A Lloyd’s auditing team presented Thales Nederland’s business unit Industrial Services with the prestigious AS/EN9100 Quality Certificate.

This certificate replaces the current ISO 9001 standard and is a specific Aerospace related quality standard required by the Aerospace industry.

The AS/EN9100 standard includes additional requirements for a number of aspects such as a stringent First Article Inspection, process control, product traceability and closed Plan-Do-Check-Action loop.

In January 2010 Thales started the AS/EN9100 project to comply with the requirements for this certificate. The qualification, carried out by Lloyd’s, included a documentation audit followed by a certification audit. During this process a new revision C of the AS/EN9100 was released and Thales focussed on complying with this most recent revised AS/EN9100 standard.

Having the AS/EN9100 Certificate puts Thales in a favourable position to compete in Aerospace programs, such as the F35 Joint Strike Fighter and maintenance, repair and overhaul activities for various Air Forces.

The AS/EN9100 Quality Certificate was presented to Thales’ business unit Industrial Service which is specialized in build-to-print component production, component design and maintenance services. Industrial Services is “proud to have been awarded this Certificate. This is a major step in intensifying the long term relations Thales has with companies such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman.”

One of the conclusions reported by Lloyd’s, referring to system effectiveness and continual improvement, was: “Customer focus and product quality focus are excellent”.