 ESCS promotes industry best practices to combat
counterfeits and help ensure quality service from qualified independent distributors of electronic components. We
strongly believe every aerospace and military manufacturer should demand at least the following six minimum standards
of excellence from their independent distributors.
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1. Aerospace AS9120 Certification
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If your company is aerospace certified, shouldn't you require your suppliers to maintain
the same quality standards for inventory control, split lot traceability and vendor management?
Companies with only an ISO 9001 certification should be given a deadline to achieve AS9120
certification or lose their status as an approved supplier.
You can easily view your
suppliers' AS9120 certification status on the OASIS database
at http://www.sae.org/oasis.
For all audits completed after October 1, 2008, the IAQG is now requiring certification bodies
to upload the latest audit details as well as any corrective action reports with root cause
analysis and correction plans, yet it will be up to the distributor to make this data viewable
on the OASIS database. All distributors should be required to allow visibility to their
scored results for your review. For all audits completed before October 1, 2008, distributors
may request their most recent audit information be uploaded for your review.
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2. Membership in GIDEP
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The Government and Industry Data Exchange Program (GIDEP)
provides an important resource for current information on suspect and known counterfeit components,
as well as disseminating general information critical to maximizing supply chain efficiency.
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3. Membership in ERAI, Inc.
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Membership in ERAI, Inc. requires distributors
to be in good standing, and provides access to critical information on suppliers and the ERAI's counterfeit
component notification database.
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4. Validated component testing
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Distributors should confirm what testing protocols are required under their quality management system for
all components lacking clear pedigree back to the original manufacturer's Certificate of Compliance. Decide
whether 3rd party testing should be required or if testing done in-house is acceptable to your standards. If
in-house, confirm their inspection staff is qualified by a standard at least as strong as the Independent
Distributors of Electronics Association (IDEA) IDEA-STD-1010-A inspection
standard, and that on-going compliance with this is documented in their AS9120 Quality Management System.
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5. Vendor management system
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Confirm your distributor maintains their own approved vendor list, and that their quality management system
includes tracking of each supplier's performance for quality and delivery compliance. You may want to
ask what the minimum requirements are to add a supplier, and the minimum quality standards they must achieve
to remain on the distributor's approved vendor list.
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6. Agreement to on-site audits
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Every distributor should be required to allow on-site audits by their customers. Whether the manufacturer
chooses to do so or not, any distributor who will not agree to at least prospective future audits with minimal
notice should be suspect.
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View any AS9120 certification
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Did you know you can quickly check any distributor's AS9120 Aerospace certification status? Simply
create a login to access the OASIS database of all Aerospace certifications.
Important update: As of October, 2008, the IAQG can display the detailed results for any
company's most recent audit on OASIS; but the company must authorize IAQG to display it. Require your
distributors to make their audit details visible on the OASIS database.
Useful tip: Use the OASIS "Manage Watch List" function to automatically track any changes to your approved
distributors' certifications.
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