assist with AS9100 contact:
Jim Cunningham - 607-725-1225