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ISO Cert for Subcontractor

Flipz87

Plastic
Joined
Apr 8, 2014
Location
St. Thomas, Ontario
Hi Everyone,

I am heading down the road of actually starting my own business with one VMC and a turning center. I have been getting requests from my old employer to take on some of there excess and more complicated work. They make mainly aerospace parts, but sometimes do one off jobs for other industries. My question is, as a subcontractor, do I need to be ISO certified to accept this work? Or since they do their own quality and documentation, is it all on them? Am I in anyway liable for any of the parts I make if their quality team accepts the parts I make?

Thanks.
 
I have piggybacked off of customers ISO in the past with no problem at all. As far as being liable? Well, Not sure how that woks in Canada but I would think you are liable for anything you produce. If a Rolls Royce engine blows up and rips the wing off a 777 I'm pretty sure they cant just say "Boeing said it was good".
 
A one man shop does not want to go through the time and expense of ISO certification and the time needed to follow it. People have great misunderstandings about doing military and aerospace work. Certifications needed to do the work and the documentation process vary greatly by job. I used to do DOD work, I used to make parts for missiles, tanks, guns, etc with pretty much nothing but material certs. It depends on the application of the part, that will dictate what the buyer wants.

What is required will be different between a latch mechanism on landing gear compared to a handle for a toilet.
 
Thanks for the responses, I have no intention of getting iso certified. The purchaser at my former company has said that they have subcontractors that don't have iso or any certs for that matter, so I just wanted to make sure before I accepted any work.

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You don’t need to be ISO certified to have a QMS that covers your butt. I’ve been through a few customer audits that pretty much said “oh, you have NADCAP? That’s great. We’re still auditing you through (insert obscure customer document here).”

If the print says follow XYZ document for making parts, which refers to ABC for inspecting parts, and ABC says you need to ensure conformity of 10 hole sizes and positions out of every 100 for every 4th part, you should have some way of proving that you performed that or better. Being ISO certified doesn’t change that requirement, and it also doesn’t save you face when you don’t comply.
 
Thanks for the responses, I have no intention of getting iso certified. The purchaser at my former company has said that they have subcontractors that don't have iso or any certs for that matter, so I just wanted to make sure before I accepted any work.
For aerospace work the prime has to be certified, the subs do not. Part of the prime's certification is how they audit the subs.

I do an audit every 2 years for my aerospace work.

Ask the customer for the their audit form, and go through it. It's a good exercise anyway, and it will show you what you need as far as record keeping, calibrations, parts and material handling, non-conforming parts, etc. Helps to get started on the right foot.

Keep copies of every audit so you can refresh your memory when it comes up. They like consistency in the responses.

Be honest on the audit- you'd be surprised how much leeway they can give you if they know what you can and can't really do, and there's usually more than one way to satisfy a requirement.
 








 
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