A Letter from the Nadcap SSC Chair - New Orleans Nadcap Meeting 2019

Greetings fellow Nadcap Suppliers! In keeping with the Supplier Support Committee’s (SSC) ongoing communication efforts, I would like to provide a summary to all Suppliers about the recent Nadcap meeting held February 18-21, 2019, in New Orleans, and a look ahead at what is coming your way in Paris in June. There were 310 Suppliers in attendance during the New Orleans meeting, with 102 who attended the SSC General Meeting on Tuesday. We were once again very pleased at the level of participation. Some important news applicable to Suppliers that was covered includes:

• We continue to have strong Supplier attendance at our Monday morning Supplier sessions, which had 82 in attendance at the New Orleans meeting. The SSC has most of our events on Monday morning when most task groups are not open to Suppliers, which allows for fewer conflicts for Suppliers attending Nadcap meetings.
• The events are focused on aiding Suppliers in understanding the Nadcap process and scheduled to follow one another throughout the morning. Suppliers who have attend this in the past have found the events to be very helpful; we are sure you will too, so plan to travel on Sunday and attend the Monday morning events.
• Improvement action items from the 2017 Supplier Survey and from open forums held in Pittsburgh in 2017 and Madrid in February 2018 continue to be worked, which include:
  • PRI is currently developing a presentation on identifying checklist changes.
  • The SSC’s Supplier Handbook has been drafted and is now being reviewed by Task Group Staff Engineers.
  • PRI is exploring ways to better organize the websites and is looking for input from the Supplier community. If you are interested in providing input, please email Joanna Kennedy (jkennedy@p-r-i.org).
  • PRI will be working on establishing a “Watch List” process to improve the ability to monitor the accreditation status of their Suppliers, which is expected to begin in the 3rd quarter of 2019.
  • The NMC has tasked the NMC Continuous Improvement Team to explore methods to improve the flow down of requirements to special processors and to make available to Suppliers the revision status of customer specifications.
  • PRI is working on revising eAuditNet to include the ability of editing an NCR response prior to submitting for Staff Engineer review, which is expected to be released in the 2nd quarter of 2019.
• The NMC has approved an updated version of the Nadcap certificates that includes merit information.
  • Silver border for 18-month merit
  • Gold border for 24-month merit
  • QML will be color coded to match the merit designation – ECD Q2 2019
• The NMC surveyed their auditors to get feedback on the requirement of the Self-Audit being uploaded 30 days prior to the audit, which was overwhelmingly seen as beneficial.
• The NMC has tasked the SSC to run a similar survey with the Suppliers to gain their perspective, which will be coming out in the next month or two.
• The NMC Merit Sub-Team created a new definition of a major NCR and had the Staff Engineers evaluate prior audit results against the new definition, which had only a minor impact on the total Majors and Minors and the team is working on next steps regarding merit and Supplier advisories.
  • 4% of the NCRs went from minor to major
  • 5% of the NCRs went from major to minor
• The NMC General Requirements Checklist (AC7000) continues being developed.
  • OP1101 (Document Control) has been updated to identify the new ballot type and is now in the comment resolution phase.
  • eAuditNet is working on an enhancement for the new ballot type, with development scheduled to begin in the 2nd quarter of 2019.
  • OP1104 (Audit Scheduling) and the new checklist are prepped for balloting but will not be released until the eAuditNet enhancement is completed.
• PRI was asked to clarify which Task Groups require pre-audit documentation and whether they can issue an NCR if the Auditee does not meet the requirement, which identified the following:
  • Nine (9) Task Groups that have no pre-audit documentation requirement: AQS, CT, CMSP, COMP, M&I, NDT, NMMM, NMMT, NMSE.
  • Four (4) Task Groups that have pre-audit documentation requirement and will raise an NCR if not uploaded (may be included in the core checklist or in the OP 1114 Appendix): CP, ETG, HT, MTL.
  • Four (4) Task Groups that request pre-audit documentation but will not raise an NCR if not uploaded: ASA, FLU, SEALS, SLT
  • One (1) Task Group that requests pre-audit documents, and if a Supplier does not want to upload them, may request additional audit time to view the documents on-site: WLD
• As a reminder, minutes from the SSC General meeting and all task group meetings, as well as many of the presentations, are posted on the p-r-i.org website – take advantage and review them if you did not attend this meeting.

Supplier events planned for June 3-6, 2019, in Paris, France, include:

• A powerful line-up of events designed to provide information on the Nadcap system that will be particularly useful to new participants and first-time meeting attendees starts at 9AM on Monday:
  • SSC Leadership Team Opening Reception for all Suppliers – Chat with experienced Suppliers one on one to learn more about the Nadcap process. There are NO presentations.
  • Supplier Tutorial – insight on how the Nadcap process works.
  • Keys to a Successful Audit – Tips shared by an experienced Supplier on how to prepare for, and respond to, a Nadcap Audit
  • eAuditNet Tutorial - Review by PRI staff on the functionality of eAuditNet
  • Supplier Voting Membership – Summary of the benefits and responsibilities of task group participation.
  • We will have a second open question session following all of the other sessions, assuming Suppliers may have more questions.
• Our SSC General meeting will feature current Supplier news and updates on the survey and open forum action items. We have scheduled time for the NMC Chair, Bob Koukol of Honeywell, to address Suppliers.

Check back on the p-r-i.org web site to stay apprised of agenda changes.

It is my hope that this meeting summary has been of value to you and has provided reasons for joining us in Paris! In the meantime, please let us know how we may better serve you by using the SSC Request Form which can be found online at p-r-i.org.

Travel in on Sunday to take advantage of Monday morning Supplier events!

Regards, Jonathan Hebben (Avcorp Composite Fabrication) Chair, Nadcap Supplier Support Committee