Are you using the Supply Chain Management Handbook (SCMH) as a tool to support your supplier control mechanisms?
All PMA manufacturers have an obligation to control their suppliers in accordance with 14 C.F.R. 21.137. The FAA-approved quality manual will have a mechanism for accomplishing this but how do you improve your processes?
The International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG) is made up aerospace manufacturing quality professionals from around the world. IAQG has published the SCMH in order to share best practices for accomplishing supplier control. For issues affecting supplier qualification, supplier managing and tracking of supplier metrics, the SCMH is an excellent source of ideas and guidance.
The SCMH is a living document that is constantly being updated with new guidance. In fact, I currently serve on a working group developing new guidance on how to recognize counterfeit parts.
Need more help? IAQG is planning on holding a series of webinars to introduce and educate on specific chapters of the SCMH. They will start this summer but have not yet been scheduled. When they are scheduled, we will let you know the details!
Today, EASA issued an updated agenda for the 2013 EASA / FAA International Aviation Safety Conference. The Conference is the annual meeting among EASA, FAA, TCCA and other regulators to discuss new paradigms in regulatory oversight. This meeting directly impacts the aviation industry, which is the subject of this regulatory oversight!
The updated agenda provides better guidance on what to expect from the 2013 meeting.
Sessions that will be interesting to member of the PMA manufacturing community will include:
MARPA will be there and will be reporting on the new directions proposed by the regulators.
We have written recently on this blog about the important SMS/Part 21 Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) and corresponding Working Groups in which representatives of MARPA are now participating. The result of this ARC promises to affect each and every manufacturer of PMA in some way or another. MARPA will therefore be there every step of the way, working to ensure that the interests of PMA community are protected. But in order to ensure that we guard our members’ interests, we will need your assistance and feedback! We are therefore asking MARPA members to tracks and share with us the cost of regulatory compliance.
The Regulatory Flexibility Act requires agencies to attempt to fit the burdens of a proposed regulation to the scale of businesses. This recognizes the fact that the same regulatory burden that may simply be the cost of doing business to a large multinational corporation may be crippling to a small company. Recognizing the extreme importance of scalability in the promulgation of the new Part 21, one of the four Working Groups is dedicated solely to undertaking a Cost-Benefit Analysis of the proposed regulatory changes.
This is where MARPA member feedback will be of extreme importance. The Cost-Benefit Analysis Working Group needs data to better understand what the current cost of compliance to small business actually is. This will function as a baseline from which to determine the benefits and costs of the proposals generated by the other three Working Groups. As the Working Groups craft the new regulations they will turn to industry to obtain data demonstrating the effects of the proposed changes.
It is vital that MARPA members participate in providing data to the Working Groups as the new proposals are developed and those assumptions tested against hard data. Hidden costs of compliance with regulations, under-estimations of costs, and over-estimations of benefits have the potential to result in an overly burdensome regulation. The participation of MARPA members in providing data to the ARC Working Groups will go a long way toward shaping an effective regulation while minimizing the burden on small businesses.
Input from members helps MARPA to more effectively advocate for policy changes that benefit the PMA community. Responses to requests for information such as this—or for data regarding the Streamlined PMA Process—helps MARPA to focus its resources to optimize benefit to the membership.
MARPA looks forward to the participation of its members in shaping the future of Part 21. Although the Working Groups have not yet begun to approach industry with requests for data, MARPA would like to get started early. If your company tracks the cost of regulatory compliance, whether in dollars, personnel, man-hours, paperwork, or any other metric, we want to hear from you. Your confidentiality is important to us, so MARPA will only report data in the aggregate; no individual data will be released and no company names will be revealed. You can send this data to MARPA Associate Counsel Ryan Aggergaard at ryan@washingtonaviation.com. Please also send Ryan an email if you have any questions or would like to start tracking compliance costs.
The FAA has released draft guidance on major repair and alteration data approval, and is seeking public comment.
The guidance is meant for FAA employees/designees and is intended to provide them with assistance in the data approval process. Nonetheless, this is very important guidance for the private sector because it will likely have the effect of limiting major repair and alteration data approval only to the scope of this particular guidance.
It is important for repair stations and air carriers to review this data to ensure that it accurately describes the categories of data that must be approved, and that it provides a reasonable mechanism for approval of that data. It is equally important for PMA manufacturers to review the data, because it may affect their Instructions for Continued Airworthiness, as well as approval of repair and alteration data that is developed to respond to continued operational safety (COS) issues.
The draft guidance can be found online here: http://www.faa.gov/aircraft/draft_docs/media/8300.X.pdf.
Comments are due to the FAA by June 12, 2013 and should be emailed to major.ra.order@faa.gov.
Please send copies of your comments to MARPA so that we can be sure that our comments reflect your concerns.
The SMS/Part 21 Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) opened a three day meeting this morning in Rosslyn, Virginia. The meeting expands the scope of the ARC to include four working groups that will develop the new rules for certification and approval of aviation products and articles. MARPA staff attended the live meeting and MARPA members participated by dial-in teleconference. This project will definitely affect every MARPA member and could be the most important rulemaking activity affecting the PMA community in over 60 years!
Dorenda Baker is the Director of the FAA Aircraft Certification Service. Ultimately, the ARC reports to her. Baker explained that the FAA is committed to taking the ARC’s recommendations and moving forward with those recommendations to craft a rule that meets our ICAO SARP obligations (SMS or Safety Management Systems). She stressed that we need to take into consideration how this rule will apply to both large and small companies. It needs to achieve safety goals for everyone.
Some of the points that Baker raised included these:
MARPA has been centrally involved in drafting the working group charters in order to ensure that the ARC recommendations will support the next generation of safety management. Baker’s commitment to protecting the interest of both small companies and large companies is encouraging; but the details will be important to the PMA community and there is plenty of opportunity to see a rule that does not work well. With this in mind, this could be one of the most important projects that MARPA has ever worked-on for the future of the PMA community. MARPA will remain at the heart of this process in order to ensure that the interests of the PMA community are protected.
Have you ever wanted to influence the regulations that affect your business? Well, NOW is your best opportunity to do so!
In January, we provided early notice to the PMA community that the FAA would be seeking industry experts to volunteer for working groups that will be rewriting the manufacturing regulations. Now, we are collecting names and submitting them! This is a tremendous opportunity to make sure that the regulations reflect the current state of the art for certification and approval processes.
The Part 21/SMS Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) is undertaking a major project to review Part 21 and (1) to make it consistent with ICAO Standards for Safety Management Systems, (2) add regulations to create a design organization and (3) update the regulation as necessary.
The Part 21/SMS ARC has recently completed charters for four (4) working groups that will be helping to craft the Part 21 language as well as developing a new paradigm for FAA oversight of systems. These worknig groups will report to the ARC, and will be where the real ground work occurs in changing the manufacturing regulations. We are seeking MARPA members who would like to volunteer to be on these committees. The first working group meetings will likely be April 3-5 and working group members will need to support the working group efforts through 2013 (final Reports are due December 10, 2013).
The four working groups are:
(1) Design Organization: This working group will develop regulations for design organizations, similar to the DOA regulation in Europe. Design organizations will have more safety responsibility and accountability, and in turn would receive greater privileges. The goal of this group will be to help the FAA create design organizations that can serve as the backbone for safety management.
(2) Safety Management Systems (SMS): This working group will help to integrate requirements for safety management systems in to the FAA manufacturing regulations. The goal of this group will be to better align the FAA’s regulations with the requirements of SMS.
(3) Oversight: This working group will develop a new model for FAA oversight that will better reflect risk management in an era with shrinking government budgets and expanding industry need for government approval and/or certification. The goal of this group will be to help the FAA create a program to ensure a consistently high level of safety with a dwindling resource pool.
(4) Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA): This working group will examine the work of the first three working groups and will help develop the data and other tools that the FAA will need to perform a cost-benefit analysis. The work of this group will be critically important to ensuring that the product from the entire ARC makes good safety sense and good economic sense.
This effort could reflect the most significant change in the U.S. aviation manufacturing regulations in over 50 years. The results of this effort will touch all of us. If you think you would like to serve on one of these working groups then please contact us immediately so we can send you more information. We need to submit our recommendations to the ARC by the end of next week, so we need to hear from you by not later than Thursday, March 7.
Last month, we asked members and readers to respond to a series of questions designed to help guide MARPA as to how the regulations are working, how they are not working, and what we can do to make the aviation manufacturing regulations work better to protect safety. Thank you to those of you who sent in emails in response!
The questions and answers were meant to support MARPA’s work as part of the FAA Safety Management Systems (SMS)/Part 21 Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC). Jason Dickstein of MARPA and Dennis Piotrowski of BELAC are both representing the PMA community on that ARC.
The ARC is undertaking a major project to review Part 21 to make it consistent with ICAO Standards for Safety Management Systems. The ARC also plans to recommend a number of clean-up and house-keeping changes to Part 21 – some of which have been waiting many years for an opportunity for implementation.
There is still time to answer last issue’s questions and let MARPA know what you think needs to be changed in the regulations; but this month we are giving you early notice of an opportunity to participate more directly in the rulemaking process.
In mid-February, the FAA ARC will publish Terms of Reference describing the work of each of several working groups that will be helping to craft the Part 21 language as well as developing a new paradigm for FAA oversight of systems. At that time, we will be seeking MARPA members who would like to volunteer to be on these committees. The first working group meetings will likely be in early April.
So be on the look-out for a mid February announcement about those working groups—we would like to get PMA representatives on every one of the working groups to make sure that the industry’s interest are protected—and we will be looking for statements of interest so that we can nominate some members.
Don’t forget that the 2013 MARPA Winter Meeting will be held in Washington, DC on February 12, 2013.
Expected speakers include:
Our topics for discussion will likely include PMA developments, streamlined PMA for non-safety-sensitive (NSS) parts, Instructions for continued airworthiness, air carrier needs, and tax laws and regulations with a particular affect on PMA parts manufacturers. In addition to our speakers, we will be discussing our government affairs program and strategic planning for the Association.
The Winter meeting is an intimate opportunity to work closely with the Association and the Board on topics of special interest to MARPA members.
If you would like to attend the meeting, please RSVP to MARPA at (202) 628-6777. There is no charge for registering for this meeting; and the meeting is open to all MARPA members.
The FAA is working to incorporate Safety Management Systems (SMS) elements into the existing Part 21 regulations for design and production. As part of this endeavor, they have asked MARPA to assist them in an Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC).
MARPA has long been involved in SMS, having taken steps to educate the membership about the elements of SMS as well as been involved in drafting proposed regulations to implement SMS for FAA certificate holders, generally.
This new ARC represents an opportunity to ensure that the Part 21 regulations better reflect the safety needs of the industry and the public. It is a potential opportunity to remove regulations that no longer add value and to add regulations that would better ensure safety.
Following is a list of questions that we’ve developed that will help us to identify potential changes to Part 21 that might be made in the context of implementing SMS in the Part. We would appreciate your answers to any or all of them. While we cannot promise than any particular proposal will be implemented into the regulations, your thoughtful answer will help guide our participation on the ARC and will help us develop constructive recommendations to advance the regulatory revision process. Where it is relevant, separating or distinguishing your answers with respect to the design, production, or other elements of the Part 21 regulations would be helpful.
Question One: What does the FAA do that you think is not necessary to safety?
- design
- production
- other
Question Two: What does the FAA require you to do that you think is not necessary to safety?
- design
- production
- other
Question Three: What additional activities do you think regulated aviation businesses should accomplish to better support safety?
- design
- production
- other
Question Four: What additional support or information could the FAA provide that would better support safety?
- design
- production
- other
Question Five: What information do you submit to the FAA that you think is not necessary to safety?
- design
- production
- other
Question Six: What additional information could you submit to the FAA that you think would help promote safety?
- design
- production
- other
EASA has issued an Advance Notice Of Proposed Amendment on Volcanic Ash.
Ordinarily, this might be of little interest to the PMA community, but the A-NPA is specifically seeking guidance on how to address PMA parts in engines, and whether they affect engines exposed to volcanic ash.
This could represent an opportunity to explain to EASA how it is that PMA parts support aircraft engine safety. Or it could be used as an opportunity for foes of PMA to defame the PMA industry. We’d like to see this used as an opportunity for sharing positive and useful information.
MARPA Members with data that helps to show the effect of PMA parts in an engine that is subject to volcanic ash exposure should share that data with EASA. MARPA would appreciate copies of any data or arguments that our members have in order to support MARPA comments on this subject.
Advance Notice Of Proposed Amendment (A-NPA) 2012-21, Possible courses of action for EASA to address the issue of ‘Volcanic ash ingestion in turbine engines’ (28 November 2012) can be found online at http://hub.easa.europa.eu/crt/docs/viewnpa/id_189.
