Built for the manufacturers building for the primes
AQM is the quality partner for Tier 2 and Tier 3 aerospace suppliers, MROs, distributors, and special-process operators — the manufacturers in the supply chain behind Boeing, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX, Raytheon, Honeywell, and the primes. Built on more than 25 years of QM experience anchored in Southern California's aerospace cluster, holding all four aerospace standards in depth: AS9100, AS9110, AS9120, and Nadcap. We don't just get you certified — we engineer your documentation, procedures, and audit trails to survive the prime customer audits that decide whether you keep the contract.
Most aerospace consultants specialize in one standard. We work the full portfolio — because most of our clients eventually need more than one, and changing consultants between certifications loses institutional knowledge that takes a year to rebuild.
Supporting aerospace and defense organizations across major sectors
The Aerospace Ecosystem
Who We Serve in the Aerospace Cluster
The aerospace supply chain is a layered ecosystem with distinct standards, different audits, and different customer expectations. Toggle below to find your operational profile and core audit criteria.
Tier 2 & Tier 3 Aerospace Manufacturers
The largest share of our aerospace work includes CNC precision machining, fastener forging, electronics assembly, sheet metal, and carbon composites. We build systems that prove absolute production configuration repeatability to prime customer audits.
- Rigorous revision and engineering change controls
- Bulletproof First Article Inspections (AS9102 FAI)
- Active Foreign Object Debris (FOD) mitigation rules
Aviation MROs & Repair Stations
FAA Part 145 facilities, Part 121/135 maintenance hubs, and defense repair organizations. Our implementation logic maps airworthiness, records control, and return-to-service structures directly to your target certification requirements.
- FAA/EASA compliant return-to-service records validation
- Process tracking for Human Factors and maintenance-error fatigue
- Technical data, capability lists, and airworthiness directives oversight
Aerospace Distributors & Stockists
Firms engaged in procuring, stocking, and reselling aerospace components and raw materials. We build traceability and counterfeit-part prevention mechanisms that survive aggressive prime customer supplier-development scrutiny.
- Split-lot validation and raw material lot traceability integrity
- Complete compliance audits for counterfeit part mitigation programs
- Secure listing and visibility within the IAQG OASIS supplier directory
Special-Process Suppliers
Organizations performing chemical processing, heat treating, welding, non-destructive testing, or coatings. Our specialist group breaks down detailed PRI Task Group checklists to prevent expensive re-audit cycles.
- Process control verification against exact PRI criteria
- Non-destructive testing (NDT) personnel certification and records preparation
- Flawless Root Cause Corrective Action (RCCA) responses for audit closures
Consulting Standards · Aerospace
All Four Aerospace Standards. The Same Team Across Each.
Below are the four aerospace standards AQM consults on. Pick the one that matches your operation today — or the combination, if you're a manufacturer with special-process work or a distributor expanding into stocking.
AS9100 Consulting
The QMS standard for aerospace manufacturers. Whether you're a Tier-1 supplier flowing requirements down to your own suppliers or an independent shop trying to land your first prime contract, AS9100 is the price of admission. Our consulting builds the system to survive both the certification body audit and the prime supplier audits that follow.
AS9110 Consulting
The QMS standard for aviation maintenance, repair, and overhaul. We embed airworthiness tracking, human-factors awareness, and the technical-records control aviation customers and regulators expect — without overengineering documentation for an operation that already has FAA reporting to keep up with.
AS9120 Consulting
The QMS standard for aerospace distributors and stockists. The audit conversation is dominated by traceability, split-lot control, counterfeit-parts prevention, and IAQG OASIS registration. We build systems that protect your line cards and your customer relationships when primes flow down ever-tighter counterfeit-parts requirements.
Nadcap Consulting
Process-level accreditation for heat treating, chemical processing, welding, and NDT. We help suppliers interpret PRI Task Group checklists, deploy bulletproof RCCA frameworks, and pass the first audit cleanly — not after two or three attempts. Nadcap is where documentation discipline and process control meet, and we’re fluent in both.
Supplier Audit Readiness
What Your Prime Customer’s Auditor Actually Looks For
Passing the certification body audit is one milestone. The audit that decides whether you keep the contract is the one your prime customer runs — Boeing, Northrop, Lockheed, SpaceX, Raytheon, Honeywell — or that their Tier-1 supplier-development team runs on their behalf. We have prepared organizations to pass each of these focus points.
1. Configuration management
Can you prove which revision of which procedure built which serial number? Configuration drift kills supplier scores faster than nonconformities do.
2. FOD prevention & control
Foreign object debris controls aren’t just signage in the shop. Primes look for documented FOD walks, tool accountability, packaging integrity, and the absence of "FOD risk" in the failure-mode tables. We engineer FOD programs that survive observation, not just inspection.
3. Counterfeit-parts prevention
Industry pressure on counterfeit parts is increasing year over year. AS9120-aligned counterfeit-parts plans require documented sourcing controls, lot-level traceability, and verification testing protocols. Primes will probe weak points.
4. Root-cause corrective action (RCCA)
When a finding lands — from any audit, any source — what’s your closure trail? Primes look for RCCA that names the root cause specifically, not "operator error" or "training gap" without depth. We build RCCA discipline into the QMS so the first response is correct, not the third.
5. Special-process control
If you do heat treating, NDT, welding, or chemical processing, primes will look at process control records, operator qualifications, and pyrometry compliance. The PRI checklist is the inner audit; the prime’s supplier audit is the outer one. Both have to hold.
6. Documented information & records control
Records that can’t be retrieved are records that don’t exist. Records that contradict each other are worse than missing records. We engineer information control so the prime’s auditor finds what they ask for in under a minute — and finds it consistent across systems.
A typical decade with an aerospace supplier client
AQM's aerospace clients don’t typically engage us once. The pattern below is what most of our long-term aerospace relationships look like — not a sales pitch, just an honest sketch of how the work usually flows.
Year 1 — First certification (most often AS9100)
Six to nine months of consulting through gap analysis, QMS build, internal audits, and the certification body audit. The deliverable is the certificate; the foundation is a QMS that has to hold up to your customers’ supplier audits in the years that follow.
Year 2 — First surveillance audit, often a prime supplier audit too
Surveillance audits from the certification body, often paired with the first time your prime customer’s supplier-development team comes to look. Most clients retain us through both — the surveillance is light; the prime audit is where the documentation discipline gets tested.
Years 3–5 — Multi-cert maintenance + supplier audits + supplier-development engagement
Annual internal audits, surveillance audit prep, RCCA on findings, training new hires on QMS roles, sometimes auditing your own suppliers. The retainer rhythm becomes steady — usually quarterly engagement plus on-call support for unscheduled customer audits.
Year 6+ — Recertification + new growth
The three-year recertification cycle hits. By now most clients are in two or three certifications, often expanding into a new prime customer or new process. The relationship continues because the work continues.
Industry Authority
We hold our own ISO 9001 — and our consultants come from inside aerospace.
AQM holds ISO 9001:2015 Certification No. 1118558 — we run, audit, and improve the same QMS architecture we deploy for our clients. The certification body that audits us is the same kind of body that audits the manufacturers we work with.
Our aerospace consultants are named, with backgrounds inside Tier 2 aerospace suppliers, primes, and Nadcap-accredited special-process operations. AS9100 Lead Auditors. Nadcap Assessors. ASQ-certified quality professionals. You work with people, not a rotating staff — and you know who they are before signing anything.
ANAB-accredited registrar alignment
We prepare your QMS for examination by the certification bodies your prime customers recognize and trust. No misalignment between what we build and what your auditor expects.
Built for the supplier audit, not just the cert audit
The cert audit is a milestone. The supplier audit from your prime is the test. We engineer for both, with the supplier audit as the harder standard.
“While partnering with AQM, we completed our AS9100 upgrade with minimal findings.”
Aerospace Questions We Hear Most
Only if you do a special process Nadcap covers — heat treating, chemical processing, welding, NDT, and a few others — AND your prime customer requires it for that process. Most don't unless you're already in the business or expanding into it. If your primes are quiet on Nadcap, AS9100 alone is usually enough. We'll tell you on the first call whether your customer base is likely to push you toward it in the next two years.
The cert audit looks at whether your QMS conforms to AS9100. It's a known scope, a known checklist, and a known cadence. The prime audit looks at whether your QMS actually works in your operation, on your part, on a specific day — and whether the records can survive a forensic trace. The cert audit is a milestone. The prime audit is the test. We engineer documentation that holds up to the second one.
SpaceX runs supplier audits that probe heavily on configuration management, traceability, and process discipline. Their pace is faster than the legacy primes — expect tighter timelines and higher volume on changes. Most of our SpaceX-supplier work involves harder discipline on configuration control and faster RCCA cycles than a typical Tier-2 needs.
No, but you need a documented supplier control program that proves you flow Nadcap requirements down correctly and verify them on incoming parts. AS9100 handles this if your supplier control is mature. Most of our work in this scenario is on the supplier-control side, not Nadcap accreditation itself.
If you’re manufacturing AND stocking parts for resale, you may need both. AS9100 governs your manufacturing QMS; AS9120 governs the distribution side — split-lot control, counterfeit-parts prevention, and traceability flows that are different from manufacturing controls. We can build the integrated system rather than two parallel ones.
Ideally six months — enough time to run a mock audit, close any findings, and adjust documentation. Realistically, most clients call us when the audit is two to four weeks out and they’re nervous. That timeline is workable, but tighter. The earlier the better. The cheapest version of this work is preventive; the most expensive version is reactive.
The cluster expertise is pattern recognition, not geography. More than 25 years of QM experience inside the SoCal aerospace supply base means we’ve seen most of the prime supplier-audit playbooks, the typical findings, and the typical RCCA paths. That carries to clients anywhere in the US. We do most remote-friendly work without travel, and visit on-site for gap analyses, mock audits, and the certification audit itself.
Get Started
The aerospace conversation usually starts the same way
Tell us who your customers are, what you make (or maintain, or distribute), and which certifications you have or need. We'll map the standards portfolio, the multi-year arc, and which of our consultants would lead the engagement. No quote on the call — we'll send a scoped proposal within a week if we're the right fit.