Glossary

AS9100 is an aerospace quality management system standard used by organizations that design, develop, or manufacture products and services for the aviation, space, and defense industries. It is not a product specification for one individual part; it is a system-level standard that defines how a company is expected to manage quality across its processes so products are made consistently, safely, and in conformance with customer and regulatory requirements. The International Aerospace Quality Group describes 9100 as a standard that can be used throughout the supply chain and says its purpose is to standardize quality-management requirements and reduce company-unique requirements.

Technically, AS9100 is built on ISO 9001 and then adds aerospace-specific requirements, definitions, and notes on top of that baseline. The current widely used version is AS9100D, which corresponds to the 9100:2016 revision. Those added aerospace requirements place extra emphasis on areas that matter heavily in aerospace work, such as risk-based thinking, operational risk management, configuration management, product safety, prevention of counterfeit parts, change management, and stronger process control throughout the product lifecycle.

In practical terms, when a company says it is AS9100 certified, it means its quality management system has been audited against this aerospace standard under the industry’s certification scheme. The IAQG manages that certification framework through its ICOP scheme, and certified organizations and related certification information are tracked in OASIS, the Online Aerospace Supplier Information System. That is one reason AS9100 is treated as a major qualification signal in aerospace supply chains: it gives customers a structured way to verify that a supplier’s quality system meets recognized aerospace expectations.