A Letter from the Nadcap SSC Chair - Pittsburgh Nadcap Meeting 2018

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 October 22-25, 2018, in Pittsburgh, and a look ahead at what is coming your way in New Orleans in February. There were 542 Suppliers in attendance during the Pittsburgh meeting, with 164 who attended the SSC general meeting Tuesday. We were once again very pleased at the level of participation. Important news applicable to Suppliers includes:

• Changes to the SSC Leadership Team (LT)
  • Many thanks to Lisa Donahoe (Arconic), Arno Toelkes (Euro Composites SA) and Eric Jacklin (FM Callahan) for their service to the Supplier community as they step down from their SSC LT roles.
  • Jeremy Needs (Ultra Electronics) and Gary White (Orbit Industries) have stepped into the Vice-Chair positions vacated by Jonathan Hebben (now Chair of the SSC) and Lisa Donahoe.
  • Jeff Tomczak (Techmetals Inc) and Dennis Reidy (CIL Inc) are stepping up from their sub-team roles to full LT members.
  • Ronald Hendriks (Chemetall GmbH) has been added as a third European Rep on the LT.
  • Gary White is taking over as Chair of the Mentoring Sub-Team previously ran by Lisa Donahoe.
  • Shelly Lawless (Meyer Tool Inc) is joining the SSC as Chair of the TG Reps to the SSC sub-team
• We have seen continuing growth in Supplier attendance at our Monday morning Supplier sessions, which had 127 in attendance at the Pittsburgh 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 have been assigned to the SSC, NMC or PRI, which include:
  • Training: More on-line or regional training, RCCA with real NCRs used as examples, and training on checklist changes.
  • Communication: Exploring the possibility of an opt-in texting option as additional means to reach Suppliers and compiling the key elements of what a Supplier needs to know to navigate the Nadcap process into a Supplier Handbook.
  • Website improvement: PRI is exploring ways to better organize the PRI website and eAuditNet by improving the search function and establishing a “Watch List” process to improve the ability to monitor the accreditation status of their Suppliers.
  • Release of an update to eAuditNet that allows Suppliers to assign multiple contacts to an audit.
  • The NMC is readdressing redundant audits with the Subscribers, exploring methods to improve the flow down of requirements to special processors, and a request for Subscribers to make available to Suppliers the revision status of specifications.
• An NMC checklist is being developed that replaces general and standard questions in the base checklist for each commodity. This is aimed to reduce the number of checklist changes that we have seen in the past due to NMC requirements, as well as standardize the requirements themselves and standardize the timing of their implementation.An item that will potentially be included in this new NMC checklist deals with validating compliance to 9100 management of change requirements to ensure process changes do not have unintended consequences.

Supplier events planned for February 18-21, 2019, in New Orleans, LA, 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 8AM 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, Richard Blyth of Rolls-Royce, to address Suppliers.

Check back on the p-r-i.org web site to stay apprised of agenda changes. As a reminder, the minutes from the SSC General Meeting and all task group meetings are posted on the p-r-i.org website – take advantage and review them if you did not attend this meeting. It is my hope that this meeting summary has been of value to you and has provided reasons for joining us in New Orleans - I hope to see you there! 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