While numerous successful models of AS9100 quality management systems for airspace industry have been developed and are being used, approaches to documenting top level management systems for multi-location enterprises are limited at best. This article discusses a method for establishing an AS9100 top-level documentation structure that allows an airspace company with multiple facilities to use common quality management system manual. This model significantly improves consistency of the corporate message regarding quality policies, while reducing the number of documents within the organization’s quality management system.

As a professional QMS assessor with leading certification organizations, I audited many large multi-site enterprises that had problems with aligning their corporate AS9100 quality manuals with the supporting documents issued by their locations. To fill this gap, some companies create quality manuals for their locations as copies of the main quality manual; other businesses develop location-specific quality manuals that are completely independent form the home office quality manual.

In practice, neither one of these approaches produce consistent results. In the 1st instance when a modified quality manual is used for a location, methods for updating local quality manuals are difficult to define. This disconnect arises from the fact that the corporate office manuals are controlled by the home office, while local quality manuals are facilities’ responsibility.

In the case of companies choosing their facilities to develop their own AS9100 manuals, discrepancies in numerous quality manuals result in visible differences between the home office and facilities’ quality manuals.

If an organization wishes to deliver a consistent message regarding its quality policies and compliance with applicable requirements, the deficiencies of discussed methods become obvious.

As one can see, both approaches above to development of site quality manuals as copies of the corporate manuals or independent quality manuals do not appear to be practical or economical.

If a business wishes to establish a quality manual that will serve all its facilities, we need to consider a different route. Let’s start from an example of a clause 5.4.1, Planning, Quality objectives. This clause may state: ABC Corporation’s Management Team ensures that quality objectives, including those needed to meet requirements for product, are established for relevant functions and levels within the organization per the Management Review Procedure and the Quality Objectives Matrix.

This approach works for both, a single- and multi- site organization for those documents that are used at all locations. For example, such processes as Management Review, NC-CAPA Procedure, Documentation Management Procedure, Audit Procedure, and others may be the same for all locations and therefore be referenced in the quality manual as shown above.

However, what if our locations need to use different organizational charts, product realization procedures, and other site-specific AS9100 quality management system documents? If we use the model above and want to keep a common quality manual, we have to reference in the manual corresponding documents for all locations which may not be practical. Below we will explore how a corporate quality manual can practically reference location-specific documents to support commitments of the company’s common AS9100 quality manual.

As with a single-location company, a business still can use the same reference structure if the number of locations or sites is small; let us say not to exceed three. For example, element 8.5.1 Continual improvement, may read: Fast Air Company has established and maintains documented procedures to continually improve its QMS through the use of its Quality Policy, Quality objectives per the Quality Objectives Matrix HO and the Quality Objectives Matrix BA … This example references the common Quality Policy and site-specific Quality Objectives Matrix HO for the Home Office and Quality Objectives Matrix BA for the Buenos Ares plant. This model serves well quality management systems with limited number of facilities, but it becomes ineffective when the number of company’s locations increases.

For organizations with a large number of sites, where we need to reference numerous documents in the manual, including those controlled by satellite locations, we have another option. We can establish a document to connect corporate quality manual clauses with the site-specific supporting documents. Let’s name this document a Manual Reference Matrix and consider the following document reference structure.

Corporate AS9100 Quality Manual element

Manual Reference Matrix Table of Contents (ToC)

Site-specific Manual Reference Matrix

Corresponding site-specific document

The Manual Reference Matrix is simply a list of all facilities and their Manual Reference Matrixes, as shown below:

Manual Reference Matrix Table of Contents

Main Office (Dublin, VA, USA)

Vancouver (Canada)

Irapuato (Mexico)

Irving, TX USA

… etc,

To illustrate this model, let’s document element 5.5.1 of our corporate AS9100 quality manual with references to site-specific organizational charts: QW Air Enterprises, LLP’s Management Team ensures that the responsibilities and authorities are defined and communicated within the organization per the Resource Management Procedure and site-specific Organizational Charts per the Manual Reference Matrix ToC. This statement tells us that the company uses common Resources Management Procedure and site-specific organizational charts. To locate a site-specific organizational chart, we need to refer to the Manual Reference Matrix Table of Contents (ToC).

Finding the location in the Matrix ToC and locating, let’s say, St. Petersburg’s Matrix, we will identify a site-specific Manual Reference Matrix. Locating a specific element in the location’s Manual Reference Matrix, we will find a particular, location-specific procedure title that addresses our clause.

Our experience shows that a Manual Reference Matrix works well as a 3-column form with the 1st column titled Corp. Manual section, the 2nd column: Corp. References and the 3rd column called Site References. For the element 6.2.1, for example, the St. Petersburg’s Matrix indicates that manual references Training Procedure HO for the Home Office and the Training Procedure PR for the Puerto Rico site.

Looking for samples of a quality Manual Reference Matrix for AS9100 QMS? Check links below.

If you are tuning up your AS9100 Quality Manual for a large corporation and do not want to reinvent the wheel, check our AS 9100 Manual Reference Matrix. If you need help with implementation of your Corporate Manual, check our AS9100 Quality Management consulting services and documentation sets.