Lucas Milhaupt is committed to being a quality supplier to the aerospace industry. Which is why we’ve gone the extra mile to receive our AS9100 certification. Here’s what that means for Lucas Milhaupt and our aerospace industry customers.

What is the AS9100?

We’re proud to be part of a group of manufacturers that are proactive in the industry and are committed to consistent systematic improvement. Based on the stringent ISO 9001 quality requirements, AS9100 is the single common group of quality management standards for the aviation, space and defense industry.

ISO 9001:2015 specifies requirements for a quality management system when an organization “aims to enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for improvement of the system and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.”

AS9100 takes the ISO 9001 requirements and supplements them with additional quality system requirements, which are established by the aerospace industry in order to satisfy DOD, NASA and FAA quality requirements. They are used and supported by the world’s leading aerospace companies and applied throughout their supply chains.

What does the AS9100 mean for our aerospace customers?

The AS9100 series can be used by organizations across the sector, including design, manufacturing, maintenance, and distributing companies. Purchasing from a certified supplier means aerospace organizations can be confident their supplier has an effective quality management system in place.

The standard set by ISO 9001 to acquire the AS9100 certification ensures our customers that we are serious not only about the quality of our products, but how Lucas Milhaupt is managed as a whole. The certification validates our commitment to customer satisfaction, reduces risk, decreases product defect rates, focuses on continuous improvement, and ensures product quality.

Only by creating a Quality Management System (QMS) that meets these industry standards is an organization eligible to receive the AS9100. Below are a few of the requirements that need to be met and implemented before being considered a QMS:

• Defined, tested and documented procedures are put in place to improve the consistency of output.
• Practices and procedures that are inefficient are eliminated.
• Product quality is consistently being measured.
• Immediate action to correct procedures that aren’t working is taken.

How has Lucas-Milhaupt committed to AS9100?

This company driven initiative was no easy feat to accomplish. However, having gone through the rigorous process of obtaining the certification we can now further comply with our customer’s demand of high quality products - making it more than worth it.

Obtaining the AS9100 certification means unlike many of our competitors who are purchasing parts and reselling them, Lucas Milhaupt is able to manufacture our own parts, starting with our own wire and strip. Our ability to process our own material and produce parts on site results in improved price and delivery speed to our aerospace industry customers as a manufacturer rather than a reseller. Additionally, should a customer require assistance in designing parts, our brazing experts have the technical expertise and capability to do so.

Work with an AS9100 Certified Manufacturer

As an industry, aerospace, space and defense organizations have moved toward requiring their subcontractors and suppliers to be AS9100 compliant and/or certified.If you're in the aerospace industry and are interested in working with an AS9100 certified manufacturer, contact us for more information on how the experts at Lucas Milhaupt can help you.