In airworthiness terminologies,
‘suppliers’ means any source of components and material external to the
approved maintenance organisation. These external sources could be
distributors, other approved maintenance organisations, original equipment
manufacturers (OEM), operators, etc.
Suppliers play an important role in
the success of aviation industry.
The use of components from different
suppliers enables aircraft maintenance organisations to carry out maintenance
in a cost effective-manner by allowing them to benefit from the worldwide
market competition.
Through worldwide market competition
the industry gets suppliers who offer reliable, relevant, high-quality products
and services that complement and augment aerospace industry technology.
However, acceptance of components
from different sources has revealed several issues with suppliers for many
years, such as the supply of unapproved parts or counterfeit parts, which may
represent a risk to aviation safety.
Regulatory bodies i.e. CAAs provide
clear requirements and guidance materials in order to ensure that the risks associated
to the acceptance of components/parts from suppliers are mitigated. Maintenance
organizations are required by the regulations to establish procedures for the
acceptance of components/parts. Among the contents of such procedures include a
supplier evaluation control procedures and acceptance/inspection of aircraft
components and material from outside contractors.
Acceptance of components is a
routine process in the daily activities of any approved maintenance
organisation, therefore, clear requirements and detailed guidance material are
necessary to ensure mitigating the risks associated to such process. Inadequate
procedures or the lack of procedures on how to evaluate suppliers may result on
the acceptance and installation by the maintenance organisation of
non-conforming parts, unapproved parts and counterfeit parts. The worst
foreseeable situation would be that the failure of the installed non-conforming
or un-approved parts or counterfeit parts could have catastrophic consequences;
however, this occurrence is considered improbable.
Proper evaluation and selection of
suppliers helps reducing the number of findings detected by maintenance
organisations during acceptance of components, such as components shipped with
inadequate documentation, components non-conforming to the purchase order.
Maintenance organizations are
required by regulations to keep the list of their approved suppliers. This list
is always updated from time to time, meaning that adding and/or removing some
of the suppliers accordingly.
One of the ways used by Maintenance
organizations to get suppliers to keep into their lists is through the use of
on-line suppliers’ directories and it’s always easy to source for suppliers
through this way. Directories like http://www.airgetintouch.com provides
a number of suppliers whereby maintenance organizations or individuals can
easily find a suitable supplier pertinent to their needs.
Aviation suppliers contribute to
aviation safety. Suppliers have a role to play in ensuring parts meet the
airworthiness requirements and unairworthy aircraft parts are not supplied into
the market. Every supplier must comply with relevant aviation safety regulations
pertinent to aeronautical parts supply.
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