For quality managers at AS9100D-certified suppliers

You are audited from above and you audit below. One review reads both document sets.

Your registrar and your primes assess your documentation against AS9100D and the ISO 9001 system beneath it. You assess your sub-tier suppliers against the requirements you flow down to them. Aligntra reads both document sets against all 328 AS9100D obligations and cites each finding to the page and paragraph.

328AS9100D obligations
235ISO 9001 obligations beneath them
0Clauses sampled

The review reads the full clause set, so nothing is left to a sample. The two figures are not additive: the 328 AS9100D obligations already contain the ISO 9001 system.

Above the baseline

Prime contractors audit you above the certified baseline.

Each one assesses your documentation against its own supplement, and the supplements do not agree with each other.

Prime ASupplier quality manual, first article format and change notification window.+ flowdown
Prime BSeparate special-process approvals, its own counterfeit-parts clause and audit cycle.+ flowdown
Prime CConfiguration and traceability requirements written against its own build standard.+ flowdown

Prime supplements are outside the scope of the review. Establishing which of your gaps are AS9100D gaps determines which customer findings were addressable under your existing certification.

What you use today

Each audit reads a different part of the baseline.

Three routes are in current use. The bar is the AS9100D baseline, and the shading is the part of it each route actually reads.

AS9100D §4the 328 obligations§10
Registrar pre-assessment
Offered ahead of the certification audit
extent set by the auditor
It applies the same sampling method as the audit it precedes.
Compliance matrix
Clause-to-procedure, maintained by hand
It reaches the obligations someone mapped a document to. An obligation with no document mapped to it is a blank the matrix does not report.
Surveillance visit
Annually, a different area each time
2024
2025
this year
Customer audits are scheduled separately and sample independently, so two of them can land on the same area and leave the same blank.
Aligntra
One run, before any of the above
328 of 328 obligations read
Including the ones no document has been mapped to, and the same run against a sub-tier supplier’s document set. A reviewer in your organisation confirms, reclassifies or dismisses each finding before it enters a report.
Extent not fixed in advance Read Read in an earlier year Read in full

The first three report on what they read. None of them reports an obligation that has no document mapped to it.

At the baseline

Findings cite the page and the paragraph.

A finding names the document, the page and the paragraph it was drawn from, and the clause it is assessed against.

Major NC AS9100D · §10.2.1
Nonconformity records do not capture containment action.

The NCR form records disposition and corrective action, with no field for the action taken to contain the escape.

Basis for the finding

SOP-QA-014 Rev 02 defines identification, disposition and corrective action, and closes the record at ¶ 5.2 once disposition is signed off. No step addresses action taken to contain the escape while the cause remained open. §10.2.1(a) requires action to control and correct the nonconformity and to deal with its consequences.

SOP-QA-014 Rev 02p. 4¶ 5.2

An illustrative AS9100D finding prepared for this page. No AS9100D example audit is published.

Down the chain

The requirements you were given are the ones you pass on.

A sub-tier supplier’s procedures sit inside the requirements you flow down to them, so a blank in their document set is a finding against your §8.4.

Prime
Writes the supplement
Special-process approvals, counterfeit-parts control, configuration and traceability, on top of AS9100D.
You
Flow it down
The clauses reach your sub-tier suppliers in your purchase order, and their conformity is assessed as part of yours.
Sub-tier
Sends a survey back
A form saying a procedure exists, its number, and a revision date. Read the procedure and you get a finding instead.
The survey says
A special-process approval is held, and the procedure is controlled.
The procedure says
Whether the approval it names is the one you flowed down, and which of your requirements the document leaves unanswered.
You can act on
A finding cited to their own page, in the revision they sent you.
Supplier audits →
Questions

What the review covers, and what it leaves to a person.

The boundaries of the scope, stated where a reader looks for them.

Are prime supplements assessed?

No. Aligntra reads AS9100D. Supplier quality manuals, first article formats and notification windows issued by a prime remain outside the scope of the review.

Do I need a separate ISO 9001 audit?

Not for the baseline. AS9100D restates the ISO 9001 management system under the same clause numbering, so an AS9100D audit reads that system as part of its own 328 obligations. ISO 9001 runs as its own audit if you are certified to it separately.

How is a sub-tier supplier’s document set handled?

As its own audit, against the same standard. Their procedures are read and the findings are reported to you, which is what §8.4.2 asks you to determine about an external provider.

Does this replace a consultant?

No. It performs the documentation review a consultant begins with, across the full document set. Walkthroughs, interviews and judgement calls remain with a person.

Which records are checked against my procedures?

CAPA and NCR. All other documents are classified and assessed against their applicable clauses; those two are additionally verified against the SOP that governs them.

Who determines what is recorded as a finding?

A reviewer in your organisation. Aligntra proposes findings; each one is confirmed, reclassified or dismissed by a person before it enters the report.

Run a review before your next surveillance visit.

Aligntra reads your procedures and your suppliers’ against all 328 AS9100D obligations, and reports each finding with the document, page and paragraph it was drawn from.